Six Indian chess players robbed of mobile phones, laptops and passports at the 10th Chessable Sunway Sitges International in Spain

The 10th Chessable Sunway Sitges International Chess International Festival turned out to be a horrendous tournament for a few members of the 70-member Indian contingent.

As many as six players lost their valuable belongings such as mobile phones, laptops, AirPods, passports, and cash during the 11-day event scheduled from December 12 to 22 in Barcelona, Spain.

Grandmasters Sankalp Gupta and Srija Seshadri, International Masters Dushyant Sharma, Mounika Akshaya, and Arpita Mukherjee, and woman FIDE Master Vishwa Shah were the Indian participants who lost their belongings from the officially allotted apartment by the organizers.

According to a report from The Indian Express, three separate incidents of break-ins took place in the victims' apartments. After the first incident, on 19th December, in Sankalp Gupta and Dushyant Sharma's room, the players were cautious and took stringent measures to lock the apartment.

Yet, two more incidents of robbery followed on December 22 in Mounika Akshaya's apartment, which was shared by four other players; and then in the one commonly shared by Arpita Mukherjee and Vishwa Shah.

"My laptop, AirPods were stolen while my roommate’s laptop, passport (!), bag and other items. We got to know about this after we returned from our game at 9pm. Later on 22nd December, there was a similar break-in in my friend Mounika’s apartment at Sunway San Jorge," GM Sankalp Gupta was quoted as saying by ChessBase India.

"Later in the night, the worst so far- another break in at Sunway Arizona while my friends (Arpita and Vishwa) were sleeping! Their laptops, mobile phones were stolen," he added.

Sankalp said that the online feedback for the official accommodation wasn't positive with similar incidents happening in the past.

"While reading the reviews I found out a robbery had happened just 2 months back in Apollo and a similar experience in Arizona as well. There are no cameras in the building and the door can be opened with a code. This is really bizarre that even after these incidents no security measures were added."

Chessable Sunway organisers respond

The organizers of the Chessable Sunway tournament issued a statement three days after the last robbery took place, on December 25. Although empathy poured in and police filing took place, there was no level of accountability shown by the event organizers.

"First and foremost, we would like to express our profound empathy and concern for all those players who were affected by these incidents, as we told them as soon as we knew," the organizers issued a statement.

"We understand the emotional and personal toll that such incidents can have, and we want to assure you that the safety and well-being of our participants are our highest priorities," the statement further read.

The Indian players said that the police registered their complaint just for formality and the organizers weren't ready to compensate for the lost belongings.

“When we asked the organisers for compensation for things we had lost because this was their official apartment, they made fun of us. They said they will compensate by providing dinner,” Mounika told the Indian Express.

"The organisers helped us file a complaint but the police told us on our face that it’s going to be no use," she added.

23-year-old Indian Grand Master Abhimanyu Puranik's victory in the tournament (8.5/10) was overshadowed by the robbery episodes.