India’s defending champions faced an unexpected start to the 2026 Chess Olympiad after the men’s and women’s teams were kept waiting for around five hours for hotel room allotments following their arrival in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Tuesday.
A member of the travelling squad confirmed that the rooms were eventually allotted to the players. However, the players were unable to settle into their accommodation immediately after reaching the city. “All the players have settled into their rooms now. Grandmaster Srinath Narayanan, captain of the Indian men’s team, and GM Vidit Gujrathi took to social media to raise concerns over the delay. The team still haven’t been allotted rooms, with absolutely no clarity on when it’ll be allotted,” Srinath posted on X. Still waiting…,” The issue was not limited to the Indian contingent, with players from other teams also reporting accommodation-related problems.
The Indian contingents travelled to the Uzbek city for the FIDE tournament, which is scheduled to take place from September 16 to 27. “Having a terrible experience at the @FIDE_chess 2026 Olympiad. The team landed 5 hours ago at Samarkand airport. Gujrathi also expressed his disappointment, writing: “Very poor first impressions of the Samarkand, Uzbekistan Olympiad 2026.
But it was an unpleasant experience,” said a member of the travelling squad. Uzbekistan Chess Federation Vice President Alisher Sadullaev said steps were being taken to address the accommodation problem.
“I have had a talk with the Indian team.
At certain time the check in was planned earlier on…but the FIDE team and the coordination team has organised everything now and I think everything is already being set up.”, according to the regulations.
Finally in my room – worth it,” Welsh player Jonathan Blackburn also described his experience on Tuesday, writing: “37 hours awake, 2 flights, half way round the world only to be told you don’t have a hotel room that night, typical Olympiad.
Austrian Grandmaster Felix Blohberger responded to Srinath’s post on X, saying: “Same here, we arrived yesterday at 6 a.m. at the hotel and our captain got his room at 1:30pm,” Blohberger replied to Srinath’s post on X.
Both Indian teams are defending champions after winning their respective titles at the 2024 Chess Olympiad, marking a historic achievement for the country. The Indian men’s squad features world champion D Gukesh, Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin and Gujrathi, with Srinath as captain. The women’s team includes Koneru Humpy, R Vaishali, World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Savitha Shri, along with captain Swayams Mishra.
“I’m sure this will be resolved.. and from tomorrow on players can comfortably come and start playing their matches,” Sadullaev told ChessBase India.
