Thanks to our Greek correspondent Chrysafis Stamoudis we gladly present you a short Olympiads-related interview with Irish top player GM Alex Baburin.

Alexander Baburin - born in 1967 in Russia. IM 1990, GM 1996. Four time Irish Olympic team captain (in 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2004). Peak rating: 2600 (1998). According to himself, his best ever result is Isle of Man Open win with a 8/9 result (2827 performance rating). In 1993 he has moved to Ireland with his family where he has been living until today serving as a coach and a writer (and a national team player, of course). He runs an excellent chess site GrandMaster Square. Read entire Alex's biography here.

Ch.S.: What do you believe your impact was on Irish chess? Do you believe Irish chess improved after the influence of a top class GM like you?

A.B.: I hope my arrival to Ireland in 1993 had a positive impact on the Irish chess in general. The top Irish players got stronger opposition and I hope that learnt something from me. More importantly, I worked with juniors and some of them made good progress - IMs Mark Quinn and Sam Collins are among them. For the past few years I've been working with school children and have introduced chess to over thousand children in Dublin.

Ch.S.: How does it feel to play on board 1 at the Olympiad?

A.B.: I like it - you have pretty tough opposition, even when playing not too strong (chesswise) countries - most countries have 1-2 good players.

Ch.S.: Do you believe the chess Olympiad should be part of the Olympic games?

No. Chess Olympiads are great and I don't think we should try to become part of the Olympics - chess will get lost among other sports. Right now we have lots of countries participating in the chess Olympiad, it is a true chess festival. Within greater Olympic games that will be lost - many countries won't send their chess team.

Ch.S.: Would you agree if the chess Olympiad was played each time in Greece (like proposed in the 1984 and 1988 Olympiads in Thessalonica)?

I think it is better if chess Olympiads take place in different countries.

Ch.S.: Would you comment on the fantastic effort of Hannah Lowry- O'reilly who achieved WFM title in her first BIG tournament scoring 7/10

It was nice to see her succeed. I used to work with her, then my friend Michael Crowe helped her. Now Sam Collins coaches Hannah - obviously all that study work is beginning to paying off.