The ongoing Tata Steel chess match has been embroiled in an pointless controversy after the occasion’s broadcaster invited Norway’s most notorious financial institution robber David Toska as a visitor for a present.
Tosca, identified to be the mastermind behind the most important heist within the nation’s historical past, has been invited to visitor look throughout TV2’s Tata Steel Chess telecast.
However, the controversial transfer has provoked a powerful backlash from the chess fraternity, with a sponsor pulling out of the present hours after the announcement, based on the Chess24.com web site.
Norway to spend 13 years in jail as financial institution robber will touch upon controversy #TataSteelChess Today on National TV! https://t.co/ZhmQIn4l5P #c24live pic.twitter.com/TJyRB6ROwG
-chess24.com (@chess24com) 17 January 2022
The Tata Steel chess match is being performed in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, from January 14-30, the place prime gamers together with Norwegian world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen will vie for the highest honours.
Norwegian TV has a practice of inviting celebrities as company throughout chess broadcasts, the web site stated, however Toska’s alternative has been by far probably the most controversial.
Toska was described because the “mastermind” behind the Nokas Bank theft in Stavanger in 2004, one of many largest in Norwegian historical past, the place a policeman was killed. According to the web site, he was arrested in Spain a yr after he escaped.
Tosca, who served 13 years of a 20-year sentence, was totally launched in 2018, and now has a daughter and a full-time job as a programmer.
According to the web site, he’s an enormous fan of chess and was identified to be a proficient participant in his teenagers. Before committing the offense, he had completed fourth within the Norwegian Under-14 Championship.
Following Carlsen’s success whereas in jail, he returned to chess, and shortly after his launch he was seen on the venue of the 2019 Fischer Random World Championships in Hovik, exterior Oslo. The web site stated they now have an internet score of round 2000.
Toska is about to seem at TV2’s studio for its Tata Steel Chess broadcast on Monday and Tuesday with host Finn Gnat and commentators Heidi Reined and GM John Ludwig Hammer.
While the industrial broadcaster quoted chief sports activities editor Weger Jensen Hagen as saying that the choice to signal the notorious robber for the present was taken after receiving suggestions from a number of individuals, a policeman who was current on the scene of the theft and was shot. Granted, wasn’t so pleased.
The policeman, Eric Haaland, was not amused and was quoted as saying, “I never cease to marvel at the media bowing down to known criminals. Another reason not to watch chess. The fact is that his celebrity Because of serious offences, in my opinion it is foolish glorification.”
One sports activities commentator puzzled whether or not Tosca would have appeared as a chess professional if it weren’t for his movie star standing.
However, Tosca was quoted as saying that he was ready for unfavourable reactions and hoped that the main focus could be on the sport and that his story wouldn’t disturb it.
,
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
