The International Chess Federation fined a 23-year-old chess participant from the Netherlands at its World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for carrying “sports shoes.”

FIDE, because the federation is thought, fined Anna-Maja Kazarian 100 euros ($111) for carrying what the group’s arbiters deemed “sports shoes” throughout the match this week. It additionally required Ms. Kazarian, who streams her games to more than 34,000 followers on Twitch, to alter into extra formal footwear in between video games.

Failing to alter into different footwear, which she wanted to retrieve from her lodge room throughout the river from the match’s venue, would “result in not being invited in the pairings for the next round,” based on the official warning, which she obtained on a yellow laminated card.

The footwear in query are plaid, canvas Burberry sneakers with white rubber soles. She held them up in a YouTube video that she recorded after the incident, and stated that the footwear had been a present from her sister.

“I barely ever wear them because they’re fancy,” Ms. Kazarian stated within the 48-minute video, through which she recapped the day and her video games.

The first rule of FIDE’s dress code for the tournament is “dress to impress,” the federation’s web site states. The costume code is meant to advertise a “good and positive image of chess” and “shall be strictly enforced,” based on the web site.

Generally, sneakers are allowed, however “sports sneakers” should not. The distinction between the 2 just isn’t clearly said within the costume code.

For girls specifically, the next just isn’t allowed: “sport’s sneakers, clacking shoes, any kind of jeans, any kind of inappropriate cloth (e.g. torn cloth or cloth with holes, unclean cloth), sport caps, sun glasses, revealing attire.”

The guidelines for males are comparable. “Sports sneakers, T-shirts, any kind of jeans, any kind of inappropriate cloth (e.g. torn cloth or cloth with holes, unclean cloth), sport caps, sun glasses” should not accepted.

The ambiguity of the definition of “sports shoes” is hard for gamers deciding what to put on, stated Pavel Tregubov, FIDE’s technical delegate on the match and a chess participant. “I understand her point of view,” he stated of Ms. Kazarian. FIDE will work on a clearer definition of sports activities footwear for future costume codes, Mr. Tregubov stated.

Ms. Kazarian wasn’t the one one who obtained a yellow card with a warning throughout the match this week. Arbiters gave out two yellow playing cards within the open part for all gamers and three within the girls’s part, Mr. Tregubov stated, including that every one of them had been issued due to sports activities footwear. The arbiters gave out the playing cards solely in circumstances through which they had been 100% positive that the footwear had been too sporty for the match, he stated.

The yellow playing cards that got out at this 12 months’s match, which has 330 members, had been a brand new function to make it possible for extra individuals adopted the costume code, Mr. Tregubov stated.

Ms. Kazarian was the one participant who objected, Mr. Tregubov stated, including that “all other players accepted it.”

Critics on the web had been fast to sentence the strict costume code, with some individuals arguing that the chess group has the unsuitable priorities.

Others questioned why a male participant was allowed to put on white sneakers on the match, as seen in an image posted by FIDE itself, whereas Ms. Kazarian’s had been deemed inappropriate.

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Ms. Kazarian expressed her disappointment with how FIDE had dealt with the scenario and stated that being rushed from the venue and pushed to the lodge had been irritating and ugly. In the YouTube video, Ms. Kazarian additionally stated that she felt she had been handled as if she had been a legal.

“If she felt like a criminal, I’m very sorry for that,” Mr. Tregubov stated. “Usually the arbiters are shy,” he added. “It’s not like in football.”

Ms. Kazarian stated the expertise left her burdened and unfocused throughout her rounds of chess video games on Thursday, a day after the incident. On Thursday she wore heels, she stated.

“They should adjust the rule so it’ll be clearer,” Ms. Kazarian stated, including {that a} blanket ban of all sneakers would have been simpler to comply with.

After Ms. Kazarian took a automobile to her lodge on Wednesday and altered out of her sneakers, she returned to the venue to complete the day of video games. But she was preoccupied by the scenario, she stated, which reverberated into the subsequent day.

“They acted as if I didn’t read the dress code,” she stated. “Their attitude toward me just was not friendly.”