Indian chess pro Dronavalli Harika was among the few players who were purportedly sent physically oppressive mail during an occasion in Latvia in November last year. The Indian Grandmaster, positioned 11 on the planet, said she didn’t know about it until the last day and that the coordinators of the Grand Swiss competition in Riga and the FIDE (worldwide chess league) dealt with the issue effectively.
“..there is a letter sent on my name in Riga which I didn’t know about until the last day. Not to create any sort of aggravation, FIDE held the issue until the last day and given over the letters to police. “I was educated on the last day about the issue and I gave over the lawful case to FIDE,” Harika told PTI.
She further said she didn’t open the letter nor did she deal with any issue. “Neither I opened the letter nor dealt with any sort of issue. Riga coordinators and FIDE dealt with the issue actually productively,” she added.
On its part, FIDE said it made a move when the letters were gotten during the occasion and it was accounted for to the police in Latvia which is exploring. “FIDE made a move when letters were gotten during the Grand Swiss competition in Riga. We revealed it to the police immediately for the benefit of the players, to limit interruptions to them. We can affirm that the Latvian Police approached it in a serious way and it is effectively exploring,” FIDE said.
“We might want to thank the Latvian police for their careful and quick response. Since FIDE hosts become an authority get-together in the crook case that has been started in Riga, we can’t remark further on this, to abstain from meddling in the continuous examination,” it added.
As per reports in the Russian media, about 15 players were the objective of physically harmful mail. It occurred in the Grand Swiss competition in November as player got mysterious mail – envelopes containing obscene material – shipped off players in lodgings and at competitions.
Russian GM Valentina Gunina, one of the players, who got the mail, was cited as saying by chess.com that everybody was stunned. Gunina, who was in contact with different players, said until Riga, she didn’t realize different players were additionally getting letters like various things “nobody talked about it, so I thought just me.”
Previous title holder Susan Polgar answering to one of the discussions on Twitter, expressed: “This is truly miserable to hear. Tragically, this has continued for a really long time. “The main distinction is because of the web, the world becomes more acquainted with about it, and chess authorities can never again clear these occurrences under the mats. I’m a casualty, even a lot of more awful, for almost fifty years.”
