Breaking news, Athens, April 1st, 2013 Shocking news come from FIDE secretariat in Athens. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE president, revealed FIDE Board most surprising decision on Monday. The press conference was held, where Mr. Ilyumzhinov relucantly admitted that the Chess Olympiads, the oldest, biggest and most prestiguous event in the chess world cease to exist.

- That was nothing like an easy challenge, be we were left no choice - explained Ilyumzhinov with a sad voice. - Chess Olympiads means almost 100 years of tradition, but they are simply too big and too expensive to match contemporary expectations. We just cannot afford it. Maybe 20 or 30 teams send professionals to the Olympiads. But how about the rest? They are just too weak to take care.

- But that's not all - Ilyumzhinov statement becomes more offensive - to me it no more makes any sense to organize "top-level" worldwide events. Look what these guys are doing?! Carlsen and Kramnik claim to be WCh contenders and they lose badly game by game. They were both overpowered in the last round of the Candidates. This could never happen in the era of the Soviet Union. I'm quite disguised with the level of play. Computers make humans think less and play more automatically. We have to consider longer time controls. -

The decision on wiping out the Olympiads from the chess calendar is effective at once. That means there will be no Olympiad in Tromsoe in 2014 nor in Azerbaijan in 2016. The organizers have not yet expressed their position on the issue.

So it seems that the series lasted for 85 years (1927-2012). It has not been yet decided whether the Hamilton-Russel cup would stay in Armenia, the recent champions, forever.

See the all-time summary of R.I.P. FIDE Chess Olympiads



Update April 2nd - April Fools' Day! The Olympiads are and will be continued hopefully forever. Stay calm and smile :):)