The votes have been tallied and Turkey won the 2012 bid to host the Chess Olympiad. The final count was 95 for Istanbul (Turkey), 40 for Budva (Montenegro), and 1 no vote.

It will be held in Istanbul in 2012. Mr. Ali Nihat Yazici, President of the Turkish Chess Federation, in a press conference with me 2 nights ago, promised that it will be the best Olympiad ever! In addition, Mr. Yazici added that Turkey will have about a 10 million Euros dedicated to the 2012 Chess Olympiad.

/ posted on Susan Polgar's blog /

Interestingly, Turkey and Mr. Yazici's win was by far easier than his recent struggle to retain TCF presidency. Congratulations Turkey and the whole chess world keeps its fingers for your success. Knowing of your passion and hospitality we rest assured you are able to meet highest standards and host exciting event.
On the other hand, it's been second time in a row when Montenegro lost the Olympiad run (2010 went to Russia). Obviously world's youngest independent state needs a third strike and they certainly deserve their place in the history. Go Montenegro!

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Olympiad Medal Watch - who can win which medal?

The rest day before the early-morning last round (10:00 CET) is a good moment to summarize top teams' chances on grabbing medals. In the open section, Armenia, Ukraine and China have leaped forward after winning the penultimate round. Gold and silver-medalists from the 2006 Turin Olympiad, Armenia and China, will conveniently match eachother in the last round to directly participate in the medal distribution. And while Armenians are holding the destiny in their own hands, as the win will certainly bring gold medal thanks to superior additional criteria compared to Ukraine, China has to win to secure "at least" bronze medal. Would there be more, it pretty much depends on the results of Ukraine and Israel.

Ukraine is paired against the storming USA, who were already written-off by the AP journalist. Win guarantees at least silver, while 2-2 tie will be at least bronze - or silver if Israel doesn't win, or gold if in addition China knocks Armenia down. Turin-bronze USA can take bronze if: Armenia beats China, USA beats Ukraine, Israel loses to Netherlands, Russia-Spain finishes in 2-2 and 26 points in the first tiebreak of Netherlands somehow vanish (which includes too many other teams as variables).

Israel is well positioned thanks to the fantastic first tiebreak and they could even claim gold if they win and both Armenia and Ukraine lose. Win in any case brings at least bronze. Russia can still climb on the stage if they beat Spain, Israel loses (or draws, but then it will be tight on TB2) and China doesn't win. Netherlands is in similar position, but they also need Russia not to win.

Women section

In the women section, the 9th-seeded Poland is alone on the top with one round to go. This fantastic result can appear surprising only to those who don't know the fantastic friendship and spirit inside this team. Even in the individual tournaments, as we witnessed in Nalchik, Polish women would closely follow and provide moral support to their compatriots. Poland is paired against Ukraine, seeded 2nd, and is enjoying the luxury of being in commanding position. Draw against Ukraine would be gold unless Georgia beats Serbia, in which case Poland takes silver (TB2). Even a defeat, which they probably don't even think of, might be a bronze, but only if Russia and USA don't win, which wouldn't really be a safe bet.

Ukraine will defend 2006 Olympiad gold if they beat Poland. In case of a draw, they win silver if Georgia-Serbia is also tied, otherwise it will be a bronze. Georgia is adding steam as the tournament progresses, having signed four consecutive wins, three of which were maximum 4-0. If they win tomorrow, and Poland draws, this will be the first team gold medal since 1996, when China took over. If Poland-Ukraine is decided, a win is certain silver. A draw against Serbia significantly complicates matters, as USA might surpass them with the unpredictable TB2.

Serbia has no other choice but to beat Georgians if they want a medal. If, in addition, Poland outplays Ukraine, that would be a silver, otherwise a bronze is guaranteed. Draw brings bronze only if Ukraine loses, and USA and Russia don't win. USA and Russia could win and sneak in for a bronze if Ukraine loses, but Russia also has weaker tiebreaks and they need USA not to win against France.

/ taken from Chessdom.com /

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Ho Meng Wei of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) made history by playing his debut Olympiad game at 7 years, 11 months and 12 days. He has broken previous documented record by more than 3 years.
Unfortunately he lost his first game in round 2 vs M.Siban of Suriname.

It has to be stressed that Chinese Taipei was only admitted to FIDE back in 2004 and has virtually no chess tradition. There are just 19 rated players (the top one is merely 2165) and Meng Wei is one of them rated 1550. So far he had played in three FIDE rated tournaments, the first one was V Open Int. Ayuntamiento in Pontevedra, Spain where (at six!) he had scored 2.5/8. He also took part in the recently concluded World Youth Chess Championship in Vietnam, but he did poorly scoring just 4.5/11 in U8 Open section.

So far Meng Wei scored 0/2 in Dresden and is sill looking for his first spoils.
Ho Meng Wei's Olympiad card
Ho Meng Wei's FIDE ID (where he incorrectly appears as Ho Men-Wei)
Interview on the official Olympiad site mentioning Meng Wei

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Only two weeks after Vishy Anand became World Champion in Bonn, we are going to witness another big chess event in Germany. The start of the 38th Chess Olympiadhas been given at the opening ceremony in Dresden today. The hall looked impressive, full of representatives of a record number of participating nations and a crowd of journalists.

Very similar to the Beijing Olympics model, the Olympiad in Dresden started at 8:08. One after the other on the scene came singers, cheerleaders, ice skaters, drum bangers, and many more performances. Every country in the Dresden Olympiad was represented by German school children in the Opening Ceremony. All of the children who carried the flags and country names are chess players who qualified to be at the opening ceremony through a series of tournaments.

The FIDE President Kirsan Ilymzhinov could not attend the opening ceremony. As many Russian sources informed his car was involved into a car accident on the way to the airport. The reports state that Mr. Ilymzhinov did not suffer important injuries. The Chessdom team wishes him a fast recovery.

/ taken from www.chessdom.com website /

Official results site
Mig Greengard's The Daily Dirt Chess Blog
All ChessBase.com reports
Download Olympiad TV viewer. It's free!
The Chess Drum. Black players at the Olympiad

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As expected, experienced Russian team won their fourth ever trophy in the XIIIth Olympiad for Blind and Visually Impaired Players held 16th-24th October 2008 in Heraklion, Crete. Ukraine took silver ahead of surprise Spain. Incumbent Poland came in unlucky fourth.

With 164 players from 34 countries representing all four continental federation the 2008 Olympiad was the biggest event ever held under auspices of IBCA. The Olympiad took place in the beautiful Crete. The playing conditions and the atmosphere were very good.

Team Russia were impregnable from the very start. They took clear first place with 8 wins and one draw. Ukraine fought hard for second stopping Poland with a victorous 2-all draw in the last round. Spain fortunately sneaked in between the two to take their first ever Olympic medal. The best individual result was achieved by three players including a woman: WIM L.Zsiltsova-Lisenko, R.C.Hengles and S.Udupa (8/9).

It is important to point the brand new, official FIDE tie-breaking system was used for the first time. It looks good job at first glance.

official website :: tournament info :: full results

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Let me start with a brisk question. Imagine your are brilliant chess talent originating from Northern Ireland. Which federation will FIDE allow you to play for? The home one? Obviously not, that one isn't FIDE member. Great Britain, UK? None of these actually exists. England? They won't accept your application. The answer actually is Ireland. Yes, different federation, different country. An obvious absurd, but not for FIDE bureaucracy who consistently express their fear of avalanche of requests from partly recognized quasi-states once Ulster's application would be accepted. Indeed, contemporary FIDE rules do not allow non-IOC federations be admitted, but there have been many in the past who had once been accepted and nobody ever have thought of kicking them out. Guernsey, Jersey and Faroe Islands are just a few examples standing in stark contrast with Northern Ireland's impotence.

Here's excerpt from 77th FIDE congress in Turin, May 2006:
(...) Mr Makropoulos said that the [Ulster] application was received. The Secretariat stopped it. In our statutes it is stated that there should be one Federation per country. Great Britain is the only exception. Scotland, Wales, Jersey and Guernsey were admitted before the Statutes were changed. We decided not to open membership to more than one federation per country. If we open to Ulster then we will have to start the discussion for other countries like Russia or US. If the General Assembly decides to have a discussion we should decide whether to open to all countries that apply.
Otherwise we should stop this discussion. In any case it is not in the agenda. (...)

GM Nigel Short, famous from his affection to withdraw all UK federations from FIDE and create all-British chess federation says the following:
"In 2005 the anachronistically named British Chess Federation finally acknowledged reality by becoming the English Chess Federation. The piecemeal disintegration of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland began at the Folkestone Olympiad in 1933, when a Scottish team made its first appearance alongside the BCF team, possibly, in that depressed era, to bolster the numbers in an otherwise underrepresented event. The remaining UK glue held together until the Skopje Olympiad of 1972, when the Welsh dragon breathed its fiery flame in the international arena. Guernsey and Jersey followed later still.

The Ulster Chess Union's application to join FIDE was shelved at Turin this year. The motive for this rebuff is transparently one of crude political expediency. Either FIDE must insist on a single UK federation (unpalatable for the powers that be, as it would ruffle feathers and cost votes), or it should allow all constituent parts of the country to become members. Dispassionately speaking, you cannot pick and choose in such circumstances; alas, logic rarely counts when vested interests are at stake."

Chess players from Ulster cannot get how it all comes about. It might be understandable that there should be one British team, not four. But once everybody split up many years ago there is no reason to keep the remaining piece in detention. Here's what David McAllister, chess historian and UCU chronicler writes:

"FIDE should stop this absurd stance that treats Northern Ireland like a vassal state of the Irish Republic when in fact they their nationhood has long been independent. FIDE should grant the one remaining part of the UK representation when it has already done so for the other three (England, Scotland and Wales). Indeed England has relinquished any pretence it had to represent the other Home nations by dropping the word British in favour of English in its federation title. Note Jersey and Guernsey are not part of the UK but are British dependencies. Let FIDE explain why they feel unable to complete a process they allowed to happen for the other British nations and why we should be in servitude to a foreign chess federation."

More readings are available here: ChessBase, ChessBase part 2

The forthcoming FIDE congress might be a turning point. This is what you can do to express your support:
- add comment below with your letter of support
- vote in our poll (on the right)
- send FIDE e-mail expressing your position webmaster@fide.com
- if you are a delatage or an official you may lobby it through FIDE authorities
- deliver fiery speech at the FIDE Congress

Please contact Ulster Chess Union for details. This is how they see the issue.

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