PRESS RELEASE

22nd October, 2009.

I am very unhappy to inform that I have withdrawn my participation in the Asian Indoor Games 2009 to be held at Vietnam due to some nasty circumstances caused by Mr. D.V. Sundar, Secretary, All India Chess Federation (AICF). As you know Chess is a mind game. So, I need to be mentally peaceful to perform well. I was put under lot of pressure and stress by Mr. Sundar that I am upset and not in a position to participate in a prestigious event for the country.

Today, I am bringing all the happenings between me and Mr. D.V.Sundar to make the things clear to everyone.

Regarding Asian Indoor Games 2009

After confirming my participation in Asian Indoor Games 2009 I requested IOA (Indian Olympic Association) to allow my personal trainer Mr. Koneru Ashok (Dronacharya Awardee) to the event. They responded favorably and asked me to get a letter from AICF. I requested the Secretary, AICF for the same through email. He didn’t respond. Then my father contacted him by phone and made a request for which he refused and kept some terms. He bargained with my father that he will see that AICF bears his expenses if I confirm my participation in all the forthcoming Women tournaments. I gave my confirmation to the tournaments accordingly. But Mr.Sundar did not keep up his promise and he said that in case my father accompanies me for the tournament he has to bear his expenses. I do not want to make this an issue. As Asian Indoor Games means playing for the country, my father decided to bear his expenses and accompany me as my trainer.

Permission to play in two International tournaments abroad

In the meantime, I happen to apply for permission from AICF to play in two International tournaments abroad. As I am representing PSPB (Petroleum Sports Promotion Board), I am supposed to get permission from AICF to participate in International tournaments as per its guidelines. Generally AICF will give permission unless the tournaments applied are clashing with the Official tournaments like World Championships, Asian Games etc.

But to my surprise, Mr. Sundar didn’t give me permission to play in the Gibtelecom Chess festival to be held at Gibraltar from 26th Jan. to 4th Feb., 2010. The reason is that an International tourney will be held at Chennai during those dates. Let me clarify that, it’s just an International tournament, not an Official event.

As a player I must have the freedom to choose the tourney I am going to play. Gibtelecom is a prestigious event where I can compete with my peers as a World No. 2 women player. In this event world class players like present and former Women World Chess Champions and many more Super Grandmasters will be participating.

This is not the first time such incident took place.

Here is the full press release.

Posted by Picasa
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Tags: ,