AICF's ignorance delays Harikrishna's party

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 27. Considering his prodigal talent, it was just a matter of time before P. Harikrishna completed the formalities of becoming a Grandmaster. But baffling was the manner in which this `completion' of norm-requirements came about.

Come to think of it, the `discovery' of the 15-year-old Hari completing the requirements of getting the coveted title of a Grandmaster, was the result of a chance encounter between an alert British columnist, Stewart Reuben, and an innocent Hari last week. With it, the `revelation' also exposed the ignorance of the All India Chess Federation and the indifference of the country's International Arbiters.

In fact, a million thanks are due to Reuben, who through his writings on a British website disclosed that Hari had indeed met the GM title-requirements. It was a technicality which was made clear by Reuben during the on-going Commonwealth championship in London. Hari was told that the first of his three GM-norms, at the Olympiad in November last, was deemed to be a round-robin one, in nature, (and not a Swiss League one, as believed so far) and hence helped him meet all the technical requirements.

Rules stipulate that the GM-norms attained by a player should be spread over 30 norm-games - in case all the norms are achieved from tournaments following the Swiss League format. However, if one of the norms comes from a round-robin contest, then only 24 norm-games are required.

In Hari's case, none of his three norms came from round-robin tournaments and totalled 29 games. Therefore, he found himself one norm-game short of the requirements and continued to chase the GM title. But Reuben's disclosure has rightly ended Hari's hunt.

Here, in a nutshell, is the path taken by Hari in `completing' in the GM-norm requirements. Hari, who completed his International Master title in three successive tournaments last year, made his maiden GM norm, totalling 10 games in the Istanbul Olympiad in November. The second one, over nine games, came in the Corus Grandmaster Group `B' tournament at Wijk aan Zee this January. The third norm, spread over 10 games, was achieved in the Asian championship in Kolkata this month.

In the light of the latest developments, one wonders what the country's International Arbiters, headed by AICF secretary, Mr. P.T. Ummer Koya, were doing since November last? How much time Hari would have lost if he was not made aware of the true picture? Weren't the arbiters in India ignorant of the rules regarding norms made in the Olympiad?

Mr. Koya, who has officiated in Olympiads, should have known better but remained mysteriously silent on the subject for nearly 10 months. It was only after Reuben's disclosure was reported that Mr. Koya confirmed the true status of the Olympiad- norm made by Hari. The teenager is now required to apply for the GM- title for the FIDE to consider in its meeting in Greece early next month.

Mercifully, the time lost by Hari was not alarmingly long.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Humpy holds top-seed Yuanyuan
Next     : Jayawardene - a natural, pure and simple