The eleventh Children's Olympiad took place in a small city of Doğubeyazıt, located in Ağrı province, a cosy corner lying in Eastern Turkey next to Iranian border. The region is famous from vicinity of the legendary mountain Ararat, which is recorded in the Old Testament to be the place where the Noah's Ark came to rest after the great flood. The playing conditions met highest standards and the players were greeted with hospitality which Turkish chess organisers are well known from. There came 24 teams from 20 countries, including big names like Georgia, Ukraine, China and Hungary. The event is still not enough popular in the Western Europe, just two teams from there arrived (Switzerland and Sweden). We may hope that the future will bring better news.

Hungary were top seeded with massive 2427 Elo, having four titled players at their disposal. Then came Ukraine and Georgia. These trio had reasonable on-the-paper advantage, the intriguing newcomers were Kenyan lads aged around 10, and Merjen Yalkanova, a 9-year-old prodigy girl from Turkmenistan.

The outcome of the tournament was more or less predictable. China took early lead but lost 3½-½ to Ukraine on day five and the Ukrainian team, dominated by players stemming from Lviv city, took over the lead. On the next day they scored a decisive (as future revealed) win vs Hungary, and saw Georgia, another possible contenders losing sen­sa­tio­nal­ly to Uz­be­kis­tan. The way for a win was then cleared; the Ukrainians sealed their supremacy with two big wins over India and Azerbaijan respectively earning decisive 1½ point advantage with just two days to go. Hungary were lying in second, a clear point ahead of Georgia and China. The penultimate round say a true bombshell: Hungary conceded 3-1 the match vs Azerbaijan, a team rated lower by 230 Elo points! Georgia wiped out Sweden 4-0 to creep into second. The Georgians didn't release the reins on the last day steamrolling poor Turkmenistani team with yet another 4-0. Hungary were held by China "B" (another huge disappointment for the top seeds) to stay in shared fourth. China took bronze. Best individual result was achieved by Ukraine's board #3 Yaremko (8½/10). Best Elo performance (2509) was obtained by China's top board Wan Yunguo.

As the games were over, an embarrassing incident happened. Georgian boys, frustrated with their relatively poor display (they dreamed about winning the Olympiad!), got drunk, left without the adult looking after them, and did some damage in the hotel, like breaking the mirrors and trashing appliances. They were all put into arrest for a few hours but were fortunately released soon thereafter.