SINGAPORE: A 12-year-old girl was forced to withdraw from a chess tournament in Malaysia after her dress was considered "seductive", her coach has claimed.
Malaysian chess player Kaushal Khandar alleged that his student had been "extremely embarrassed" and "disturbed" by the actions of the National Scholastic Chess Championship 2017 director and chief arbiter, the Star Online reported.
He claimed that the tournament director had made a remark on the girl's knee-length dress to the chief arbiter, who had stopped her competition in the middle of Round 2 and informed the student that her dress was improper and violated the dress code of the tournament, the report said.
It was later informed (by chief arbiter) to my student and her mother, that the tournament director deemed my student's dress to be "seductive" and a "temptation", Kaushal said in a statement on his Facebook page. "This situation led to the inevitable decision of withdrawing from the tournament," he said.
The director told the girl and her mother that they needed to go to the mall and by her a pair of trousers – but by that time it was already 10pm, and the matches the next day restarted at 9am. As they were not able to get a replacement outfit in time the girl, who was a regional champion in Kuala Lumpur, had to pull out of the competition.
When contacted, the tournament director said an investigation is underway. However, he declined to comment further, the report said.
"My daughter was shocked after her game was interrupted by the chief arbiter," Chin Wai Lings, girl's mother, said.
Chin said the dress code for the tournament is based on the World Chess Federation (FIDE) Laws of Chess requiring participants to have a "dignified appearance", but no illustrative dress code guidelines were given out to participants before the tournament.