The Hindu : Sport / Chess : First round put off by a day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 04, 2004

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Sport - Chess

First round put off by a day

By P. K. Ajith Kumar

VISAKHAPATNAM, DEC. 3. The opening move hasn't been made yet in the 42nd National `A' chess championship. The first round, which was to be played at the Waltair Club on Friday, here will now be played on Saturday.

"Since some players arrived rather late, because their trains were delayed, they requested to postpone the first round by a day," said the tournament's organising secretary V.R. Bobba. "But the final round will be played on December 18, as per schedule."

Players' meet

There was anyway little chance of conducting the opening round today as the players' meeting to discuss the All India Chess Federation (AICF)'s proposed changes for the format of the National `A' — to reduce the number of qualifiers from National `B' and that of the seeded players from National `A' by two — lasted well into the afternoon.

The Indian Chess Players' Association in a release to the media said it was unhappy with the AICF's proposals at the recent annual general meeting at Kochi "without taking players' opinion as promised by AICF secretary to senior players."

When contacted, the AICF secretary P.T. Ummer Koya told The Hindu over telephone from Kozhikode that no final decision had yet been taken on the National `A' format. "There wouldn't be any changes to the format for the next National `A'. We are open for a discussion on the change of format," he said. "We considered these proposals because we wanted to reduce the burden of having long round-robin tournaments on both the players and organisers. I think it's time we needed a change on the format."

The players also agree. "The only thing is that we should be consulted," they said. "And we are against the idea of reducing the qualifiers from the National `B'. We have to remember that there are 350 players in that tournament, so you simply cannot afford to deny their chances. And having just six players seeded from the National `A' is also not acceptable."

Ganguly wins

Mr. Koya, however, said that the AICF would stick to the decision taken at the AGM at Kochi. As for the action on the board, the organisers conducted a blitz tournament featuring most of the players here, which was won by Surya Shekhar Ganguly, ahead of Saptarshi Roy Chourdhury.

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