| After cricket, it is the turn of
chess to expose "match-fixing". The record credited to C M Gowrishankar of
Trivandrum as the youngest rated player at seven years of age, will not get official
backing. All India Chess Federation Secretary and World Chess Federation Vice-President P
T Ummer Koya clarified that the tournament, TAL Chess Academy FIDE Rating tourney at
Trivandrum, in which seven year old Gowrishankar was said to have created the world
record, was not a FIDE (World Chess Federation) recognised event. "AICF got an E-mail from the FIDE Executive Director Emmanuel Omuku
saying there had been irregularities there. One of the district office-bearers, V R Vinod
sent an E-mail to FIDE headquarters alleging Gowrishankar earned his points from
"fixed" games. The AICF has asked the Kerala Association to conduct an
inquiry." Neither the AICF nor the All Kerala Chess Association received an
application from the organisers for conducting such a tournament, Koya said. The
federation has clarified that the results of the Trivandrum tourney will not be sent to
FIDE at all. It has also decided to conduct an inquiry into the tournament held at Kochi
two weeks ago because some of the players alleged to have thrown games had participated
there too.
The E-mail sent by Vinod to FIDE says, "A FIDE Rated
chess tournament was held at Trivandrum from May 15 to 20, 2000. The main aim of the
tournament was to award youngest FIDE Rated chess player status to one C M Gowrishankar.
Mr Manoj, father of Gowrishankar has "compensated" the players to get points.
Out of the 6.5 points Gowrishankar achieved, 5.5 points were garnered through illegal
means. In the above tournament, Gowrishankar lost against lowest ranked players like N
Sugunarajan, V T Thomas. If tendencies like this are allowed to continue chess lovers all
over the world will lose respect in the game and they will look down upon chess
tournaments with suspicion. Therefore, it is the duty of FIDE to act immediately. I
request that before entering the name of the above player to the next Rating list proper
inquiry should be conducted. The playing strength of the above player should be
ascertained with the help of a computer programme. Proper action should be taken against
the players and organisers of the tournament who are responsible for match-fixing."
About the record itself, "It is much ado about
nothing," said Koya. "We cannot react to Press reports about a record. There is
no such "record" in the FIDE Handbook." Koya referred to a previous
"record" some five years ago in a Nasik tourney from where a seven year old
"attempted" to become the youngest FIDE Rated player. "On that occasion,
the father of the boy who was a Rated player himself, was also an organiser. The
Maharashtra Chess Association took action against the father after an inquiry," said
Koya. Two years ago the Under 7 Champion N T Rama Rao of Andhra Pradesh was found
over-aged and was debarred for forgery of certificates and was stripped of his title then.
In this case, the seven year old Gowrishankar is not actually the culprit. Sadly, few
realise that his Under 7 National title carries more weight than the cooked up world
record. The Indian age-group champion today is a world class commodity, while a Rated
player belongs to the lowest rungs in chess classification. |
