How chess GMs overcame travel hurdles to reach Kolkata – Hindustan Times

Parham Maghsoodloo was up in the air, literally, when his name was announced at the draw of the rapid competition of the Tata Steel Chess India that will begin here on Wednesday. If all his connections are on time, the 21-year-old Iranian Grandmaster will land at 10:15 am and start against GM Arjun Erigaisi at 2pm at the National Library complex.

If Maghsoodloo, junior world champion in 2018, makes it on time, he and the organisers would also have to thank Florent Aydalot. Now, Aydalot is in no way connected to this $40,000 over-the-table event—the first international chess event in India in the time of the pandemic—but the deputy head of the mission of the French Embassy is a chess fan. And a fan of Maghsoodloo, whose Elo rating is 2706.

“So, he called up the Indian ambassador asking for help to let Maghsoodloo travel,” said one of the officials of Gameplan, the event organisers. Because Covid-19 regulations meant the visa needed clearance from multiple Indian ministries and because weekends in Iran and India are different, the All India Chess Federation too had to work the phones, she said. Yet, when Maghsoodloo went to the Indian embassy in Tehran on Sunday hoping to pick up his visa and travel, it hadn’t arrived. Ditto Monday. Things got sorted on Tuesday so he travelled Tehran-Dubai-Mumbai-Kolkata, expecting to land in India at 4am on Wednesday.

Sam Shankland, the 2018 USA champion, too had gone to the Indian consulate in San Francisco with his bags, aiming to get his passport on way to the airport. “If you had told me on Thursday night that I would be here today, I would have said, that is optimistic,” said the 29-year-old GM.

The consulate in San Francisco needed his passport to be mailed which Shankland did expecting a business visa in seven to 10 working days. The consulate was supposed to mail it back but not having received it till Friday, when he was due to fly, GM Shankland went to pick it up. Only to be told that it had been mailed to his home address. Shankland and his passport were almost like opposite-coloured bishops, never destined to meet. So back he went, got new tickets and flew San Francisco-Dubai-Delhl-Kolkata. He has termed it “the biggest travel nightmare by a country mile” on Twitter.

Shankland and Maghsoodloo’s travails would make 30-year-old Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem’s travel a breeze. “I just missed the Kolkata-Delhi connection,” said the St Louis resident who flew from Chicago. Liem, who won an event here in 2009 and was the world blitz champion in 2013, though said his luggage arrived after he did.

World No 4 Levon Aronian of the USA is the other foreign player in the 10-player rapid and blitz event which will also feature promising Indians such as Karthikeyan Murali, R Vaishali, R Praggnanandhaa along with B Adhiban. Competition ends on Sunday.