Indian Chess Olympiad team without hotel rooms for hours in Samarkand - The Indian Express

The Indian chess team for the 46th Chess Olympiad was hit by a serious accommodation crisis, with several players left without hotel rooms for a long time after their arrival in Samarkand.

The two captains for the Indian teams, Srinath Narayanan and Swayams Mishra, confirmed that many of the players waited for hours to be given individual rooms at the ‘Silk Road by Minyoun’ hotel.

“We were told that the hotel was overbooked and the reservation wasn’t sent by the local organising committee to the hotel,” Srinath told The Indian Express from Samarkand.

Laying out a timeline of how things unfolded, the Indian women’s team captain Mishra told The Indian Express that the contingent arrived in Samarkand at 9.30 am and reached the designated hotel in an hour. One room was allotted around 12.30 pm and another half an hour later.

Since only two rooms had been made available for the entire Indian contingent initially, all the members of the open team – including world champion D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa – were sent to one of them to get refreshed and some rest while the women players and the mothers of Pragg and Vantika Agrawal took the other room. The six coaches, meanwhile, waited for the hotel staff to make more rooms available.

According to the coaches, the Indian contingent was supposed to get about 16 rooms, and had been given 14 by late evening.

“All players now have their individual rooms, some did not get the preferred rooms they had mentioned to the organisers. But the support staff will be adjusting for a couple of days,” Mishra added while pointing out that three coaches were bunking together in a room for the time being.

The All India Chess Federation (AICF) has sent Head of Delegation Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte to assist the team on the ground. “AICF president Nitin Narang is coordinating over phone with the local organising committee and FIDE,” Srinath added.

Srinath had earlier took to social media to express his frustration. “Having a terrible experience at the @FIDE_chess 2026 Olympiad. The team landed 5 hours ago at Samarkand airport. The team still haven’t been allotted rooms, with absolutely no clarity on when it’ll be allotted,” he wrote on X.

Having a terrible experience at the @FIDE_chess 2026 Olympiad.

The team landed 5 hours ago at Samarkand airport. The team still haven’t been allotted rooms, with absolutely no clarity on when it’ll be allotted.

“I think there was some miscommunication. But our team suffered the most. There were other teams too who suffered such delays. I heard Austria came at 6.30 am and were finally given all rooms at 1 in the afternoon,” said Mishra.

The Indian squad is headlined by current Gukesh, 2026 Women’s Candidates winner R Vaishali, and Grand Chess Tour and Norway Chess champion R Praggnanandhaa. The open team features Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin and Vidit Gujrathi. The women’s team comprises Vaishali, Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Savitha Shri B, and is captained by Swayams Mishra.

India are the defending champions in both the Open and Women’s sections, having claimed a historic dual gold medal in Budapest in 2024. The 46th Chess Olympiad began on Tuesday and will conclude on September 27, with the first round starting on Wednesday at the Silk Road International Exhibition Centre.

Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. He primarily writes on chess and Olympic sports, and co-hosts the Game Time podcast, a weekly offering from Express Sports. He also writes a weekly chess column, On The Moves. ... Read More