Chess Olympics about to start in Russia
Maria Domnitskaya
Sep 1, 2010 12:27 Moscow Time
Russia’s Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiisk is prepared to host the 39th World Chess Olympics which is expected to draw almost 1,400 participants from 158 countries.
This year’s novelty, the supercomputer BlueGene, will select 20 most intriguing games and comment on them in three languages via the Internet. For the first time in history of chess tournaments, a woman will become the upcoming Olympics’ chief referee, according to Yugra Governor Natalya Komarova.
Along with the Olympics, Khanty-Mansiisk will play host to the Assembly and the 81st Congress of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, to elect its President and other executive bodies. These two events will be held in the city’s Chess Academy.
The Academy with a total floor space of nearly 3,000 square meters was built specifically for the Olympics by renowned Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat. The building does not have a single sharp corner; its windows resemble giant smiles. After the tournament is over, the Academy will invite the region’s talented young citizens to study chess.
The World Chess Federation started holding biennial chess competitions in 1927. Originally titled The Tournament of Nations, they were renamed Chess Olympics in 1941, with participants competing for the gold Hamilton Russell Cup. All the world chess champions took part in the tournament, just as most of the leading grandmasters. Soviet and later Russian men’s teams won the Olympics 13 times, from the 1974 tournament in Niece to the one of 2002 in Bled. Women’s teams received the trophy 11 times.
This year’s Chess Olympics in Russia’s Khanty-Mansiisk will be held from September 20th to October 3rd.
Source: http://english.ruvr.ru
This will be a great Olympiad.
money talks!