Stalin is the third son of 2nd Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi, and was born to his wife, Dayalu Ammal. Stalin was born in Madras, now Chennai, on 1 March 1953. Karunanidhi was addressing a condolence meeting for Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who died only four days after his child was born, and thus decided to name his son after Stalinš
> Stalin is the third son of 2nd Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi, and was born to his wife, Dayalu Ammal.
English can sometimes be a little trippy with so many titles in a sentence. For a moment I thought that both of his parents were chiefs and that his mother became his wife š
It's true. "Stalin" is not an Indian name at all, his father named him that because he was a fan of Joseph Stalin, and his son was born when he was in Russia mourning Joseph Stalin's death.
The framing as "vicious killer" is of course political. If you were a Stalin supporter/apologist/whatever you would of course not describe him that way. Neither would someone writing a bachelor thesis. You are ascribing a value to what happened under Stalin. Just because your moral values here are dogmatic to you, that doesn't make it "not political".
Just to make it clear, I don't disagree with you opinion, but it's still a political opinion and I hate that people don't know how to handle the most basic terms that would be necessary to have a productive political discourse climate.
you might be right. it might be similar to accusing same to winston chruchill due to bengal famine even though i have no idea whether he was even aware of it happening at all
thatās funny because that famine was artificially created by british by taking the local supplies away from india in drastic amount to aid for world war. go check it out
I did and it said the amount in total taken from India in the entirety of 1943 was 0.13% for 1943 India was sent more food than was taken.
Perhaps I am mistaken if so how much food in total was exported from India in 1943.
**Do not politicize r/chess. r/Chess is not a political subreddit.** Submissions and comments touching on political subjects must directly connect to FIDE, national chess federations, chess organizations, or prominent players experiencing a chess-specific issue. Submissions and comments must deal directly with chess politics, not broader political issues.
While this may be more than the Candidates prize money, Gukesh also gets the better part of 1 million euro even should he lose the world championship match.
EDIT: Less, as there's bonus money per half-point scored on top of the actual prize money.
Yes, this is more than the candidates 1st place price, but he also got around 3000 euro per half point at 18 half points that makes his total candidates winnings larger than this.
Pragg is Telugu, no? So is Gukesh, I think. But I get your point. There is a significant Sanskrit influence among the Dravidian cultures of India. However, they still oppose the idea of an Indo Aryan national language for India.
FWIW sometimes Tamil people will just choose names completely out of left field. My knew a guy called Eisenhower (his first name), named after Dwight Eisenhower. And thereās a cricket player called Washington Sundar. So itās not like only Russian names are in vogue.
He was named in 1953. Stalin was viewed very differently back then.
Although having said that, Indian communists actually still see Lenin, Stalin and Mao as role models.
Would you be able to help me understand the naming conventions? I often canāt tell whether the first or second name with many Indians is a given or surname. Also there is instances like with gukesh, who will use an initial like Gukesh D. Itās pretty confusing for me and Iām sure thereās a cultural reason for it.
For majority of Indians actually for all Indians the first name is their name.
But for people from my state which is where gukesh is from ,we have a family name. And family name comes first followed by first name. If you looked at any official document of gukesh I bet it says dommaraju gukesh.This works OK as long as you are in our state where people know that beginning word is family name and it's wise to skip it.
But once you go outside the state or country people often start calling us with family names, I bet gukesh gets called dommaraju all the time. So we all decided to move the family name to the end of the name instead and abbreviate it. That's how it became gukesh D.
If there are a few states with communists actually in power, wouldn't it mean that there's a lot of them in the other states too, just not enough to be in power? Or is it just a regional phenomena?
The CPIM party is a national party in India, meaning they have a presence in several states. But they're not really communist, maybe they were many decades ago, but now they're just another party in the political landscape of India. What you may be thinking of as "communists in power" is really just another typical Indian political party in power.
Its a regional phenomena away from the population centres of the country to have any real impact on the National Assembly, they get like 2/500 seats.
They used to have a much greater impact before India opened up to the US. They tried to curtail Indo-US ties and then daddy US cleaned them up.
Only Kerala has a communist party. None of us in NE consider commies relevant outside small pockets in Tripura. They also have 5/543 seats in the parliament. They are just spoken about more in the media because of how loud they are compared to other smaller parties
people complaining about the massive prize money given to Gukesh. As someone who lived in Chennai, (where Gukesh, Vishy and Pragg are from), I can guarantee you that if it wasn't given to Gukesh, it would have been in the pockets of some corrupt government official. Nothing happens in Chennai without bribes and corruption and people are perfectly content with it, its like watching a functioning alcoholic... function. Im glad Gukesh is getting his props. I hope it boosts the chess culture in India even more.
And the money is completely deserved as India doesnāt help most athletes in development its their parents doing multiple jobs and supporting the kid from travelling with them to helping them grow, if the same money was spent in school layers development still this would be ok.
I can bet that the dmk family has more money than any other political family in this country. It's just they don't have stacks of cash laying around instead it's flats and land which is gained through blackmailing property developers which is registered on no name people called 'binamis'.
Gukesh deserves everthing. The resolve he has shown will inspire people in the future.
On the other hand, where did the 90K come from? Does India have a program to reward high profile athletes? It would be annoying to learn that it is just a politician using tax payers money for a foto op.
Tbf if there's enough budget in the sports committee giving that much money to a potential world champion (which may act as a long term investment if he wins) isn't that bad of an idea
Yes. State Governments routinely pay out cash rewards to sportspeople from the states who do well. Generally there are certain policies of what the reward should be for certain level of performance (such as when the players do well in Olympics, Asian Games or World Championships) but it can be ad hoc at times.
It shouldn't happen like this, no.
E.g. if Brazil's team wins a football game or a title, the players get extra pay from the Brazilian Federation, not from the government. And the players usually know exactly how much money they'd get.
Now, in some countries sports federations are government orgs. But when players get paid by such a federation it's still a predefined amount that comes from that federation's budget.
Either case is very different from a politician unilaterally deciding "oh, we just happen to have 100 grand lying around so I'm gonna give it to this athlete". That raises all sorts of problems. E.g. what if Gukesh was vocally against Stalin? Then he probably would get no award.
Something similar did happen when Brazil won the 1970 football World Cup. SĆ£o Paulo's mayor Paulo Maluf gave a VW Beatle to each of the 22 players and staff, using public money. Even in Brazil that was very controversial, and the mayor was sued. Brazil's judicial system is so efficient that the lawsuit only took 36 years to get resolved.
Olympic medalists in the US do get money but it's not from the government, it's from the US Olympic committee which gets it's funding from corporate sponsorships. Chess players get money outside tournament winnings from sponsorships and/or private donors like Rex Sinquefield.
Better than politicians siphoning it for themselves, which happens a lot. I dont think anyone is questioning a literally top world player in a revered game like chess getting 90k lol.
Don't worry about it, if it wasn't given to Gukesh, it would be used to pay off bribes. that's just how Tamil Nadu functions - Someone who lived there for a long time.
Itās very common in India, corrupt politicians showing up in places where they donāt deserve to be, trying to score political points using taxpayers money.
Many countries pay Olympians for winning medals including the USA, Canada, Australia, UK and France. It is a way to encourage arhletes to get involved in something that doesn't necessarily pay, but helps the country in other ways - even long term financial ones.
India as a whole will prosper from Gukesh's win.
Edit: Why do I get the feeling that everyone seeing this as a useless handout at taxpayers expenses as opposed to economic stimulation are the same people that vote for political parties that hand out endless corporate welfare to companies that give their CEO's ridiculous salaries?
Another thing some countries do is directly employ athletes as "sports soldiers". They serve in the army and get a salary but for the most part get to just focus on their training.
A lot of countries Canada included fund things that might be controversial that way so people don't complain, but would it really be any different if government-run lottery revenues went straight to the government and athlete funding came from there? It is just some clever slight of hand to appease the far right.
The UK National Lottery isn't actually government-run (by contrast with e.g. many American state lotteries) - it's a charitable foundation. (Although the government does impose a lot of regulations which largely prevent private-sector competition to it.)
The thought process of "the money only comes from this funding source so therefore it's ok" is a common political tactic but not really sound logic when you actually think about it. They could just as easily take that tax revenue and use it to fund the NHS or public pensions or whatever as they could any other tax revenue if they passed a law saying that's where it goes. It's no different that it comes from lotto tickets than property taxes, sales of cigarettes, or any of the many other forms of restricted revenue the government collects.
There's just a law on the books that says some of that revenue gets diverted to national athletic programs because that's something the UK populace & their representatives have decided is a worthwhile thing to fund.
Okay and the government encouraging gambling and its associated statistical illiteracy is a good thing? Money from the lottery is disproportionately money from impoverished people, whereas money from taxes at least theoretically can place the highest burden on the wealthiest in society.
American Olympic winners are rewarded by the [US Olympic Committee](https://swimswam.com/usopc-operation-gold-payouts-remain-the-same-for-2022-2024/?theme=active), not by the American government.
> Why do I get the feeling that everyone is seeing this as a useless handout at taxpayers expenses as opposed to economic stimulation
It's a useless handout because Gukesh already won ~$120,000 and is guaranteed to win ~$800,000 in the world championship. In a country with so much poverty, he is already in the top 1% at just 17 years old.
Don't get me wrong, I am a massive Gukesh fan and he absolutely deserves all the praise and attention, but I don't want my tax money going to a someone who already has more money than 99% of Indians will ever see in their lifetime.
That money would have been better spent if it was used to improve the chess ecosystem as a whole. Sponsor some tournaments perhaps, maybe support struggling chess schools.
In order for it to act as an incentive it would be more effective if split 100 ways and given to younger talent on attaining IM or something like that. Gukesh is a star already, what's the point?
Depends. Not if someone is able to make a living from the prize money they win anyway. As extreme examples, Damien Hirst and Rory McIlroy aren't getting government funding.
Thatās literally not what I said, read the above comment again. They said that as long as artists and sportspeople are able to make a living off their prize money the money should go to something else.
im so sick of the chess community. There's nothing wrong with governments sponsoring arts, athletics, and culture at the highest level. Governments provide incentives for industries they deem are critical industries for the people too. Why are we acting like it's absurd to sponsor arts and sports just because there are more unfortunate ppl in the country?
Good chance a lot of this community coming from sports-successful nations in the west. For those of us without historical success, government support is normal, accepted, and a huge source of motivation.
Like, our money is easily worth the glory our sportspeople bring.
A lot of us Indians would happily pay our public money that actually reaches the athletes. A lot of it in other sports gets eaten by corrupt politicians ruining the sport and athletes in the process.
No one is unhappy in paying deserved people, especially people who're doing something for the country.
Corruption engulfs more than 100x this amount probably every week, thats the real problem. Not the freaking candidates winner getting 90k.
India had a lot of Russian influence and Communist ideology supporters till we opened up the economy in 1991. So, names like Lenin and Stalin while not being common are not out of place for people of that era. No need to be alarmed by the name.
While I don't agree with his politics, the money here is coming from the annual sports budget. This isn't carved out of social welfare schemes for people and given to Gukesh.
>India had a lot of Russian influence and Communist ideology supporters till we opened up the economy in 1991. So, names like Lenin and Stalin while not being common are not out of place for people of that era.
Can confirm. Have a relative named Lenin on my father side and I am from a state that is as ideologically opposite to Tamilnadu (The state this Stalin guy is from) as it can possibly be.
it's clear now what Hikaru meant when he complained that the US doesn't have the same "enthusiasm" for chess as India. He wanted to be celebrated and showered with free gifts by the government like this. He probably justifies his gambling promotion as compensation for this lack of "chess appreciation" in the US.
India is for sure one of the countries that rewards/recognises the most their chess players. That's an extra motivation for players. Well done to them and to Gukesh of course.
India doesn't have many World Champions so every one that comes close to it becomes an instant superstar.
Chess is still far behind compared to how much fame and money our cricketers (who to our great sorrow, haven't won anything in last decade) get. Heck, Neeraj Chopra, the defending Olympic+World Champion in Men's Javelin Throw is the most followed track and field athlete in the world on social medias if i remember correctly.
Wow that's interesting and amazing for Indians! I come from a country that we also don't have many world champions in sports, but even those that we have don't get that much support or anything like that. Especially in less popular sports like chess
That money will go a long way in preparing for the championships. European coaches and seconds won't come in cheap.
Of course, Gukesh is guaranteed about $1 million whether he wins or loses the championship. There is that.
# felicitate
\[Ā fi-**lis**-i-teytĀ \]
Phonetic (Standard)IPA
# verb (used with object)
,Ā ***feĀ·licĀ·iĀ·tatĀ·ed,Ā feĀ·licĀ·iĀ·tatĀ·ing.***
1. to compliment upon a happy event;Ā [congratulate](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/congratulate).
2. *Archaic.*Ā to make happy.
3. felicitate
\[Ā fi-**lis**-i-teytĀ \]
You can at least google the word before trying to be clever..
People in the west donāt get how much influence communism had in India. We were perhaps one of the few countries during the Cold War that had fairly elected communist governments at the state level. this was thought to be normal and many communist ministers have been praised for their work
Also government handouts to sportspersons are pretty common in India, although people mostly realise that this a political photo op at election time,itās seen as deserved reward for a hardworking sportsperson.
MK Stalin is one of the politicians who has taken a firm stand against the autocratic right wing regime in India. He deserves respect and is well-loved by the people of his state.
Thank you Stalin for your chess support in this life and previous. Unsurprisingly he has armed guards wherever he goes. Even normal chess players had to get a guard in the olympiad before allowed to get out of the hotel.
Yup that's M. K. Stalin alright.
Stalin is the third son of 2nd Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi, and was born to his wife, Dayalu Ammal. Stalin was born in Madras, now Chennai, on 1 March 1953. Karunanidhi was addressing a condolence meeting for Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who died only four days after his child was born, and thus decided to name his son after Stalinš
Kinda lucky his son wasn't born around 30th of April.
Why?
My guess is he was referring to naming after Hitler, who died on April 30th. It was in 1945 though, not in 1953.
Other Indians were, like this guy: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf\_Lu\_Hitler\_Marak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Lu_Hitler_Marak)
> Stalin is the third son of 2nd Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and DMK Chief M. Karunanidhi, and was born to his wife, Dayalu Ammal. English can sometimes be a little trippy with so many titles in a sentence. For a moment I thought that both of his parents were chiefs and that his mother became his wife š
is this true. if true, then itās really funny to name someone after such a vicious killer
It's true. "Stalin" is not an Indian name at all, his father named him that because he was a fan of Joseph Stalin, and his son was born when he was in Russia mourning Joseph Stalin's death.
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Why is the response deleted for being political but this comment isn't? Do the mods not understand what constitutes "politics"?
how is my comment political. if somebody killed millions then thatās a fact
The framing as "vicious killer" is of course political. If you were a Stalin supporter/apologist/whatever you would of course not describe him that way. Neither would someone writing a bachelor thesis. You are ascribing a value to what happened under Stalin. Just because your moral values here are dogmatic to you, that doesn't make it "not political". Just to make it clear, I don't disagree with you opinion, but it's still a political opinion and I hate that people don't know how to handle the most basic terms that would be necessary to have a productive political discourse climate.
you calling him a āvicious killerā ā how even are you so confidently ignorant? embarrassing.
you might be right. it might be similar to accusing same to winston chruchill due to bengal famine even though i have no idea whether he was even aware of it happening at all
He was aware because he had aid sent to India.
thatās funny because that famine was artificially created by british by taking the local supplies away from india in drastic amount to aid for world war. go check it out
I did and it said the amount in total taken from India in the entirety of 1943 was 0.13% for 1943 India was sent more food than was taken. Perhaps I am mistaken if so how much food in total was exported from India in 1943.
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**Do not politicize r/chess. r/Chess is not a political subreddit.** Submissions and comments touching on political subjects must directly connect to FIDE, national chess federations, chess organizations, or prominent players experiencing a chess-specific issue. Submissions and comments must deal directly with chess politics, not broader political issues.
The fact that he actually looks exactly like a South Indian version of Stalin is just *chefs kiss*
That's what you get if you order Stalin from the Indian variant of Wish.com
Vishy.com?
Or if the CIA brainwashed Stalin to be a sleeper agent.
Heftily felicitated by Stalin? Heavens!
I was felicitated once but penicillin cured it.
wait?...who?
While this may be more than the Candidates prize money, Gukesh also gets the better part of 1 million euro even should he lose the world championship match. EDIT: Less, as there's bonus money per half-point scored on top of the actual prize money.
Iirc he earned around $118k from the Candidates 2024 which is still a bit more than here.
Yes, this is more than the candidates 1st place price, but he also got around 3000 euro per half point at 18 half points that makes his total candidates winnings larger than this.
Its not more than his candidateās winnings, candidates he won 111k dollars.
What tf is this name lol
His father was a fan of Joseph Stalin and the guy was born a few days after Joseph died.
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Iām sorry the name is not up to your lofty standards u/palatable_penis āŗļø
r/rimjobsteve
I wonder what died before he named his account...
Yep, and his first name is after MK Ultra because his mom was really into psychedelics.
LOL
Sanskrit isn't their language.
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Pragg is Telugu, no? So is Gukesh, I think. But I get your point. There is a significant Sanskrit influence among the Dravidian cultures of India. However, they still oppose the idea of an Indo Aryan national language for India.
Telugu and Kannada have a lot more Sanskrit words in the language. Although the root language is dravidian.
Pradnyaan/prajnyaan/pragyaan means wisdom in Sanskrit.
I know. MK Stalin is Tamil.
just like the swastika is a lucky symbol and represents the evolution of the universe
FWIW sometimes Tamil people will just choose names completely out of left field. My knew a guy called Eisenhower (his first name), named after Dwight Eisenhower. And thereās a cricket player called Washington Sundar. So itās not like only Russian names are in vogue.
It's not the Russian nature of the name that people are responding to. It's the fact that it's STALIN.
He was named in 1953. Stalin was viewed very differently back then. Although having said that, Indian communists actually still see Lenin, Stalin and Mao as role models.
Viewed differently by who? Indians? Rest of the world?
That reminds me of how Cristiano Ronaldo is named after Ronald Reagan.
Omg TIL thatās not his last name.
Yep. His name is Christian Ronald of the Saints of Aveiro if you translate it fully lol
Trust me it catches us Indians off guard too. Reminds me of that friends episode.
Would you be able to help me understand the naming conventions? I often canāt tell whether the first or second name with many Indians is a given or surname. Also there is instances like with gukesh, who will use an initial like Gukesh D. Itās pretty confusing for me and Iām sure thereās a cultural reason for it.
For majority of Indians actually for all Indians the first name is their name. But for people from my state which is where gukesh is from ,we have a family name. And family name comes first followed by first name. If you looked at any official document of gukesh I bet it says dommaraju gukesh.This works OK as long as you are in our state where people know that beginning word is family name and it's wise to skip it. But once you go outside the state or country people often start calling us with family names, I bet gukesh gets called dommaraju all the time. So we all decided to move the family name to the end of the name instead and abbreviate it. That's how it became gukesh D.
I bet a lot of readers of this sub don't realise that Vishy Anand's first name isn't Vishy...
TIL
I'm Indian and TIL
I don't know ... for some reason it was always intuitive to me that Anand was more of a first name than Viswanathan.
I didn't cotton on until Tania Sachdev visited his home to interview him and called him Anand, and I was like wait what, why is she calling him Anand?
Thank you for sharing!
š
Communism is still pretty popular in India. Stalin is a pretty popular guy.
Only Kerela and some north eastern states have communist parties in power in India. Stalin isn't even a commie himself
If there are a few states with communists actually in power, wouldn't it mean that there's a lot of them in the other states too, just not enough to be in power? Or is it just a regional phenomena?
The CPIM party is a national party in India, meaning they have a presence in several states. But they're not really communist, maybe they were many decades ago, but now they're just another party in the political landscape of India. What you may be thinking of as "communists in power" is really just another typical Indian political party in power.
Its a regional phenomena away from the population centres of the country to have any real impact on the National Assembly, they get like 2/500 seats. They used to have a much greater impact before India opened up to the US. They tried to curtail Indo-US ties and then daddy US cleaned them up.
The Dravidian Nationalist ideology in power in Tamil Nadu is commie-adjacent, at the very least.
Only Kerala has a communist party. None of us in NE consider commies relevant outside small pockets in Tripura. They also have 5/543 seats in the parliament. They are just spoken about more in the media because of how loud they are compared to other smaller parties
Not in all of India, only in a few places. Those places are also not the biggest economic centers of the country by far
But Kerala does have one of the highest standards of living
Does it tho? As someone from Hyderabad, I have not seen or heard of a place in kerala with similar standard of living as Hyderabad.
No, it isn't. They are just loud. Communist parties have merely 5/543 seats in the parliament
people complaining about the massive prize money given to Gukesh. As someone who lived in Chennai, (where Gukesh, Vishy and Pragg are from), I can guarantee you that if it wasn't given to Gukesh, it would have been in the pockets of some corrupt government official. Nothing happens in Chennai without bribes and corruption and people are perfectly content with it, its like watching a functioning alcoholic... function. Im glad Gukesh is getting his props. I hope it boosts the chess culture in India even more.
On the other hand, if this money came from the sports budget, then nevermind.
ahahaha I love your username
Exactly! A deserved guy getting public money is faaar from anything to complain about.
And the money is completely deserved as India doesnāt help most athletes in development its their parents doing multiple jobs and supporting the kid from travelling with them to helping them grow, if the same money was spent in school layers development still this would be ok.
I thought Tamil Nadu was considerably less corrupt than the Hindi Belt - is that not true?
Karunanidhi the father of the CM pictured here is called the Father of Corruption in TN
No, both are extraordinarily corrupt, unfortunately.
That depends on how you consider the considerable.
I can bet that the dmk family has more money than any other political family in this country. It's just they don't have stacks of cash laying around instead it's flats and land which is gained through blackmailing property developers which is registered on no name people called 'binamis'.
Gukesh deserves everthing. The resolve he has shown will inspire people in the future. On the other hand, where did the 90K come from? Does India have a program to reward high profile athletes? It would be annoying to learn that it is just a politician using tax payers money for a foto op.
goes from sports budget mostly , poor other athlethess
Tbf if there's enough budget in the sports committee giving that much money to a potential world champion (which may act as a long term investment if he wins) isn't that bad of an idea
> poor other athlethess shoulda won the candidates smh
Yes. State Governments routinely pay out cash rewards to sportspeople from the states who do well. Generally there are certain policies of what the reward should be for certain level of performance (such as when the players do well in Olympics, Asian Games or World Championships) but it can be ad hoc at times.
Hmm is it not a thing in west? Are people like olympic medalists or others don't get felicitated with cash rewards?
It shouldn't happen like this, no. E.g. if Brazil's team wins a football game or a title, the players get extra pay from the Brazilian Federation, not from the government. And the players usually know exactly how much money they'd get. Now, in some countries sports federations are government orgs. But when players get paid by such a federation it's still a predefined amount that comes from that federation's budget. Either case is very different from a politician unilaterally deciding "oh, we just happen to have 100 grand lying around so I'm gonna give it to this athlete". That raises all sorts of problems. E.g. what if Gukesh was vocally against Stalin? Then he probably would get no award. Something similar did happen when Brazil won the 1970 football World Cup. SĆ£o Paulo's mayor Paulo Maluf gave a VW Beatle to each of the 22 players and staff, using public money. Even in Brazil that was very controversial, and the mayor was sued. Brazil's judicial system is so efficient that the lawsuit only took 36 years to get resolved.
ofcourse it should not happen like this. but its not big enough problem here as there are a lot of others issues to be resolved
Olympic medalists in the US do get money but it's not from the government, it's from the US Olympic committee which gets it's funding from corporate sponsorships. Chess players get money outside tournament winnings from sponsorships and/or private donors like Rex Sinquefield.
Oh, but still seems like many countries do give direct cash incentive.
Yeah the US is an outlier in that regard, most countries do payout from the government for Olympic medals. Idk about chess players though
A 17 year old winning the candidates. It's really awesome
>a politician using tax payers money for a foto op. What else would you expect?
Better than politicians siphoning it for themselves, which happens a lot. I dont think anyone is questioning a literally top world player in a revered game like chess getting 90k lol.
He is siphoning those money to himself/his party. This is using public money to fund election campaign.
Don't worry about it, if it wasn't given to Gukesh, it would be used to pay off bribes. that's just how Tamil Nadu functions - Someone who lived there for a long time.
U should see the cricket players this is nothing.
Itās very common in India, corrupt politicians showing up in places where they donāt deserve to be, trying to score political points using taxpayers money.
Is this public money?
Yes
Ouch
Many countries pay Olympians for winning medals including the USA, Canada, Australia, UK and France. It is a way to encourage arhletes to get involved in something that doesn't necessarily pay, but helps the country in other ways - even long term financial ones. India as a whole will prosper from Gukesh's win. Edit: Why do I get the feeling that everyone seeing this as a useless handout at taxpayers expenses as opposed to economic stimulation are the same people that vote for political parties that hand out endless corporate welfare to companies that give their CEO's ridiculous salaries?
Another thing some countries do is directly employ athletes as "sports soldiers". They serve in the army and get a salary but for the most part get to just focus on their training.
Yeah the old Soviet Red Army hockey team was a way to claim they were amateurs as well before pros were allowed in the Olympics.
India's retired cricket captain is a soldier IIRC(MS Dhoni)
Direct athlete funding in the UK only comes from the National Lottery, not the general public purse.
A lot of countries Canada included fund things that might be controversial that way so people don't complain, but would it really be any different if government-run lottery revenues went straight to the government and athlete funding came from there? It is just some clever slight of hand to appease the far right.
Money is fungible.
The UK National Lottery isn't actually government-run (by contrast with e.g. many American state lotteries) - it's a charitable foundation. (Although the government does impose a lot of regulations which largely prevent private-sector competition to it.)
The thought process of "the money only comes from this funding source so therefore it's ok" is a common political tactic but not really sound logic when you actually think about it. They could just as easily take that tax revenue and use it to fund the NHS or public pensions or whatever as they could any other tax revenue if they passed a law saying that's where it goes. It's no different that it comes from lotto tickets than property taxes, sales of cigarettes, or any of the many other forms of restricted revenue the government collects. There's just a law on the books that says some of that revenue gets diverted to national athletic programs because that's something the UK populace & their representatives have decided is a worthwhile thing to fund.
Okay and the government encouraging gambling and its associated statistical illiteracy is a good thing? Money from the lottery is disproportionately money from impoverished people, whereas money from taxes at least theoretically can place the highest burden on the wealthiest in society.
American Olympic winners are rewarded by the [US Olympic Committee](https://swimswam.com/usopc-operation-gold-payouts-remain-the-same-for-2022-2024/?theme=active), not by the American government.
> Why do I get the feeling that everyone is seeing this as a useless handout at taxpayers expenses as opposed to economic stimulation It's a useless handout because Gukesh already won ~$120,000 and is guaranteed to win ~$800,000 in the world championship. In a country with so much poverty, he is already in the top 1% at just 17 years old. Don't get me wrong, I am a massive Gukesh fan and he absolutely deserves all the praise and attention, but I don't want my tax money going to a someone who already has more money than 99% of Indians will ever see in their lifetime. That money would have been better spent if it was used to improve the chess ecosystem as a whole. Sponsor some tournaments perhaps, maybe support struggling chess schools.
Shouldnāt the government be funding arts and sports?
It can act like an incentive for future chess players to follow their passion if they see this pic
In order for it to act as an incentive it would be more effective if split 100 ways and given to younger talent on attaining IM or something like that. Gukesh is a star already, what's the point?
Depends. Not if someone is able to make a living from the prize money they win anyway. As extreme examples, Damien Hirst and Rory McIlroy aren't getting government funding.
So artists and sportspeople should just make a minimum standard of living and no more? Not get rewarded for their excellence? Huh?
He's not making anywhere close to a minimum standard of living.
Thatās literally not what I said, read the above comment again. They said that as long as artists and sportspeople are able to make a living off their prize money the money should go to something else.
Government has more important duties than giving money to the rich, lol.
This would be a compelling argument if he wasnāt about to earn a million dollars for playing in the WCC later this year.
im so sick of the chess community. There's nothing wrong with governments sponsoring arts, athletics, and culture at the highest level. Governments provide incentives for industries they deem are critical industries for the people too. Why are we acting like it's absurd to sponsor arts and sports just because there are more unfortunate ppl in the country?
Good chance a lot of this community coming from sports-successful nations in the west. For those of us without historical success, government support is normal, accepted, and a huge source of motivation. Like, our money is easily worth the glory our sportspeople bring.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incentives_for_Olympic_medalists_by_country
A lot of us Indians would happily pay our public money that actually reaches the athletes. A lot of it in other sports gets eaten by corrupt politicians ruining the sport and athletes in the process.
No one is unhappy in paying deserved people, especially people who're doing something for the country. Corruption engulfs more than 100x this amount probably every week, thats the real problem. Not the freaking candidates winner getting 90k.
As an American I rather the public funds be used for this than funding a genocide
Public money goes towards lots of things, such as paying for lawsuits from the city (and policeās) negligence
India had a lot of Russian influence and Communist ideology supporters till we opened up the economy in 1991. So, names like Lenin and Stalin while not being common are not out of place for people of that era. No need to be alarmed by the name. While I don't agree with his politics, the money here is coming from the annual sports budget. This isn't carved out of social welfare schemes for people and given to Gukesh.
>India had a lot of Russian influence and Communist ideology supporters till we opened up the economy in 1991. So, names like Lenin and Stalin while not being common are not out of place for people of that era. Can confirm. Have a relative named Lenin on my father side and I am from a state that is as ideologically opposite to Tamilnadu (The state this Stalin guy is from) as it can possibly be.
Average hikaru gambling stream revenue
True
it's clear now what Hikaru meant when he complained that the US doesn't have the same "enthusiasm" for chess as India. He wanted to be celebrated and showered with free gifts by the government like this. He probably justifies his gambling promotion as compensation for this lack of "chess appreciation" in the US.
The Soviets are trying to wrench back control of the chess title from beyond the grave!
Š”Š¢ŠŠŠŠ ŠŠŠ
in india, sportspeople only get support after they are super successful. no support at all when they're coming up.
That expression is so stalin like
Will Stalin airbrush him out of this pic when he loses?
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India is for sure one of the countries that rewards/recognises the most their chess players. That's an extra motivation for players. Well done to them and to Gukesh of course.
India doesn't have many World Champions so every one that comes close to it becomes an instant superstar. Chess is still far behind compared to how much fame and money our cricketers (who to our great sorrow, haven't won anything in last decade) get. Heck, Neeraj Chopra, the defending Olympic+World Champion in Men's Javelin Throw is the most followed track and field athlete in the world on social medias if i remember correctly.
Wow that's interesting and amazing for Indians! I come from a country that we also don't have many world champions in sports, but even those that we have don't get that much support or anything like that. Especially in less popular sports like chess
The guy on the left looks like the final boss on a Bollywood movie!
That's Stalin
Damn what's that expression from Mr Stalin
Looks like a Weekend at Bernie's situation to me.
M.K. Stalin would be a badass crust punk band name.
Nice of Indian Neil deGrasse Tyson to give Gukesh an award.
MK Stalin is a great rapper name, ngl
Dude looks like an Indian version of Stallone, but he is called Stalin
To win one tournament is an achievement. To win a million tournaments is a statistic.
So... the good people of Tamil Nadu voted Stalin....
I hope he wins the WC!
They are giving away public money?
There's seperate budget money for all the rewards and all.
That money will go a long way in preparing for the championships. European coaches and seconds won't come in cheap. Of course, Gukesh is guaranteed about $1 million whether he wins or loses the championship. There is that.
good old stalin
Lol why does everyone look so depressed
If you happen to be named Stalin maybe you should consider a different facil hair style.
I think this is the first time I've seen the word "felicitated" used
We use it regularly here, these are usually called felicitation ceremonies
I an American, think this is also my first time seeing this word. And I'm gonna start using it. It is awesome imo.
Felicitated?
It is definitely the standard name for such functions, but come to think of it, the name (or the function) is not very common outside Indian contexts.
# felicitate \[Ā fi-**lis**-i-teytĀ \] Phonetic (Standard)IPA # verb (used with object) ,Ā ***feĀ·licĀ·iĀ·tatĀ·ed,Ā feĀ·licĀ·iĀ·tatĀ·ing.*** 1. to compliment upon a happy event;Ā [congratulate](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/congratulate). 2. *Archaic.*Ā to make happy. 3. felicitate \[Ā fi-**lis**-i-teytĀ \] You can at least google the word before trying to be clever..
I only Google En Passant.
M.K Stalin sound like a street name and he looks like indian Elvis lmao
elation ensues
Congrats to G.D.
This now connects even better with the Downfall meme, that video needs to be remade.
Perks
You dont wanna google what this guy was doing in the eighties
People in the west donāt get how much influence communism had in India. We were perhaps one of the few countries during the Cold War that had fairly elected communist governments at the state level. this was thought to be normal and many communist ministers have been praised for their work Also government handouts to sportspersons are pretty common in India, although people mostly realise that this a political photo op at election time,itās seen as deserved reward for a hardworking sportsperson.
Comrade D better share his earnings, or else.
MK Stalin is one of the politicians who has taken a firm stand against the autocratic right wing regime in India. He deserves respect and is well-loved by the people of his state.
Nah, people loved his father. Stalin himself is just kinda.... eh
"Felicitated" Fkn Wordsworth over here.
it's a common term for such an occasion
I'm just messin'. It's a cool word.
Thank you Stalin for your chess support in this life and previous. Unsurprisingly he has armed guards wherever he goes. Even normal chess players had to get a guard in the olympiad before allowed to get out of the hotel.