Tuesday 28 August 2012

2012 Chess Olympiad - Hour 1

I always enjoy the real start of the Olympiad. This is the hour before and after the scheduled starting time. The highlights are seeing chess friends for the first time in 2 or 4 years, meeting new people, and generally getting caught up in the excitement of the occasion. Of course 'getting caught up' also applies to the crowds trying to get into the venue/playing hall, and today was no different. With about 15 minutes to go, it was clear the round was not going to start on time. With 1 entrance, an x-ray machine and metal detector, it was always going to be slow going. Nonetheless the organisers did well to get the games started within half an hour of the scheduled start.
I took the opportunity provided by the delay to take a few photos, which I will put up on the web shortly. Once the games started I looked at a couple of interesting pairings, including Aus v Namibia, the top board games, and of course PNG versus the all GM Bangladesh team.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

By the logic of zero tolerance, all the missing players should have been defaulted. Kirsan griped about players being missing at the scheduled start of the game at past Olympiads. Did he and his supporters not think to look at the security issues?