Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Istanbul Olympiad - some facts

1. Each team that participates in the olympiad have to pay a registration fee of Euro 270.

2. Each team is allocated three (3) double rooms. Since each team consists of five players and one captain, this should fit nicely, no? But what if the ladies team captain is male? Note this is not that unusual.
    The host organization suggests that the male captain can share a room with the male captain from another federation. Of course, than the remaining female player will also share a room with the corresponding federation's player.
    Alternatively they can ante up a Euro 100 per night for one of the persons in the double room to upgrade to a single room. Sounds like a good deal until you read the part where it says "remaining person in double room will be given by organisers a room mate from another federation".

3. Norway does not have any grandmasters in their team. What? No Carlsen? How about Ludwig Hammer or Simen Agdestein? Nope. All IMs team. Maybe the Norwegian Chess Federation wanted the players to pay their own airfare and all the grandmasters felt insulted.

This is Norway's board composition -



4. To date, 160 teams have registered for the open event. Compare this to 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk which had 148.