FIDE Responds to Visa Issues, but Questions Grow Over Its Handling of the 2026 Olympiad
By Robby B · Wed, 16 Sep 2026
FIDE’s response to the Samarkand visa controversy has done little to silence questions over whether the federation was adequately prepared to manage the logistical demands of its own flagship event.
FIDE has responded publicly to concerns surrounding visa problems at the Chess Olympiad and Congress in Samarkand. But rather than putting the issue to rest, the controversy is increasingly raising questions about how effectively the world chess federation prepared for and managed one of the biggest events on its calendar.Visa decisions themselves ultimately rest with the relevant Uzbek authorities. Yet FIDE’s own official documentation shows that the federation and Organising Committee established a specific system to assist participants with the process.The official invitation instructed participants requiring visa-on-arrival assistance to submit the relevant documents to [email protected]. It also directed anyone with questions about visa procedures to the visa-support team through that same FIDE-domain address.That distinction matters. FIDE may not have had the authority to approve a visa, but the published system clearly placed it at the center of coordinating visa support for participants.The question, therefore, is not simply whether FIDE personally issued or rejected visas. It is whether an international federation organizing an event of this scale had an effective enough process to identify potential problems, communicate with participants and local authorities, and resolve exceptional cases before teams and officials began arriving in Samarkand.That becomes particularly important when the people affected include officials expected to participate in the FIDE Congress and election. Vukani Dlamini, for example, is not merely travelling to Samarkand as a chess official. He is the Buettner–Pein ticket’s candidate for FIDE Treasurer and FIDE Council Member. His candidacy was publicly announced in August.Loading tweet…
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The Congress and elections were hardly unexpected events. FIDE announced well in advance that its Congress would take place in Samarkand between September 20 and 27, with the General Assembly and elections scheduled for September 26–27.That makes last-minute visa difficulties difficult to dismiss simply as an unavoidable complication of international travel.For an organization overseeing roughly 200 national chess federations and bringing delegations from across the world to a single location, visas are a predictable logistical challenge. FIDE’s own invitation devoted an entire section to the issue, demonstrating that the federation was well aware of the need for a coordinated process months before the event.FIDE’s response may clarify where the legal authority for issuing visas lies, but it does not by itself answer the broader management question: was the system FIDE helped establish actually capable of ensuring that accredited players, officials and Congress participants could reach the event without last-minute uncertainty?That is now the more uncomfortable issue for the international federation. A global governing body cannot control every decision made by a host country. But it can be judged on its preparation, communication and ability to anticipate problems surrounding an event it has planned for years.And as the Olympiad begins and the FIDE election approaches, the visa controversy risks becoming less a story about immigration bureaucracy and more a test of FIDE’s ability to competently manage its own flagship event.Loading tweet…
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