Believe it or Not: 4th Death Anniversary of 1st SMS Chess Championship in Pakistan!

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

We've just received this link from Chess Blog friend in Islamabad, Nazir Hussain. He says, the report is about the "death anniversary" about an SMS chess championship in Pakistan that began with great gusto, but for unknown reasons, petered out.

Without getting into the conspiracy theories behind it all, we're intrigued by it all. Read this: 

On October 15, 2013 fourth death anniversary of 1st SMS chess champioIs this for  real? Or, a creative chess post? nship was celebrated. In November 2009, Mr. Muhammad Waqar chief organizer of the event and General Secretary of so called “Pakistan SMS Chess Federation” (missing since then) released a very short statement Just before the start of final round “This championship has been stopped by the instructions of our sponsor with “immediate effect”. He did not respond to the questions; why it was suspended? And when it will resume? Everyone concerned has a one million question; ” Will it ever resume??”
No one knows who was the sponsor? Who is president of this so called Pakistan SMS Federation but it’s some other office bearers are Amer Karim, Tanveer Gillani and Shahzad Alam.
Ist SMS Chess Championship started from October 15, 2009. 12 teams from all over Pakistan participated in the championship. The championship consisted of 4 rounds. The total prize fund of the championship was Rs.100, 000/- (one hundred thousands). Pakistan prominent players partcipated in the championship including Fide Master Omer Khan, National Masters Tunveer Gillani, Amer Karim, Waseem Akram, Wahid Hussain, Khalil ur Rehman Butt and Gulraiz Nazir. Shahzad Alam was the chief Arbiter of the championship.

All we, at Chess Blog, can say is RIP, but may chess live long in Pakistan.

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