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Indian chess team faced a 5-hour hotel room delay in Samarkand before the 46th Chess Olympiad. Captain Srinath Narayanan and GM Vidit Gujrathi expressed frustration.
Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh. (Representative Photo)
The Indian chess team was left waiting for more than five hours for hotel rooms after arriving in Samarkand on Tuesday, a day before the 46th Chess Olympiad gets underway in Uzbekistan.
Men’s team captain, Grandmaster Srinath Narayanan, took to social media to highlight the issue, expressing his frustration over the experience on the eve of the prestigious tournament.
“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,” Narayanan posted on X.
Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi also voiced his disappointment over the arrangements, describing the team’s first experience in Samarkand as a poor one.
“Very poor first impressions of the Samarkand, Uzbekistan Olympiad 2026. Still waiting…,” Gujrathi wrote on X.
While all sports and atheletes are susceptible to adverse effects of such delays, in competitive chess, rest are just as crucial as tactical preparation. Classical games can last four hours, demanding massive amounts of cognitive energy, making players progressively susceptible to blunders and brain-fades.
Because of how adrenaline-heavy chess games are for the mind, elite players also cannot rely on passive rest like lying in bed. Instead, they actively use physical fitness, such as cardio, yoga, and mindfulness, to decompress, clear their minds, and reset their nervous systems.
India will enter the Olympiad as defending champions in both the open and women’s sections. The men’s squad includes reigning world champion D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin and Gujrathi, with Narayanan serving as captain.
The women’s team features Koneru Humpy, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Savitha Shri B, with Swayams Mishra as captain.
Both Indian teams created history at the 2024 Chess Olympiad by winning gold medals in their respective sections. They will now look to defend those titles in Samarkand, although their campaign has begun with an unexpected logistical setback.
The tournament is scheduled to be held from September 16 to 27.
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Ask News18Upon arriving in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Tuesday, the Indian chess team was left waiting for more than five hours without being allotted hotel rooms. With no clarity on when their rooms would be ready, team members expressed frustration over the logistical setback on the eve of the tournament.
Ask News18September 15, 2026, 6:43 PM IST
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