In a major incident, the Indian chess team was left stranded for over five years after their arrival in Samarkand, a city in southeastern Uzbekistan. The Indian team travelled to Uzbekistan for the 46th Chess Olympiad, which begins on Wednesday, and were left without hotel rooms.
The development came to limelight after Grandmaster Srinath Narayanan took to social media to raise the issue. “Having a terrible experience at the @FIDE_chess 2026 . The team landed 5 hours ago at Samarkand airport,” GM Narayanan posted on X.
“The team still haven’t been allotted rooms, with absolutely no clarity on when it’ll be allotted,” he added. Grandmaster also expressed his disappointment over the situation. “Very poor first impressions of the Samarkand, Uzbekistan 2026. Still waiting…,” Gujrathi wrote on X.
The Indian men’s squad features world champion D Gukesh, Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin, and Gujrathi, with GM Narayanan serving as captain. Both the Indian teams of five men and five women each are the defending champions, having won the respective titles in 2024 in a historic achievement.
The women’s team comprises captain Koneru Humpy, R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal, and Savitha Shri B, with Swayams Mishra as the captain.
