Moves India made to host Chess Olympiad when it was pulled out of Russia

The Chess Olympiad, being hosted in India for the first time, will see 2,000-plus players from over 185 countries

On the train back home after the Nationals in Kanpur in February, All India Chess Federation’s (AICF’s) Bharat Singh Chauhan, satisfied at the high quality competition he'd seen the past few days, decided to take a punt. The Nationals were proof that Indian chess was world-class. Feeling particularly upbeat, he sent the International Chess Federation (FIDE) President Arkady Dvorkovich a text saying India was open to hosting international events in the future.

Dvorkovich’s reply caught him by surprise. It simply read: “Chess Olympiad?” Thrown off completely — because the Olympiad was already scheduled to be held in Moscow — Chauhan