For everyone who watches Chess, it is a much different game to the ones who don’t know much about the “Game of Kings”. If you are one of those who thought Chess was boring, think again. At the ongoing 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024, Controversy erupted during the Round 9 match between India and Uzbekistan like no other as Team India was accused of cheating by GM Vladmir Kramnik.
Now let’s first let’s go through all the parties involved in the incident. Basically what unfolded on Friday, September 20th, was that Russian Grandmaster Vladmir Kramnik accused the Indian team of blatantly disregarding FIDE rules during the Chess Olympiad. For those who don’t know, FIDE is the governing body of Chess, much like ICC in cricket or FIFA in football.
In the eyes of the 14-time World Champion and 3-time winner of the Chess Olympiad with Team Russia, the mobile phones being used by ChessBase India, a reputed Chess platform in India co-founded by the well-respected IM Sagar Shah, a Chess commentator and Journalist, was a clear violation of FIDE rules and regulations.
According to Kramnik, there shouldn’t have been Mobile phones across all the boards on which India was playing as they could’ve easily been used as transmission devices to cheat during games. Hearing this, anyone might think that ChessBase India is in the wrong and that Team India might have been cheating. But that’s only one half of the story.
Here’s the thing. Apparently, ChessBase India had got the green signal from FIDE to telecast the matches on their own YouTube channel where Sagar Shah with his colleagues were commenting on the live matches offering their views and opinions. The phones in question, as claimed by ChessBase India were all on Airplane modes and were not being used for anything other than merely recording the games to broadcast on their YouTube channel.
Furthermore, it is a common practice to record live matches, which mind you, always have a delay, and use the recordings to stream them as long as FIDE are okay with it. In this case, as stated previously, FIDE were all okay with this. But with Kramnik filing an official complaint about phones being used in the playing hall, the phone on board 1 of India vs. Uzbekistan, where D. Gukesh was battling it out against Nodirbek Abdusattorov was removed but then returned again.
In his statement later on, Vladmir Kramnik, stated that he would have been okay if the Indian teams were using cameras instead of mobile phones. He even said that he himself checked on one of the phones and found that the Bluetooth function was available on the phones but they were without SIM cards. In his own words, he said, “Of course, there is no SIM card. But in nowadays technology, it’s not difficult.”
Well, there is a simple reason as to why ChessBase India preferred phones over cameras and that reason is due to the high cost of the 4 cameras that they would require. It is a common practice to use mobile phones to record matches. But when asked why specifically Kramnik raised concerns about this only when his team was playing India, the 49-year-old simply stated, “All in all it was my team. I’m a captain and I want to protect my guys and it doesn’t matter whom we play you. I want the rules to be fulfilled.”
Well, let’s be honest here. Kramnik would not have done this to anyone else. But he did it to the Olympiad Leaders India who are running away with Gold as you are reading this article. Surely a cheap tactic to employ against the guys Kramnik was coaching not long ago in 2020. Currently, India is unbeaten after 9 rounds of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad and in the end, they were drawn by Norway 2-2 across the four boards, notching up their first drawn round as they comfortably won their first 8.
India is on track to winning their first-ever Chess Olympiad with a young talented team consisting of R. Praggnanandhaa, D. Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, and Vidit Gujrathi. Will they be able to do it? Will any other opponents use the kind of cheap tactics Kramnik used to throw off the Indian team again? Let us know in the comments below.
