As many as six chess gamers from India misplaced worthwhile possessions, together with laptops, money, electronics and even a passport, after they had been within the Spanish coastal city of Sitges to compete within the Sunway Sitges Chess event.
The checklist of gamers who had been affected by three separate incidents of break-ins into their flats consists of grandmaster Sankalp Gupta, worldwide grasp Dushyant Sharma, girl grandmaster Srija Seshadri, girl worldwide grasp Mounika Akshaya, girl worldwide grasp Arpita Mukherjee and girl FIDE grasp Vishwa Shah. There was a sizeable contingent of over 70 Indian gamers competing on the occasion.
The primary incident occurred within the room shared by GM Sankalp Gupta and worldwide grasp Dushyant Sharma on the nineteenth of this month. Three days later, two separate flats had been hit on the identical day within the area of some hours: within the first one, an condominium shared by 5 gamers together with WIM Mounika Akshaya was hit and within the second, the condominium that had WIM Arpita Mukherjee and WFM Vishwa Shah was burgled.
All three flats had been within the official lodging buildings recognized for the Indian gamers by the event organisers, positioned inside two kilometres from the place the occasion was taking place. Thus far no gamers of every other nationality have complained of their flats being damaged into or their possessions going lacking.
“I misplaced my laptop computer, laptop computer charger and airpods. My roommate Dushyant misplaced his passport and needed to drop out of the event to go to the Indian Consulate the following day to get documentation made to journey again to India,” GM Sankalp Gupta informed The Indian Specific.
Whereas Sankalp and Dushyant had been taking part in matches when their room was damaged into, the second incident occurred when the 5 gamers had gone for a 45-minute stroll. Within the third incident, gamers had allowed themselves only a quick window of three hours of sleep when the incident occurred.
Housebreaking in #SPAIN #Sunway APOLO APARTMENT on 19 Dec in my room. My Laptop computer, Passport, money and many others & my roommate’s laptop computer,airpods stolen. Afterward,comparable thefts occurred with different Indian chess gamers too. Requesting @SunwayChessOpen @IndiainSpain @ianuragthakur @DrSJaishankar Assist pic.twitter.com/daKdjusy45
— Dushyant Sharma (@chess_dushyant) December 24, 2023
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“It was very weird. They took my airpods, however left my roommate’s behind. They stole my roommate’s passport, however left mine behind after rummaging via the bag it was in. I can nonetheless observe the placement of my airpods, they’re on the similar location for the final three days. I do know precisely the place they’re in Barcelona: an space referred to as La Mina. I informed the police that and requested if I ought to go myself to retrieve them. They informed us that it was some of the harmful areas of Barcelona and dissuaded us from going there,” Sankalp added.
In a press release, even because the organisers tried to empathise with the gamers, they made a veiled try to shift the blame on the affected gamers. “…It’s speculated that an unlucky oversight in locking doorways or home windows might have been a contributing issue,” the organisers stated. The assertion additionally stated that they’d employed a safety guard to patrol the world after the primary incident and that the condominium the place the third incident had occurred was underneath CCTV surveillance and that it had not caught anybody breaking into the condominium.
Official assertion concerning remoted incidents throughout the @chessable Sunway Sitges Worldwide Chess Competition 2023. pic.twitter.com/qdYNpr8pU0
— Sunway Chess Competition (@SunwayChessOpen) December 24, 2023
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“As a result of we had heard of the incident with Sankalp, we had been already very cautious. So we went for a stroll, however not earlier than making certain each door and window was correctly locked. Apart from, one particular person was sleeping within the condominium. If that particular person was not there, all 5 of us would have misplaced our belongings. Once we got here again, my laptop computer, my purse and my roommate Srija Seshadri’s telephone had been lacking. However once we went to the balcony, my purse and my passport had been thrown there. They took cash and silver ornaments, however my passport was fortunately left behind,” Mounika recollected.
“The organisers helped us file a grievance however the police informed us on our face that it’s going to be no use.”
My miserable theft story at Sunway Sitges Chess Competition 2023, Spain. I request the authorities to kindly take motion on this since I’m not the one participant who suffered from this occasion. pic.twitter.com/FzHzRR289p
— Mounika Akshaya (@MounikaAkshaya) December 23, 2023
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Sankalp additionally dismissed the declare from the organisers that the gamers had been careless in locking doorways and home windows. He stated that after the second incident, most of the Indian gamers had been on excessive alert.
“Gamers in Arpita and Vishwa’s condominium went to sleep at 3:00 am. After they awoke at 6.30 am, their cell phones which had been in the identical room as they had been, stored beside them as they slept, had been flicked. On this third incident, issues might have been quite a bit worse as the ladies had been current in the home,” stated Sankalp earlier than including: “The factor I’m most offended about is that later we discovered evaluations for the flats on the web which stated there had been comparable incidents previously. So this was not a one-off or remoted incident. And nonetheless, they didn’t have any preventative measures in place.”
The gamers claimed that there was simply the one safety guard to patrol the just about 2-kilometre-wide space and that there have been minimal CCTV cameras current.
“Once we requested the organisers for compensation for issues we had misplaced as a result of this was their official condominium, they made enjoyable of us. They stated they’ll compensate by offering dinner,” stated Mounika.