The Hindu : Visa problems for Indian team

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 14, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Visa problems for Indian team

HYDERABAD OCT. 13. There is an avoidable suspense about the participation of the Indian team in the 35th Chess Olympiad to be held in Bled (Slovenia) from October 25 as the Indian officials are worried about not getting the visas in time for the team take part in the above event.

Slovenia doesn't have an embassy in Delhi and the authorities have expressed doubts about granting visas on arrival at the airport there because "it is too small.''

The joint secretary of All India Chess Federation, Mr. Bharat Singh Chauhan, had to rush to Delhi midway through the World Cup chess championship. He would take up the issue with the External Affairs Ministry to work an alternative of deputing an AICF official to a country where Slovenia has the embassy, preferably England.

In a statement today, the AICF appealed to the External Affairs Ministry to help the Federation so that the Indian team would not miss the chance of taking part in Olympiad where the chess officials are hopeful of finishing among the top teams.

The team: Men: Krishnan Sasikiran, Pentyala Harikrishna, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Abhijit Kunte, R.B. Ramesh, Pravin Thipsay.

Women: S. Vijayalskhmi, S. Meenakshi, Swathi Ghate, Aarathie Ramaswamy.

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