UPSCA announces online tourneys despite concerns over cheating
LUCKNOW : The UP Sports Chess Association (UPSCA) has announced online age group selection tournaments once again, much to the dismay of players, when the All-India Chess Federation (AICF) and all other states have returned to over-the-board (OTB) tournaments despite problems with cheating in online chess.
Grandmaster RB Ramesh, India’s top chess coach, and titled players have recommended an immediate return to offline tournament mode after the online chess boom during the pandemic also saw a surge in cheating.
Due to this fraud menace, the All-India Chess Federation (AICF) had to ban several players, including a girl from UP, for cheating during the online national championships during the pandemic period. Cheating allegedly became a nightmare in online chess. Even grandmasters were forced to play against amateurs online. One of the more painful aspects of the game was that players who lost to a cheater could not get their points back.
The Chess Olympiad, the world’s biggest chess tournament, will take place in Chennai in a closed-door format beginning on July 28. The AICF’s senior nationals were successfully held offline in Kanpur recently. Open tournaments and selection tournaments are now being held in offline mode with Covid-19 safety protocols. All states have returned to OTB.
Why doesn’t the UP Chess
Association do that? The UPSCA has announced all state selection tournaments will be held online where cheating is rampant. Have they obtained permission from the AICF for the same?
“The state association wants to save the mandatory lodging and venue expenses as directed by the AICF,” said a senior chess official on condition of anonymity.
The association is charging an entry fee of Rs 500 per player, which is a good source of income for them and they have organised all the age-group (U-7, U-9, U-11, U-13, U-15, U-17, U-19) selection tournaments in online mode by giving a contract to a private chess academy in Lucknow.
Additionally, the time control for national events in classical mode is 90 minutes with 30 second
increments. However, for the tournaments it is 30 minutes with 30m seconds increments, which is a rapid format of play.
The UPSCA conducted senior state competition in Mathura in offline mode as the nationals were in Kanpur. When asked
why state selection tournaments are still held online, its secretary AK Raizada said that they don’t have the time to organize tournaments. But all the other associations have been conducting offline tournaments very efficiently.
“Yes, I am not ruling out cheating in the online events, but we had no time to conduct the tournament OTB. This is the last online tournament being conducted by us and in future all out events would be OTB,” Raizada said on Thursday.
He, however, said that even after a merger of the warring faction of chess in the country a few months before, there is no clarity about the merger of factions in UPSCA.
“So far I am the secretary of the state body and hope to settle things finally after the Olympiad at Chennai next month,” he said.
The Olympiad Promotion U15 tournament, which was to be held free in Kanpur, too has been postponed. As the top two winners of the event will receive airline tickets to the Chennai Olympiad, almost all other states have completed the event.
Why is the UP association compromising on format and method of organising? There’s no doubt that holding an online event is convenient and easy for organisers, but it’s a “disservice* to players”. Despite the fact that the AICF president Sanjay Kapoor is from Uttar Pradesh, players of the state are left with no choice but to “bow to the state association”.
“Many parents have stopped their kids from playing the online events as cheating is rampant and authorities concerned are tightlipped over the issue,” said father of a international rated chess player, preferring anonymity.
It is alleged that no legitimate elections have been held to the Lucknow or state chess association for the past 15 years.
In fact, there seems to be a shadow on the future of the AICF itself. The secretary of the AICF obtained a stay from the Supreme Court till August 15 for conducting the Chess Olympiad.