Prasad RS - Monday
CHENNAI: The last time over-the-board chess Olympiad was held Batumi in 2018, Afghanistan had gone on to top in the open category of Group D. With Taliban taking over the country in August last year, there were apprehensions as to whether players will get the government's nod to feature at the upcoming Olympiad.
However, the Taliban government has given the green signal and players are expected to land here in the coming days. "The approval has come and the visas too have been issued," a senior AICF official told TOI.
The move is interesting as Taliban have often considered chess as a form of gambling. Amini Habibullah, the highest rated player in the line-up, believes a strong show in the Olympiad will go a long way in reviving the spot in the country. "We have got the necessary permission from the government to play at the Olympiad. We are thankful to the government for having given the go-ahead to feature in the tournament," Habibullah told TOI from Kabul.
Talking about the preparations ahead of the tournament, Habibullah said, "Our training sessions have been fruitful thanks to Farazi Khaiber, the captain of the team. We are hopeful that a good performance will give the spot a boost in Afghanistan." Farazi and Habibullah were members of the Afghanistan squad that had excelled in Batumi four years ago. The current squad comprises Habibullah, Mirzaad S.Wahabuddin, Sakhawaty Sepehr, Muradi Mohammad Yousuf and Sulaiman Ahmad Ashrafi. While Afghanistan has regularly featured at the Olympiads before, the country has failed to produce a top-level player.
However, Habibullah is of the opinion that chess has a future in the country. "There is no dearth of talent in our country. It all boils down to performing in big tournaments for the youngsters to take chess as a sport. For that to happen, we have to perform well in the tournament," said Habibullah, a Candidate Master.
While men play the sport in Afghanistan, women aren't allowed to be part of it. That explains why Afghanistan isn't fielding a team in the women's section. "One can only hope that the situation becomes better and we have a team in the women's category too in future," said Habibullah.
‘Most Have Fled, I Play Alone’: How Chess Became A Victim Of Taliban’s Policies In Afghanistan –
The Chess Olympiad was Sepehr Sekhawaty's dream, a dream that he nearly did not realise. (Sepehr Sekhawaty/Instagram)
In just one word, uttered coldly, Sepehr Sekhawaty, captures the plight of chess in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, Terrible.
But he says he has no complaints, for he is happy just to be alive and playing the game, a privilege not many could afford.
After the Taliban recapture, they banned women from all sports and began the clampdown on those streams they thought were at odds with their doctrine. Chess, they believed, was a form of gambling and distracted people from saying their prayers, besides carrying the Soviet stigma. Though they have not banned the game officially, like they did during their previous reign, they have chopped its arms.
The hardships of being a chess player in a country intolerant to the game, and an extension, most sports, is immeasurable, he says. Fearing Talibans backlash, most chess clubs shut shop frantically, most chess players stopped playing, and even the federation officials fled. The president sought refuge in Latvia while several others migrated to Uzbekistan. For months, I had no one to play chess with. Even the federations president has fled the country. So have a lot of senior players and officials. I played all alone in my room, says Sepehr, who is from Herat, 900-odd kilometres from Kabul.
Or when there was electricity and internet, he would browse chess websites, download diagrams of games that featured the top 100 players, played a few games and, if time permitted, read up on his favourite player, Bobby Fischer. Forget coaching camps, he has not met his Olympiad colleagues in months. To get into groove before the Olympiad, he travelled a back-breaking 600-odd kilometres by road to Tehran to compete in three tournaments. I started playing the game alone when I was seven, and now I am 19, and I am still alone. Theres no coach or colleague. Most of them have fled the country, and I am just managing to play chess because of my supportive father. But I cannot keep troubling him forever, he says.
The Chess Olympiad was his dream, a dream that he nearly did not realise. He had hardly any money of his own to buy tickets. There was no funding and all we got as a stipend was USD 25 in three months. Thankfully, my father bought me the tickets, and I hope the federation would repay me after I reach Chennai, he says.
A bigger hurdle was getting the governments nod. For several weeks, he was uncertain of travelling to Chennai as his government kept refusing permission. He would anxiously check the news or information from his friends in the media. Finally, last Saturday, he got the approval.
As suffocating was the fear of the Maroof, the religious police. The chess fraternity fears a ban on the sport as happened in 1996. The old stories kept haunting them the police would burn chessboards, pieces, imprison them for weeks, slap fines and issue threats of cutting off their hands if they played the game again. Chess players, fearful of denunciation, had to meet in secret. But even that stopped when the police intensified the crackdowns.
Reversing the progress
Unshackled after the exit of the Taliban two decades ago, chess had begun to prosper again. During the last five years, chess was growing rapidly. We could afford to hire a Grandmaster as coach, started branches in 28 provinces across the country, had around 10,000 active players and organised the FIDE Arbiter and Trainers seminar in 2019, details former national federation general secretary Abasin Mohibi.
Sepehr too could travel abroad for competitions and used to be a regular in tournaments in India and Iran, at a time when he amassed a wealth of experience and points. But fewer tournaments naturally meant a stagnation in points (he has managed only 1809).
The emergence was further stamped after Afghanistan claimed gold in Category D of the Chess Olympiad in 2019. But all that progress has turned upside down in the last 11 months.
Eleven months into the Taliban rule, there has not been a single official tournament, seminar or any related activities. Most federation officials have left the country. In some provinces, chess has been banned. The female department of the federation is currently shut. There is no active female player either, narrates Mohibi.
The Taliban has been especially severe on women athletes. Several had to flee the country, many others had to quit their streams altogether and burn documents or equipment that betrayed they were sportspersons. Even womens cricket was stopped during their last regime, Taliban forbade women and girls from receiving an education or working as well. Mohibi sighs: People are busy rebuilding lives. Its a difficult life for us.
Fleeing the country seems the only realistic alternative to forge a career in chess, though Sepehr does not want to leave his country. I really love and care for my country, he says emotionally, but concedes he would eventually look out. I will definitely accept any offer from countries where chess is important so that I can reach my targets and goals. But who would want me? he asks, in a deflated tone.
But Sepehr is unwilling to give up. I want to win the individual gold in Board Three and help the team win the gold medal in our category. That would mean something in these times, he says. A gold that would be a metaphor of defiance, though they would not be paraded as heroes when they return home.
The Indian Express
Grandmaster Chess
July 27, 2022
Grandmaster Chess
July 27, 2022
In just one word, uttered coldly, Sepehr Sekhawaty, captures the plight of chess in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, Terrible.
But he says he has no complaints, for he is happy just to be alive and playing the game, a privilege not many could afford.
After the Taliban recapture, they banned women from all sports and began the clampdown on those streams they thought were at odds with their doctrine. Chess, they believed, was a form of gambling and distracted people from saying their prayers, besides carrying the Soviet stigma. Though they have not banned the game officially, like they did during their previous reign, they have chopped its arms.
The hardships of being a chess player in a country intolerant to the game, and an extension, most sports, is immeasurable, he says. Fearing Talibans backlash, most chess clubs shut shop frantically, most chess players stopped playing, and even the federation officials fled. The president sought refuge in Latvia while several others migrated to Uzbekistan. For months, I had no one to play chess with. Even the federations president has fled the country. So have a lot of senior players and officials. I played all alone in my room, says Sepehr, who is from Herat, 900-odd kilometres from Kabul.
Or when there was electricity and internet, he would browse chess websites, download diagrams of games that featured the top 100 players, played a few games and, if time permitted, read up on his favourite player, Bobby Fischer. Forget coaching camps, he has not met his Olympiad colleagues in months. To get into groove before the Olympiad, he travelled a back-breaking 600-odd kilometres by road to Tehran to compete in three tournaments. I started playing the game alone when I was seven, and now I am 19, and I am still alone. Theres no coach or colleague. Most of them have fled the country, and I am just managing to play chess because of my supportive father. But I cannot keep troubling him forever, he says.
The Chess Olympiad was his dream, a dream that he nearly did not realise. He had hardly any money of his own to buy tickets. There was no funding and all we got as a stipend was USD 25 in three months. Thankfully, my father bought me the tickets, and I hope the federation would repay me after I reach Chennai, he says.
A bigger hurdle was getting the governments nod. For several weeks, he was uncertain of travelling to Chennai as his government kept refusing permission. He would anxiously check the news or information from his friends in the media. Finally, last Saturday, he got the approval.
As suffocating was the fear of the Maroof, the religious police. The chess fraternity fears a ban on the sport as happened in 1996. The old stories kept haunting them the police would burn chessboards, pieces, imprison them for weeks, slap fines and issue threats of cutting off their hands if they played the game again. Chess players, fearful of denunciation, had to meet in secret. But even that stopped when the police intensified the crackdowns.
Reversing the progress
Unshackled after the exit of the Taliban two decades ago, chess had begun to prosper again. During the last five years, chess was growing rapidly. We could afford to hire a Grandmaster as coach, started branches in 28 provinces across the country, had around 10,000 active players and organised the FIDE Arbiter and Trainers seminar in 2019, details former national federation general secretary Abasin Mohibi.
Sepehr too could travel abroad for competitions and used to be a regular in tournaments in India and Iran, at a time when he amassed a wealth of experience and points. But fewer tournaments naturally meant a stagnation in points (he has managed only 1809).
The emergence was further stamped after Afghanistan claimed gold in Category D of the Chess Olympiad in 2019. But all that progress has turned upside down in the last 11 months.
Eleven months into the Taliban rule, there has not been a single official tournament, seminar or any related activities. Most federation officials have left the country. In some provinces, chess has been banned. The female department of the federation is currently shut. There is no active female player either, narrates Mohibi.
The Taliban has been especially severe on women athletes. Several had to flee the country, many others had to quit their streams altogether and burn documents or equipment that betrayed they were sportspersons. Even womens cricket was stopped during their last regime, Taliban forbade women and girls from receiving an education or working as well. Mohibi sighs: People are busy rebuilding lives. Its a difficult life for us.
Fleeing the country seems the only realistic alternative to forge a career in chess, though Sepehr does not want to leave his country. I really love and care for my country, he says emotionally, but concedes he would eventually look out. I will definitely accept any offer from countries where chess is important so that I can reach my targets and goals. But who would want me? he asks, in a deflated tone.
But Sepehr is unwilling to give up. I want to win the individual gold in Board Three and help the team win the gold medal in our category. That would mean something in these times, he says. A gold that would be a metaphor of defiance, though they would not be paraded as heroes when they return home.
No comments:
Post a Comment