Team India Unable To Get Hotel Rooms at FIDE Olympiad
By Cameron W. · Tue, 15 Sep 2026
India's Olympiad captain Srinath Narayanan has gone public with a logistics breakdown on the ground in Samarkand, posting that the team landed five hours before his tweet with no hotel rooms allocated and no clarity from organizers on when that would change.
India's Olympiad captain Srinath Narayanan has gone public with a logistics breakdown on the ground in Samarkand, posting that the team landed five hours before his tweet with no hotel rooms allocated and no clarity from organizers on when that would change. As of this writing, more than six hours after landing, the team is reportedly still waiting in the hotel reception rather than in their rooms.This is happening on the opening day of the 46th Chess Olympiad, with a record 398 teams and nearly 2,000 players converging on Samarkand for the tournament FIDE has spent months promoting as the largest in the event's history. A defending champion team stuck in a lobby for six-plus hours before play has even begun is not the image the host federation will want attached to that record field.Narayanan's post has already drawn over 4,500 views, and there's reportedly an updated version of his original tweet with further detail not yet reflected here. This is a developing situation rather than a resolved one, worth watching for whether FIDE or the local organizing committee responds publicly, and whether other federations report similar delays.Loading tweet…
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