India withdraws from Chess Championship in Egypt

In light of the current Israel-Hamas war, the Indian team withdrew from the World Cadet Chess Championship, which was set to begin in Sharm el Sheikh on Saturday. They feared that it could compromise the safety of participants and authorities.

The tournament's venue is less than 400 km from the Israeli border, and up to 39 players from India were scheduled to participate. From October 14 to 23, the competition will be held in the under-12, 10 and 8 age groups.

In light of the severe situation in Gaza, the All India Chess Federation (AICF) has also asked the international organisation FIDE to postpone the competition.

"Considering the ongoing situation at Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas and the age of participants, after due deliberations, it was decided to withdraw the participation of the Indian team in the World Cadet Chess Championship-2023," AICF said in a press release.

"The All India Chess Federation took this decision considering all the aspects of safety and security of young players as Egypt shares the border with Gaza as well as Israel," the release said.

"The Federation took this hard decision based on force majeure and unforeseen scenarios as we give paramount importance to the safety of our players even though our players put in almost one year of training to participate in this important event," it added.