Seventeen-year-old Indian chess prodigy Md Imran is just one Grandmaster norm away from the coveted title, but a US visa crisis threatens his full scholarship at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley. After losing his passport and visas in Slovakia, he faces mounting family debt, bureaucratic hurdles and a January 2027 deadline that could derail his chess and academic dreams. Seventeen-year-old Indian chess prodigy Md Imran is just one Grandmaster norm away from the coveted title, but a US visa crisis threatens his full scholarship at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley. After losing his passport and visas in Slovakia, he faces mounting family debt, bureaucratic hurdles and a January 2027 deadline that could derail his chess and academic dreams.
