BRING YOUR VISION INTO ACTION
Sitges, Spain – A group of four Indian chess players were the victims of theft during the 10th Chessable Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival 2023, currently taking place in Sitges, Spain. The players – Grandmasters Abhijeet Gupta and Karthikeyan Murali along with International Masters Tania Sachdev and Rakesh Kulkarni – had their laptops and other personal belongings stolen from their hotel rooms last night.
Spanish police are investigating the robbery and believe it was targeted specifically at the visiting Indian players. This has raised concerns about security at international chess events. The Indian players were using laptops loaded with chess software and databases to prepare for their games in the tournament. Losing this equipment could significantly impact their performance.
“It’s an extremely unsettling feeling to know someone entered our rooms and stole our belongings,” said GM Abhijeet Gupta, India’s 17th highest ranked player. “I had years of chess preparation saved on that laptop. We take so many precautions to keep our preparation safe and secure. To have it taken like this is devastating.”
There has been an outpouring of support for the Indian players from the global chess community. Several top players from around the world have offered to help analyze games or loan laptops and software to the robbery victims.
“I am shocked and saddened to hear about this crime,” said world number five Levon Aronian of Armenia. “Chess preparation is so important for top level play. I hope the Spanish authorities will urgently investigate this robbery.”
Chess tournaments around the world are on high alert and reviewing their own security procedures in light of this audacious theft in Sitges. Meanwhile, the Indian players are showing remarkable resilience by continuing to play in the tournament while working with just the basic chess sets and clocks provided by organizers.
The 10th Chessable Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival features over 250 players from 34 countries competing for a share of the €20,000 prize fund. Despite the setback, the Indian contingent remains determined to put in a strong performance. But this robbery has highlighted risks for professional chess players who now store decades of preparation and analysis on laptops and in the cloud. Many are now wondering if more should be done to protect that intellectual property.
“It raises questions about security at tournaments,” said Indian GM Karthikeyan Murali. “We carry around with us more valuable information than most people realize. Maybe tournaments need to take extra steps to secure players’ rooms or provide storage lockers. But we can’t let this stop us from playing. The show must go on.”
The chess world awaits more details on this developing case as Spanish authorities pursue the investigation. Any arrests or recovery of stolen items will come as a major relief to the global chess community. In the meantime, extra vigilance is being urged when traveling internationally with sensitive chess preparation data. This theft has demonstrated such information may be more vulnerable than many previously thought.