International Chess Federation Vice-President Nigel Short accuses All India Chess Federation of being 'anti-player'

Chennai: World chess governing body FIDE vice-president Nigel Short on Thursday alleged that the All India Chess Federation (AICF) is anti-player as it’s yet to fully implement the Competition Commission of India (CCI) order to reinstate the ratings of some players. Short, a British Grandmaster, was responding to a question on restoring the ratings of players who were banned by the AICF for participating in unrecognised tournaments. [caption id=“attachment_5306081” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational. Image courtesy: Niklesh Jain[/caption] “I think there are people within the AICF who in my personal opinion are anti-player. The FIDE president (Arkady Dvorkovich) had said the players should have their ratings reinstated. It is not an outside decision, the CCI ruled against the AICF,” he told reporters. “We, at FIDE, support players. There are more chess players in the FIDE governing council than earlier. We had restored the FIDE ratings of many Indian players. When you have some people who have had their livelihood taken away for a decade. The CCI has decided it is wrong. Still, the matter has not been resolved,” he said. Short, who lost the world title clash against Garry Kasparov in 1992, also said there was a proposal to have IPL-style league for the sport in India some years ago but the chess administrators in the country were not for it. He said in India all chess-related activities are under the administrators’ control and in such a situation the game will not flourish in the country. “There is tremendous enthusiasm and love for chess in this country. I would like to see the Indian Chess Premier League. There was a proposal for it about three years ago but didn’t materialise. I think that is a lost opportunity for the players and the public,” said Short, who has kicked up controversies in the past. The 54-year old Englishman was all praise for five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, saying the Indian ace was still in the top 10 which showed the amount of dedication and perseverance he had to stay at a very high level. “Chess is a young person’s game. People reach their peak like in other  sports in the 20s and or maybe 30s and not later. Vishy (Anand) is touching 50 in a few days. So you simply cannot expect the guy to go on indefinitely. Even MS Dhoni loses his touch a little after some time. So you know the greatest of the greats cannot be expected day in and day out to keep producing things.” “Vishy actually does remarkably well. He is still in the top 10. To have such a relatively small decline shows the dedication and perseverance he has working on his game to stay at a very very high level,” he added. Short also said India can become a force to reckon in the game at the global level and it can happen in a short time. “India could easily become the dominant chess nation in a relatively short space of time. I pluck the figure 2030 out of the air. India has that potential. This is the birthplace of chess. Forget about the history, this is where the future lies,” he said.