Chennai: Many Indian chess players and others are seething with anger and have charged the All India Chess Federation (AICF) of having a different set of rules for different persons involved in the game.
Their complaint has come following the silence and inaction of AICF in the usage of nation’s name ‘India’ in an unofficial match between players from Indonesia and India organised by Percasi (Indonesian Chess Association), ChessBase India headed by International Master Sagar Shah and Chess Gurukul headed by Grand Master R.B.Ramesh which took place recently.
“The match banner kept at the venue clearly stated it as ‘Indonesia-India Chess Match’ and some Indian players wore the t-shirts with AICF logo. Such t-shirts are worn only during an official match,” several chess players citing the pictures uploaded on ChessBase India’s website told IANS.
“This is a clear violation of the Union Sports Ministry’s directions. As per the Sports Ministry, only a recognised sports federation can select players to represent India in the international competition for the sport and field the national team,” chess player Gurpreet Pal Singh told IANS.
“I will make a complaint to the central government against AICF on against the violation of its direction,” Singh, one of the four players who had complained against AICF with Competition Commission of India (CCI) and won the case, added.
Chess players and others are already furious after a small boy was recently
sent out of a tournament midway for playing in unofficial chess tournaments by officials of AICF affiliated units.
Attempts to get the views AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan on the issue failed. International Master Sagar Shah heading ChessBase India was also not available for comments despite several attempts.
According to ChessBase India, its 10-member Indian chess players won the rapid and chess match against the Indonesians.
The $1,000 prize money was sponsored by Indonesian Chess Federation and the winning team got $600 and the losing team got $400.
