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During the Sunway Sitges Chess tournament in Sitges, Spain, there were at least six Indian players who got robbed in three separate break-in incidents in the last few days. As per the reports, these players lost valuable possessions which included, laptops, electronics, cash, and a passport, in the Spanish coastal town of Sitges.
Some of the players who lost their valuable possessions included the GM Sankalp Gupta, the IM Dushyant Sharma, the WGM Srija Seshadri, the WIM Mounika Akshaya, the WIM Arpita Mukherjee, and the woman FIDE master Vishwa Shah. According to the Indian Express, there were more than 70 players from India competing at the Sunway Sitges Chess tournament.
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The first break-in incident happened on December 19 in the apartment of Sankalp Gupta and Dushyant Sharma before two more incidents took place three days later within a space of a few hours. During December 22, the apartment shared by five players including WIM Mounika Akshaya was hit before the apartment of WIM Arpita Mukherjee and WFM Vishwa Shah was a witness to a similar fate.
GM Sankalp Gupta was quoted as saying about the first break-in incident at his apartment during the Sunway Sitges Chess tournament and said, “I lost my laptop, laptop charger and airpods. My roommate Dushyant lost his passport and had to drop out of the tournament to go to the Indian Consulate the next day to get documentation made to travel back to India.”
“It was very bizarre. They took my airpods, but left my roommate’s behind. They stole my roommate’s passport, but left mine behind after rummaging through the bag it was in. I can still track the location of my airpods, they’re at the same location for the last three days. I know exactly where they are in Barcelona: an area called La Mina. I told the police that and asked if I should go myself to retrieve them. They told us that it was one of the most dangerous areas of Barcelona and dissuaded us from going there,” he added.
The statement from the organisers of the Sunway Sitges Chess tournament indirectly tried to shift the blame of the robbery on the Indian players by stating, “It is speculated that an unfortunate oversight in locking doors or windows may have been a contributing factor.” The organisers also spoke about how they hired a security guard to patrol the apartment after the first break-in incident before revealing that there wasn’t anyone recorded on CCTV where the third break-in happened.
