Ju Wenjun, the Chinese chess player who got stranded in Gibraltar after finishing the chess tournament last week, is finally on her way back home. The situation was solved on Wednesday afternoon, February 6th.

Ju Wenjun interviewed being interviewed by Gibraltar TV as she prepares to board her flight to London | Photo courtesy of Tradewise Chess Gibraltar

On Wednesday, tournament director Stuart Conquest tweeted:

Ju Wenjun is flying home! Now en route to Heathrow, with later flight to Hong Kong, then connecting to Shanghai. Thanks to all who helped!

We asked Conquest for some details, and he told us that many people helped to solve the issue.

It's fair to say that the successful outcome (which was still unsure until just before the plane took off) was due to support from Gibraltarians both here and also in London.

Ju, China's 3rd female chess player, got stranded in Gibraltar after the tournament finished on Thursday. The next day, British Airways denied her access to the airplane to London because she was lacking a transit visa, something that did not prevent her from reaching Gibraltar. When she arrived in the UK, she showed her airline ticket and without problems she could fly to Gibraltar.

At first the chess player was requested by the authorities to send her passport to London, where they would arrange the transit visa. However, in the end this wasn't necessary and a fair bit of diplomacy solved the issue. Ju Wenjun is on her way back home and she will be able to celebrate Chinese New Year with her family.

We'll finish with a last tweet by Stuart Conquest:

GBC (Gibraltar) television sent a camera-man! Ju was filmed checking in, & gave quick interview. She is a local celebrity here in Gibraltar!