All India Chess Federation submits guarantee of USD 10 million to host Olympiad

The Olympiad was supposed to take place in Russia, but due to their actions on neighbours Ukraine, they have been sidelined.

Source: Twitter

The All India Chess Federation (AICF), which will be bidding to host the 44th edition of the Chess Olympiad later this year, has submitted its guarantee of USD 10 million to the world body, FIDE. "Yeah, we have submitted the guarantee for the bid amount of USD 10 million to FIDE as part of our bid to host the Chess Olympiad," AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan told PTI on Wednesday (March 2).

The Olympiad was moved out of Russia after it invaded neighbouring Ukraine on February 24. FIDE decided to open the bids after Russia began the military operations against Ukraine. He had earlier said that the AICF would be bidding for the Olympiad this year. The budget for the event would be USD 10 million (about Rs 75 crore), Chauhan had said.

India wants and deserves to host the Chess Olympiad. There is no nation on earth that will do it better. https://t.co/xM7ExnyyOv

— Leon Watson (@LeonWatson) March 2, 2022

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial team event in which teams from some 190 countries compete for honours over a two-week period. The Chess Olympiad 2022 was supposed to take place in Moscow from July 26 to August 8. But the FIDE (the International Chess Federation) decided to move the Olympiad and all other official competitions planned from Russia in the wake of the country's invasion of Ukraine.

The other events that have been moved away from Russia are the first chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities and the 93rd FIDE Congress. FIDE is said to be already working on finding alternative dates and locations for these events.

If India gets the nod to host the Olympiad, it would be the second major world event to be held in the country after the World Championship match in 2013 between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, the current world No.1.