All Indian participants have received their visa approvals for a major international chess tourney, scheduled to be held in April in Toronto. However, whether Toronto will host the event remains uncertain as three players and an official still await their visas.
The 2024 Candidates Tournament, held by the International Chess Federation or Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), is scheduled from April 3 and 23. Described as the “most prestigious tournament in the chess world”, the FIDE Candidates will determine the challengers for the World Champion title in both the Open and Women’s Categories.
The tournament features five Indian players: teen Grandmaster Praggnanandhaa R, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Gukesh D in the Open category and Vaishali Rameshbabu and Koneru Humpy in the Women’s.
Vladimir Drkulec, president of the Chess Federation of Canada, confirmed all of them have had their visas approved and will be able to participate along with those accompanying them along with other Indians like FIDE deputy president and former World champion Viswanathan Anand.
“We are down to ten visas still needing approval. There are no Indians on that list,” he said. However, the visa clearances for the Indians, while a step forward “won’t do any good if we don’t get all the players approved from other countries as the tournament will move to Spain,” he added.
Of the ten visas awaited, three are for participating players and another for an official and those will be necessary to hold the tournament in Toronto.
“I would guess that we have a 50% chance of success. I should know more tomorrow or the next day. We are having issues with getting more attention for this,” Drkulec said.
The deadline for the resolution of the situation is Friday.
On March 1, FIDE had posted an urgent appeal in this regard on X, tagging Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller as well as his department. At the time, FIDE’s director general Emil Sutovsky posted they “won’t replace players for visa issues or postpone the event.”
This will be the first time the nearly 70-year-old tournament is being held in North America and will feature 16 of the world’s finest players.