The Olympiad kicks off in 3 weeks, although for various reasons, it still seems like months away for me. Having got visa's organised, flights booked and teams registered, I've been putting of thinking about the actual tournament for a couple of weeks. Not helping is the uncertainty over some aspects of the event, such as accommodation for the teams. Unlike previous Olympiads we haven't been told which hotel we are staying in, and the rumour mill has it that university accommodation may be what we get instead. The charter flight times also keep changing, although I may not be as inconvenienced as some.
What I do find surprising is that 160 teams are playing in the Open competition, which will be a record. Given the difficulty in getting to the host city, both in terms of travel and permission, this shows a level of organisation that national chess federations aren't usually noted for. Of course who actually shows up on the day may be a another matter entirely.
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5 comments:
Why couldn't FIDE have been more practical about the location? Seems like its all been a bit of a hassle. Peter
Venues are voted for by the member countries. The majority chose this one!
Was this a political choice ??
Shaun,
Have you seen this report by GM Alex Baburin re-reported at Denis Monokroussos blog?
http://www.thechessmind.net/blog/2010/9/1/olympic-sized-problems.html
Any thots/comments?
I have, and have been privy to some of the discussions mentioned in the post. The real difficulty in awarding the Olympiad to Khanty was that problems like these are quite difficult to solve. Holding in more accessible destinations give teams more options re travel and accommodation (ie often leading teams passed on supplied accommodation and chose their own hotels).
Bermuda is in an unfortunate position as the other leading figure in their chess scene, Nigel Freeman, is the FIDE treasurer, and consequently they have been a very public backer of Kirsan. This means (IMHO) that any complaints they have can simply be ignored by FIDE as their vote is already in the bag!
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