"Food was brought for us from different restaurants, that were about a 45-minute drive away" — Vidit on Difficulties at the Olympiad

Vidit Gujrathi

Indian GM

“On the first day, there was another restaurant that we used to go to. But the problem there was that there used to be a huge queue, and we didn’t even get a place to sit at that point, and the food also took a lot of time.

Plus, many of us are vegetarians, but the utensils and everything used to get swapped between meat and vegetarian, and it was very hard.

Then we told the organizers that this was a problem, and then they offered that for Indians they would arrange a different place where we could also bring our own food, like Indian food, which was arranged by AICF (All India Chess Federation), which was very important for us. Otherwise, it would have been tough.

There used to be a buffet, and AICF had arranged Indian food, plus some food from the hotel as well, whichever we thought was good, like a soup or something. Food was brought from different restaurants here because they were about a 45-minute drive away.

It was not possible for us to go, and there was tight security here in the complex. So, they made some arrangements. A car would go and bring the food. That was very important actually, for nutrition.

One of the main struggles, especially for vegetarians, would be food because of very limited options. So that was very useful, to have Indian food.

The first day was the toughest, with the rooms not getting sorted and then the food. But I think after that the delegation from Uzbekistan also came and met with everyone, and they made sure that things were resolved. And I think after that we had no reasons to complain about the hotel or food.

The first day was just very, very tough, but after that it was good. Kudos to them for taking charge and solving it ASAP.”