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Picture Credit: Twitter

Indian Grandmaster SL Narayanan felt humiliated as he was forced to stand barefoot inside the playing hall for a metal detector check during a Bundesliga chess league match in Germany on Monday. According to Indian GM, a beep sound during metal detector checks forced Narayanan to remove his shoes and, subsequently, his socks too; it was later found that the beep sound was coming due to the carpet on the floor. 

Although these checks have always been part of the drill, they got more stringent since world champion Magnus Carlsen accused American GM Hans Neiman of cheating earlier this year. The Indian Grand Master SL Narayanan took to Twitter to explain his stand on the incident as he admitted feeling 'humiliated' but opted to remain silent. 

"I felt humiliated. And If I prefer to remain silent about it, I will not be doing justice to myself and other sportspersons who have been through similar experiences," Narayanan wrote on Twitter. The 24-year-old further informed that he was one of the five players the arbiter chose for a random check before his first-round match on Monday. 

"During the check with a metal detector, there was a beep sound. So, I was told to remove my shoes, and they checked again. So beep. Now I was told to remove my socks. The arbiter ran the metal detector on my naked foot, and we heard the beep again. At this point, I was told to move aside, and the next player was asked to step forward. It is hard to explain how bad it felt as I was guilty of something I had no clue about," he explained. 

The Indian Grand Master revealed that it all happened in the middle of the playing hall and standing with a sock and shoe in his hand, left the Indian player 'embarrassed.' "Imagine how I might have felt. The carpet floor was triggering the beep, not any human. The arbiter apologized to me. But I must say how embarrassing it was. And mind you, this happened just minutes before my round," Narayanan wrote. He lost his game against Czech Republic GM David Navar.