India’s Chess Olympiad Team Banned for Operating Parallel Economy

“We Were Just Hedging,” Say Players Who Ran ?40 Lakh Prediction Market During Tournament

BUDAPEST — The International Chess Federation suspended India’s junior chess team Tuesday after discovering that team members had been operating a fully functional prediction market, futures exchange, and informal chit fund from their hotel room during the 2026 Youth Chess Olympiad — all while, it must be noted, simultaneously winning every match.

“The players demonstrated extraordinary strategic capability,” said FIDE Ethics Committee Chair Aleksei Volkov, whose tone suggested he was not entirely displeased. “Unfortunately, taking side bets on your own games while playing them is against the rules. Even in India, presumably.”

The operation, which team members described as a “small hobby,” reportedly involved live odds updated on a WhatsApp group of 847 members, a spreadsheet maintained by a 16-year-old from Pune who is reportedly “good with numbers,” and a settlement system administered by the team’s accompanying mathematics tutor, one Professor R.K. Shastri, who told investigators he thought he was running a “study group.”

The operation generated ?40 lakhs over six days, which team members say they intended to donate to a chess academy “eventually, once taxes were sorted out, which was going to take some time.”

India’s All-India Chess Federation Disciplinary Sub-Committee for Junior Affairs and Miscellaneous Irregularities convened an emergency session in which it was discovered that three of its members had also placed bets. The session was adjourned.

Back home, reactions were mixed but mostly impressed. Twitter was flooded with memes comparing the team to Shakuni from the Mahabharata — the legendary dice-game strategist — with one viral post reading: “Shakuni ran a prediction market too. He just didn’t use UPI.”

The chess community noted that India has produced world-class players including Viswanathan Anand and the current World Champion D. Gukesh, and that perhaps the federation might consider channeling this financial ingenuity toward chess infrastructure instead of suspensions.

The suspended players have returned home to Pune, Chennai, and Kolkata, where they are reportedly already running a prediction market on whether the suspension will be overturned. Current odds: 3-to-1. Side bets accepted via GPay.

SOURCE: https://genieknows.in