An โembarrassedโ All India Chess Federation (AICF) has filed a police report after a Chess Olympiad trophy its team won in the last edition of the tournament at home went missing from its office.
Named after the Georgian chess Grandmaster and former women’s world chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili, the Cup is awarded to the federation with the best overall performance across Open and Women’s sections in the Olympiad.
It is a rolling trophy, and its disappearance became known about one month ago, when FIDE requested the trophy to be brought to Budapest for the current Chess Olympiad.
The AICF had asked its former secretary and the 44th Chess Olympiad Director Bharat Singh Chauhan about the Cup to which the latter had replied that it should be with the team members.
“I was the tournament director. The Cup is given to the team members. It should be with the players,” was Chauhan’s cryptic response.
โYes, we tried to look for it all around following FIDEโs request. However, we have been unable to locate it so far. It is indeed an embarrassing situation, and these things require utter responsibility,โ the senior AICF official stated on the condition of anonymity.
โFor now, a replacement trophy has been ordered. It wonโt be as unique as the original, but still, it will be close to the original one. We apologise for the mess.โ
