The 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand opened on September 15, with the first round held on September 16. Even before the games began, organizers had to deal with problems involving accommodation and entry visas. Some teams were unable to get hotel rooms immediately, individual participants had to find accommodation on their own, and some FIDE Congress delegates had not received visas by the start of the competition.
The accommodation problems became public on September 15, the day of the Olympiad’s opening ceremony. One of the teams affected was India’s — the defending Olympic champion and one of the leading teams in this year’s tournament.
Srinath Narayanan, captain of India’s men’s team, wrote on X that five hours after the team landed at Samarkand airport, its members still had not been given hotel rooms.
“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.”
At the time of publication, Narayanan’s post had received more than 276,000 views.
A similar situation was reported by Austrian grandmaster Felix Blohberger:
“Same here, we arrived yesterday at 6a.m. at the hotel and our captain got his room at 1:30p.m.”
Indian media also reported that the problem was addressed after the intervention of the All India Chess Federation. Shortly afterward, Alisher Sadullaev, First Vice Chairman of the Uzbekistan Chess Federation, wrote on X that rooms had been allocated to all members of the Indian team.
“All the Indian team members had the rooms allocated and the rest of the Olympiad will be on a positive note.”
Thus, the specific accommodation problem affecting the Indian team was resolved. But the issue did not end there: on September 16, FIDE issued a separate official statement acknowledging that accommodation problems had affected several teams.
FIDE promises to reimburse accommodation costs
In its statement on accommodation issues at the 2026 Chess Olympiad, FIDE said that shortcomings in accommodation arrangements on the first day of the Olympiad had left some teams without proper lodging and forced them to rent rooms in the city at their own expense.
FIDE announced that all teams that had to find their own accommodation would be reimbursed for the cost of lodging of an appropriate standard for up to three days. In addition, teams forced to stay in official hotels that did not meet FIDE-approved standards would receive additional compensation.
“FIDE deeply regrets that these organizational problems occurred and apologizes to the affected federations and teams.”
FIDE also stressed that accommodation falls within the responsibility of the local Organizing Committee and is outside FIDE’s authority. Nevertheless, the federation said it had found additional financial resources to ensure that participants would not suffer financial losses because of the problems.
This was no longer an individual athlete’s complaint on social media: the international federation had officially acknowledged shortcomings in accommodation arrangements and taken on financial obligations toward the affected teams.
Anand acknowledges problems with hotels, accreditation and visas
The difficulties had already been discussed at the official Olympiad press conference on September 15.
FIDE Interim President Viswanathan Anand explicitly referred to several types of problems, including not only accommodation but also accreditation and visas.
“I would like to acknowledge that there have been certain problems that have cropped up, such as the accommodation for participants, accreditation, visas – some teams are having trouble. I just wanted to mention that we are working very hard together with the local organising committee to address these problems. They have already resolved a lot of issues, and I hope that we can resolve the remaining ones as quickly as possible.”
The statement is significant for another reason: FIDE’s leadership acknowledged the accommodation and visa problems before the first round began, rather than only after participants’ complaints had spread on social media.
Visa problems put the FIDE Congress at risk of relocation
On September 16, the FIDE Council issued a separate statement on visa problems.
According to FIDE, a number of players and FIDE Congress participants had not yet received the necessary visas. They included delegates entitled to vote in the upcoming elections, as well as Benard Wanjala, a member of FIDE’s highest executive body, the FIDE Council.
The FIDE Council said it was confident that the technical issues would be resolved, but stressed that the Congress could only take place under conditions in which all people entitled to participate and vote could exercise their rights.
The statement included a specific warning: if the rights of delegates and FIDE Council members were not protected and guaranteed, the Council would consider relocating the Congress to different dates and another location.
“The Congress can be held only under conditions in which all persons entitled to participate and vote can exercise their right.”
The issue was therefore no longer limited to inconvenience for individual Olympiad participants. It potentially affected the holding of the FIDE Congress itself and the participation of voting delegates.
Visa problems also affected Namibia
A separate problem arose for the Namibian team.
According to The Indian Express, two players on Namibia’s men’s team were denied visas after arriving in Tashkent. As a result, the team was left with only three available players and had to find a solution immediately before the competition began.
The situation reached the point where Namibia had to register women’s team coach Leonhard Mueller and Chess Federation of Namibia president Charles Eichab in the men’s team.
This shows that the visa problems were not limited to FIDE Congress delegates.
At the same time, the two situations should be distinguished. In the case of FIDE Congress delegates, the federation itself officially reported visa problems and the possibility of relocating the Congress. The Namibian case was reported by the media as a separate incident involving two players who were denied visas upon arrival. The reasons for the refusals were not explained in the report.
A record-sized tournament
All this is taking place against the backdrop of the largest Chess Olympiad by field size.
According to FIDE, nearly 400 teams have been confirmed across the two main competitions: 208 in the Open section and 192 in the women’s section according to the published FIDE lineups. In its official first-round report, however, FIDE listed 207 Open teams and 191 women’s teams — apparently referring to the teams actually registered when the first round began. In any case, the current tournament has surpassed the 2024 Budapest Olympiad, which had 380 participating teams.
At the same time, Samarkand is hosting the third FIDE Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities. It began before the main Olympiad, and on September 16 the two Olympiads were taking place simultaneously.
For Uzbekistan, this is one of the largest international sporting projects in recent years. At the official press conference, Alisher Sadullaev said preparations for the Olympiad had continued for four years and that organizers were simultaneously staging three major events: the main Olympiad, the Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities and the FIDE Congress.
The first round went ahead as scheduled
Despite the problems, the first round of the main Olympiad began on September 16 at 3 p.m. local time. According to FIDE’s official report, Uzbekistan defeated Jamaica 4–0 in the Open section, while India beat Thailand 3–1. In the women’s section, Uzbekistan defeated Trinidad and Tobago.
India won its opening match, although there was a surprise on the top board: Arjun Erigaisi, playing White, lost to Thailand’s Prin Laohawirapap. India nevertheless won the match 3–1.
The problems that emerged before the start therefore did not lead to the first round being disrupted. The Indian team’s accommodation was restored, FIDE promised to reimburse teams that had to find their own lodging, and the visa problems affecting FIDE Congress participants were brought to the federation’s official agenda.
But the first two days of the Olympiad have already highlighted the gap between the scale of the event and the way it began for some participants. Samarkand is hosting a record-sized chess competition, yet the first international reports from the tournament were not only about chess, but also about hotels, visas and the organization of participants’ arrival.
How quickly and fully the remaining organizational problems are resolved will now be watched alongside the tournament itself. For the organizers, that means international chess attention over the coming days will be focused not only on the results of the games but also on the issues that FIDE has already officially acknowledged.
