In a shocking transfer, the Sports activities Ministry eliminated the money award scheme for chess gamers who aspire to bag the Grandmaster, Worldwide Grasp or Worldwide Girls Grasp titles sooner or later. Prior to now, after bagging the GM title, Indian chess gamers had been awarded ₹4 lakh. In the meantime, they acquired ₹1.5 lakh for bagging IM and IWM titles. Additionally, the money prize was solely relevant to chess gamers attaining these titles earlier than turning 20 years outdated.
Arjun Erigaisi, one among India’s high GMs, criticised the transfer.
The transfer is weird, contemplating that the Sports activities Ministry was soaking in D Gukesh’s World Championship glory just lately. The Indian GM was additionally awarded the Main Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
In the meantime, Koneru Humpy received the World Speedy Championship after Gukesh’s victory, and even Vaishali Rameshbabu clinched bronze on the Blitz C’ship. So what led to them eradicating the money prize system for aspiring GMs, IMs, and IWMs?
Criticising the Sports activities Ministry’s transfer, All India Chess Federation Vice-President Dibyendu Barua revealed that there have been no discussions between each events. Talking solely to Hindustan Instances, he stated, “No, we didn’t know. The AICF has not been consulted. They took the decision absolutely without consulting the All India Chess Federation. Definitely, it is not a good sign. As a player, I would say I don’t agree with this.”
“I will raise this point in our next meeting to write to the ministry. So that they think of bringing it back again. Instead of increasing they have just demolished it. Big upset for the chess fraternity,” he added.
Barua, who’s a GM himself, and can also be a three-time Indian Chess Champion, felt that the removing of the money prize system might show to be a demotivating issue for folks of aspiring younger gamers. He additionally identified that not each GM, IM or IWM in India has a giant sponsor to again them with funds, and it’s certainly a battle for the others, who don’t fall into the identical bracket as a number of the high Indian chess stars.
After attaining the talked about titles, chess gamers additionally have to journey loads resulting from a rise in match invites. Earlier, the money prize was a supply of motivation for not simply the chess gamers but in addition for the gamers, because it gave extra monetary safety early on and in a rustic like India, an quantity of 1-4.5 lakhs is a hefty sum.
In line with a report within the Indian Categorical, the Sports activities Ministry has launched this determination in all disciplines to regulate age fraud, doping and in addition to maintain kids motivated. In the meantime, India GM Erigaisi has additionally criticised the transfer, and he instructed PTI that it could possibly be an enormous demotivating issue for folks of younger chess gamers.