 A spokesman said, "we have refused to issue NOCs to around 15 men and women chess players and two officials as currently no chess federation is recognised by us.Issuing them NOCs will mean we’ve accepted an illegal body.” In the end, a team from Pakistan (with its top players) did attend and finished slightly above average.Kenya has had a long running dispute within its federation, and due to this and other reasons (see below) the open team ended up not showing up for the event and the women's team began play only in round 5.