IN WHAT may change into a serious embarrassment for India, the ‘Nona Gaprindashvili Cup’, which is awarded to the very best performing contingent on the Chess Olympiad, is learnt to have been misplaced by the All India Chess Federation (AICF).
Three AICF office-bearers confirmed this to The Indian Specific on Friday. The occasion is held as soon as in two years, and the Indian staff had gained the trophy on the final Chess Olympiad in Chennai in 2022.
It’s learnt that a couple of weeks again, the worldwide governing physique of chess, FIDE, despatched an e-mail to the AICF requesting that India return the trophy, in order that it may very well be handed to the winners of the continuing Chess Olympiad in Budapest on Sunday, after the top of Spherical 11.
It was solely then that the present AICF administration, which took cost on March 10 this 12 months, reportedly realised that the trophy was speculated to be in India. A search was then launched — on the AICF places of work in New Delhi and Chennai, in addition to the Chennai lodge the place it was final seen. The earlier AICF office-bearers have been contacted, and even the gamers have been requested if they’d taken the trophy.
“Presently, we don’t know the whereabouts of the Gaprindashvili Cup. We’re attempting very arduous to find it as it’s a matter of nationwide satisfaction. We’re hopeful that our search will bear fruit,” AICF secretary Dev A Patel advised The Indian Specific.
“We now have been looking for the cup for a couple of days now. The police have been knowledgeable. We hope to kind it out as a result of it’s a matter of the nation’s status. It’s a grave challenge, and may be very embarrassing for all of us,” Anil Kumar Raizada, a vice-president with the AICF, advised The Indian Specific. “The earlier administration is giving replies that aren’t useful in any respect to hint the trophy,” he stated.
One other senior office-bearer of the AICF stated they’d appeared by way of the information too, however to no avail. “We now have additionally checked with the Tamil Nadu authorities and the state chess affiliation. It was not handed to the present administration after we took over. We now have no clue the place it could probably be. We now have checked each doable location, even requested the gamers,” he stated.
“There have been no paperwork to point out that it was in our possession. Once we enquired with the earlier administration, they advised us the trophy could also be with the gamers… The gamers stated they’d not seen it. A number of the staff workers stated they weren’t even allowed close to it,” the office-bearer stated.
Monetary irregularities in AICF being investigated
The senior AICF official, who requested anonymity, stated the present AICF administration has appointed a retired Excessive Court docket Choose to conduct a full investigation into numerous points, together with the lacking trophy, lacking paperwork, digital information and stock. “We seen some monetary irregularities relating to AICF accounts… massive quantities. So we appointed a retired HC Choose to look into it, moreover the trophy,” he stated.
When The Indian Specific reached out to Bharat Singh Chauhan, former secretary of the AICF who was in cost on the time of the Chennai Olympiad, he stated he was in hospital and refused to touch upon the matter.
When contacted, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky additionally declined to remark.
The profitable staff within the open part of the Chess Olympiad receives the ‘Hamilton-Russell Cup’; the profitable staff within the ladies’s part receives the ‘Vera Menchik Cup’. The profitable staff within the mixed classification receives the ‘Nona Gaprindashvili Trophy’, which is called after the legendary Georgian chess participant. The trophies are given on a rolling foundation, that means the winners maintain it for 2 years till the subsequent Olympiad is held.