SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Nov 1: Controversies show no sign of abating in the case of the state senior chess championship which concluded in the Sarala Birla University campus in Ranchi on Saturday.
While the dust of the ‘Slapping Incident’ of the championship is yet to settle, partiality against the Sapphire International School player from Ranchi has rocked the chess fraternity of the state.
A class IX student of Sapphire International School in Ranchi Garv Ekka had to forfeit his match during the championship when the arbiter found a mobile phone in his pocket during the game in the hall. Without any protest, Ekka surrendered the match to his opponent for violating the rules.
Meanwhile, it is alleged that another player of Hazaribagh Vijay Kumar Singh (who is also the vice president of the All Jharkhand Chess Association) was also carrying a mobile phone in his pocket during his match but was let off by arbiters.
A retired senior player of state chess said that such partiality was never seen in the past 22 years. “Arbiters followed the rules by punishing Garv Ekka but at the same time they should have also taken action against Vijay Kumar Singh for the same,” the player added.
According to lone FIDE International arbiter of Jharkhand Jayant Kumar Bhuyan (Jamshedpur), “Not only mobile phones but all types of electronic devices are banned from the hall and not permissible. Even wristwatches of any kind are not allowed during the match.”
When contacted, the joint secretary of the All Jharkhand Chess Association, AJCA, Ajay Kumar, who was one of the senior officials to supervise the championship, outright denied the allegation.
“Of course, I had heard gossip about it in the tournament but no one complained about it to the arbiter. Had Vijay Kumar Singh kept the mobile, his opponent definitely would have lodged a complaint. Thus when no one a lodged complaint regarding this, how would AJCA take cognizance of a baseless allegation,” said Ajay Kumar.
An official conspired to defame me: Pritam Singh
Meanwhile, state senior champion Pritam Singh broke his silence after four days of alleged ‘slapping incident’ in the championship and charged that a senior official of AJCA conspired to defame him.
One of the players Das Bhola Nath had lodged a written complaint to AJCA’s general secretary alleging that Pritam Singh abused and slapped him during 5th round of the match.
Pritam Singh said, “Nothing as such happened. Das Bhola Nath is from my home town (Jamshedpur) player and after the match, I took him away from the hall by his hand to brief him about the manner in a friendly way. I did this as he is more than 20 years younger than me and I felt it was my responsibility to talk to him in this regard.
“However, an official felt that this issue needed to be raised despite the fact that nothing happened. I have a track record for following rules and regulations as a player and as general secretary of AJCA in whatever responsibility I have been given so far,” said Singh. However, he refused to reveal the name of the AJCA official who conspired to defame him through Das Bhola Nath.
Singh, who has a record of winning the senior championships 12 times said that it is unfortunate that the same official had himself slapped a player on board at the time of his playing days in Jamshedpur in 1994. However, today is engaged in a conspiracy to defame him.
