'I would not participate in events in Odisha': Arjuna Awardee Abhijeet Gupta after being denied prize money

“Personally, I would not participate in events in Odisha.”

Arjuna Award-winning Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta had participated at the 16th International Grandmaster Chess Festival, a.k.a. the Odisha Open, in Bhubaneswar from 16 to 24 January, winning the tournament in ‘Category A’ with a final score of 8/10, ahead of Vietnamese GMs Nguyen Duc Hoa and Nguyen Van Huy.

Gupta was set to earn Rs 5.5 lakh from the event for his efforts. More than three months later, however, the 36-year-old is yet to be paid by the All Odisha Chess Association, the organisers of the tournament.

And it’s not just Gupta, who has a Fide Classical rating of 2540, who has been hung out to dry as the entire prize fund of Rs 45 lakh for the Odisha Open is yet to be transferred to the participants by the tournament organisers.

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In the end, Gupta was left with no option but to take the matter to social media, posting a lengthy statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday in which he tagged Firstpost Sports as well as Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and the All India Chess Federation among other organisations.

And speaking exclusively to Firstpost, Gupta made it clear that he will not be participating in any tournament organised by the Odisha state association in the future unless he sees “any changes in the leadership”, revealing that while he has faced payment delays of a month or two before, the ongoing situation has crossed all limits.

“I've faced such instances before but there was always some communication there that it'll be delayed or you'll get it like after this time or after a while, which is understandable. But it's been happening over and over again,” Gupta, a 2012 Chess Olympiad silver medallist and five-time Commonwealth champion, told this website.

“I cannot be sure 100 per cent because personally I haven't faced it myself but I know for instance there are some tournaments which still haven't paid prize money from last year also,” he continued.

Gupta calls for tournaments to have financial guarantee

The 36-year-old GM maintains that the Odisha association is yet to reach out to him amid the controversy, and has not contacted him for a couple of months now. Gupta, however, mentioned getting a response from the AICF in a follow-up to his explosive statement on X, revealing that president Nitin Narang had assured him that the matter would be resolved at the earliest.

At the same time, Gupta questions the AICF for even letting such a tournament be organised by a state association that has been left divided due to infighting, which in turn has led to a financial turmoil.

The president and secretary of the Odisha association, after all, are at loggerheads with one another, which has resulted in their bank account getting frozen. And the fact that the AOCA decided to host a high-profile tournament amid such a mess was always going to end on a disastrous note.

And Gupta believes that it is ultimately the AICF’s responsibility to ensure that tournaments such as the Odisha Open have a financial guarantee that ensures that players are paid on time.

“The tournament was announced and it was held when all these fights were going on… So, you cannot have both ways. Either sort out the fight or don't let them organise the event.

“Federation (AICF) takes affiliation money. Federation takes percentage from the entry fees for any tournament. So I think at least they should have financial guarantee, I don't know, from a bank, from some institute. What if organisers run away with the money. And I don't think still our federation does this, they don't take the financial guarantee,” continued Gupta, who had won the 2008 World Junior Chess Championship.

Chess boom is despite the federation, not because of it

The controversy takes place at a time when India has firmly established itself as one of the leading chess nations in the world, having won a historic double gold at the 2024 Chess Olympiad. The country also boasts of top stars in both the ‘Open’ as well as ‘Women’ categories, from reigning world champion D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi to R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy.

The Odisha Open incident, however, will no doubt leave an unpleasant taste for the Indian chess community. More importantly, it raises the question as to whether chess is well-organised in India, especially outside of hubs such as Chennai and Tamil Nadu, or not.

Abhijeet Gupta faces current world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura at the 2018 Isle of Man Chess International. Image: John Saunders

Gupta, who originally hails from Rajasthan’s Bhilwara and had entered the Limca Book of Records as the youngest National junior (under-19) champion at the age of 13 in 2002, believes that chess is booming in India despite the federation, and not because of it.

“I feel this boom is because of the hard work and sacrifices of the players. I don't think the federation is doing something. I think in spite of federation, the players have come up. It's not because of the federation. So, I still feel like we have a long way to go,” Gupta continued.

“But of course, I am very happy that we do very well at the world level. We are world champion, we are also world Olympic champion in chess. So, I'm very happy about it, but I don't know whether it has to do anything with the federation.

“I think federation are not doing (much). I mean, if they could do on a scale like 1 to 10, probably they are doing 1,” he claimed.

‘Cannot imagine what our youngsters are going through’

Last, but not the least, Gupta fears the Odisha Open controversy could have a detrimental effect on up and coming chess talent in India, especially since they look up to senior Grandmasters for inspiration and the sight of the veterans struggling to get paid could be a demoralising one.

“In general I feel, like I mentioned in my tweet also, that especially for the young players between 10-15 years old who have won let’s say their first prize and still they don’t get their dues, (it’s) not very pleasant. I actually felt really bad about it because I could not really do anything about it. That was more sort of frustration what I opened up on Twitter,” Gupta said, referring to his social media post on Saturday.

“More than money, it doesn't give a good taste. As a Grandmaster for many years, if I cannot get it out from the organisers, imagine any youngster, I mean, why he or she would take up this sport, you know.

“As a Grandmaster, we should be role models to our youngsters. Again, I feel sad and disappointed. If people just do this to me, I just cannot imagine what our youngsters are going through,” Gupta signed off.