Candidates tournament 2024: Anxious wait for Canadian visas for 4 Indian chess stars; 3 Russians also affected

Two people, who are part of the inner circle of India’s Candidates contenders, this newspaper reached out to said that they had provided their biometrics for visa a couple of months back, but were yet to hear back. None of the players’ representatives wanted to be named.

“The situation is that most of the players — among them, four Indians — who submitted the visa application, haven’t got it. FIDE, along with Canadian Chess Federation and LOC is undertaking every effort. We are being helped by the local lawyer, we sent official letters explaining the urgency. It is down to Canadian authorities — we have reached several ministers and MPs, and we really hope by the end of next week, players either get a visa or at least we get an official confirmation that it will be issued on time,” Emil Sutovsky, CEO of FIDE, told The Indian Express.

What’s FIDE’s Plan B?

He had earlier tweeted that players from four countries had been impacted, including India and Russia. Sutovsky also told The Indian Express that FIDE would be forced to shift the event to another country if there was no headway soon.

“There is a plan B: relocating the event, but we are focused on turning every stone,” he said before adding that the local organisers had sold over 1,000 tickets for the Candidates events in Toronto.

Shifting the Candidates to another country would upset the meticulous plans of all the players, not to mention increase their logistical and financial stress for a tournament that’s anyway one of the most nerve wracking events in the world of chess.

On Twitter, Sutovsky wrote that “posting (about the issue) on social media was not the first step, as one may guess. We are not worried about how it looks — we need to resolve the matter.”

A report in Canada’s Toronto Star noted that as many as 40 people — the players and their entourage members — had applied for a visa for Canada. It quoted Vladimir Drkulec, the president of Canada’s chess federation, as saying that only two people had been issued with visas by the country despite many applying a couple of months back.

It must be noted that Gukesh and Humpy were assured of their spots in the Candidates only at the end of December.

This is the first time that the Candidates tournament for the Open and the Women’s categories is being held side-by-side (from April 3-22 in Toronto). The eight-person field in both categories will play each other twice in a double round robin format. The winner of the open Candidates event will challenge Ding Liren for the World Championship, while the winner of the women’s event will take on China’s Ju Wenjun.

Canada and India have been in a diplomatic standoff recently after Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in Vancouver. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had linked the killing to India, which India vehemently denied. Consequently, Canada removed 41 of their diplomats from India in October. Tensions between the two nations are still simmering. According to figures published in 2023, Canada has about 1.3 million people who are of Indian descent.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, one of the Russians that Canada recently sanctioned was Andrey Filatov, who is the President of the Chess Federation of Russia.

Besides the Indians, three Russian grandmasters are also affected by the visa issue: Ian Nepomniachtchi, a two-time world championship contender, besides Kateryna Lagno and Aleksandra Goryachkina, who will compete in the women’s Candidates tournament.