Riga (AFP)
The International Chess Federation FIDE has appointed Dana Reizniece-Ozola, international female grandmaster, Member of Parliament and former Latvian Minister of Finance, as head of its management.
Ms. Reizniece-Ozola made international headlines in 2016 after beating world champion China's Hou Yifan during the Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan.
A member of the government at the time, she had to be replaced at a meeting of EU ministers at the time in order to continue the tournament.
The 39-year-old ex-minister has always said her passion for chess has helped her overcome political stress.
"I have decided to give up my parliamentary mandate in order to be able to devote all my time and all my energy to working for FIDE," Ms. Reizniece-Ozola confirmed on Facebook on Monday.
Her responsibilities will include "administrative and financial matters, as well as the functioning of most of the committees, including that of failures in education - an area she considers a top priority," FIDE said in a statement on Monday. .
Ms Reizniece-Ozola first won the National Adult Women's Championship when she was just 15 years old.
She was a double European junior champion and became a grandmaster at the age of 19.
In 2017, she was one of four candidates, and the only woman, shortlisted to replace Jeroen Dijsselbloem at the head of the Eurogroup, but ultimately did not get this post.
Member of a small center-right party, the Alliance des Verts et Fermiers, she was cited as a possible candidate for the post of Prime Minister at the end of the legislative elections of 2018.
Having long been interested in space, she also has the title of MBA from the International Space University in France and trained at NASA.
© 2021 AFP