Chennai: On the International Women’s Day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over his social media accounts to seven women, the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association and its affiliate Erode District Chess Circle denied a mother and daughter to write the chess arbiter’s examination.
A total of five persons from Erode including the two women were not allowed to write the arbiter’s exam that was held March 8 despite paying Rs 1,000 each as exam fees.
“I had been preparing for the arbiter exam for 15 days. I didn’t expect the Secretary of Erode District Chess Circle not accepting the exam application and forwarding that to Tamil Nadu State Chess Association (TNSCA),” T Kanmane, a former Erode district chess player told IANS.
Kanmane is a qualified teacher for mentally retarded teacher. She is working in a school for mentally retarded children.
As per the arbiter exam procedure, an aspirant should route his/her application through the district chess association. The Secretary of the District Chess Association has to give his nod/recommendation in the exam form so that a candidate can write the exam.
According to Kanmane, an email was sent to Tamil Nadu State Chess Association saying that the Secretary of its Erode district affiliate did not accept and forward the exam application, but of no avail.
Not only Kanmane, even the exam applications her mother T Intherane and her father N Thirugnanasampandam were not accepted by the Erode District Chess Circle. “For the past several years we have been organising chess tournaments in Erode. This time we thought of writing the arbiter’s exam and get ourselves qualified,” Thirugnanasampandam said.
“I used to play in 1980s and also used to lend a helping hand to tournament organisers as an unofficial arbiter. Recently I came to know about arbiter exams and decided to write the same to become a qualified arbiter,” S Kalyanasundaram whose was not allowed to write the exam despite paying the fees said.
For all the five persons former Secretary of the then Erode District Chess Association R Nachimuthu acted as the coordinator on the exam matter.
“The five persons who are all members of Erode Mavatta Chaduranga Kazhagam had asked me to do the needful like submitting the application forms to the Erode District Chess Circle and other related work,” Nachimuthu, Executive Committee Member of the Kazhagam said.
He said the Erode District Chess Circle Secretary S Ramesh did not accept the exam applications and was not reachable on phone.
Nachimuthu said as the exam date was nearing, he had sent the applications directly to Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, but the applicants have not received any reply from the state chess body.
When contacted for his comments, Ramesh, Secretary of Erode District Chess Circle said: “These people had never lent a helping hand for the events organised by the official body. They also hold their own events. Will you allow a non-journalist into your journalist association?”
Tamil Nadu State Chess Association Secretary P Stephen Balasamy was not available for comments when contacted.
It may be recalled last October, 11-year old school boy Karthick Rahul was arbitrarily evicted from The Hindu Tamil Nadu State Level Chess Tournament Tirunelveli Under-13 midway by the secretary of Tirunelveli District Chess Development Association (TDCDA) in Tamil Nadu for playing in tournament that was not affiliated to the district or state associations and AICF.
IANS