Chennai, Dec 5 (IANS) Britsh Grandmaster and Vice President of FIDE, the global chess governing body, Nigel Short on Thursday alleged that the Indian chess federation was functioning in a manner that went against the players’ interests.
Further, while the Indian government accuses Pakistan of waging a proxy war through its terror activities, it was surprising to hear Short saying that India held and cast proxy vote for Pakistan in FIDE elections for a long time.
“Since 2006, India has been casting Pakistan’s vote in the FIDE elections. Pakistan’s vote was in India’s pocket. Now proxy voting in FIDE elections have been abolished,” Short told reporters here.
He also said that India can have a professional chess tournament like the Indian Premier League (IPL) as there is a large pool of players in the country.
Short said that he feels the All India Chess Federation (AICF) is anti-player as it is yet to fully implement fair trade watchdog Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) order in the matter.
“We at FIDE support the players. There are more chess players in the FIDE governing council than there were earlier. We had restored the FIDE ratings of many Indian players,” he said.
According to Short, the AICF is demanding an apology letter from the players in whose favour the CCI had given its verdict for enrolling them back.
Short said India is under-represented as far as bringing major tournaments into the country is concerned.
He said there was a proposal to have a chess IPL in India, but the country’s chess administrators were not for it and torpedoed it.
The game will not flourish in India if all chess-related activities are under the control of the administrators, Short added.
–IANS
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