Vantika Agrawal Withdraws from President’s Cup in Uzbekistan After Controversial Arbiter Mistake Changes Her Draw to a Loss

Why Vantika Agrawal Withdrew from the President’s Cup in Uzbekistan After a Controversial Arbiter’s Mistake Changed Her Draw to a Loss

Indian chess player Vantika Agrawal was involved in a controversy that led to her dropping out of the President’s Cup in Uzbekistan. It happened during the third round of her match against Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov from Uzbekistan. The match was hard-fought and ended in a draw; however, in the most bizarre twist, the result was overturned, and the loss was recorded in favor of Agrawal by an arbiter’s mistake.

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The problem arose when Agrawal, after finishing her game in a draw, produced the correct scoresheet to testify to the end result. To her dismay, on announcement of pairing for the next round, she found that her game had been wrongly credited as a loss. Agrawal lodged an instant protest and contacted the organizers pointing out to them her grievance. The reply was quick, yet disheartening: no ruling could be changed because it was according to FIDE rules.

It was evident that Vantika Agrawal posted her strong sentiment on a social media portal. “I submitted the scoresheet with the right result. Then when I checked the pairing for round 4, it was published as a loss for me,” she said, expressing disappointment over the situation and the lack of recourse. I immediately emailed them and informed them, but they said that it’s FIDE’s rule that they can’t do anything.” She further questioned why players should be penalized for an arbiter’s mistake, especially when a tournament participant spends considerable resources to compete.

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What moved Agrawal to make her protest public was the feeling of injustice at hand. She highlighted that the system did not leave her with an appropriate means of rectification, as she immediately informed the organizers of this tournament of the error. “So I want to ask FIDE why they made such a rule. If it’s an arbiter’s mistake, why should I suffer? I have spent lots of money to play this tournament,” she remarked.

After getting no satisfactory response and having lost all hope of the situation getting corrected, Vantika Agrawal decided to withdraw from the President’s Cup. She posted on social media that she could not participate any further given such a situation. “I have withdrawn from the tournament.”. I can’t continue playing in a tournament where wrong results and pairings have been published because of the arbiter’s fault and there is no way to correct it despite immediate information,” Agrawal stated. She also highlighted the uncertainty that remained, fearing that similar errors could occur again without any accountability.

Vantika Agrawal’s withdrawal from the President’s Cup proved to be the most significant protest moment in the chess world, bringing about emphasis on fair play, transparency, and accountability in sports tournaments.

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