It is outrageous however I am not knowledgeable about the quality of chess in Iran, nor the prize money at sake. The Ladies looked comfortable at least in the pictures.
I appreciate the information and will study the Boards to see if there is anything I can steal...lol.
By the way Lee I play chess once a week at our local library with a small group of chess warriors. To my knowledge we are the only Chess group to be thrown out of a library for rowdyism. They let us back after a year. We keep it down now but we still trash talk one another which has attracted a wide following especially High School students who find our put downs and comments hysterical. Mostly we try to crack one another up and take advantage of the other player's lapse in concentration.
The diversity of our players is amazing. We have a Harvard recruiter who speaks five languages, a bluegrass banjo player whose group performs throughout the USA. A construction worker, a retired special ops military person, a former college dean and me a professional artist. We have also mentored children who have played with us after school all the way into their college years.