"Malta was rewarded to host the 24th Chess Olympiad for its efforts to maintain unity and peace within the FIDE, following the successive Haifa events and the shuttle peace talks by Malta's representative between the late Harry Golombek (UK) and Libya where the Counter Olympiad had taken place. This was the first time ever that the greatest chess-team manifestation, the 1980 Olympiad, was held in such a small state with a limited budget but nonetheless a great history. (...)"

Read full text here.

Mario Serracino-Inglott was the head co-organizer of 1980 Olympiad along with Pisano Rossi. Aged 10 he was the youngest ever Junior Champion of Malta. Although he never commited himself to a professional chess career he used to be a true spiritus movens of Maltese Chess. His workoholic lifestyle caused him major health problems that forced him to retire from chess world. Last years he became eminent member of Maltese community devoting himself to popularizing knwledge of Maltese language (he used to be a vice-president of Akkademja tal-Malti) and history, as he wrote a book on three ancient Maltese cities, Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua.

We have prepared a set of five Olympic knowledge quizes for you with 10 questions and 50 answers each, of which only 10 answers are correct. Are you ready to shoot the perfect 10 of each Quiz? We believe all of you have already taken the startup Quiz (The Olympic Scandals, try here). Today we continue our historical voyage with another Quiz and this one is devoted solely to the player-related issues. Ten questions from the history of the Olympiads were asked. Each of them has been supported with 5 hypotheses, four false and a true one. Your job is to extract a drop of a truth from the ocean of lies. Enjoy!

OlimpBase Quiz #3: The Olympic Players

He was born in Baku (Azerbaijani Soviet Republic at the time) on April 13th, 1963 as Harri Weinstein, from Armenian mother and Jewish father. He first began the serious study of chess after he came across a chess problem set up by his parents and proposed a solution to it. When he was 7 his father died and he adopted his mother's surname as soon as was legally possible at the age of 12. His mother's nee was Kasparian and "Kasparov" is the Russianized version of it. He attended famous Botvinnik's chess school and won his first title at Soviet Junior Championship in 1976, aged 13. In 1978 he became a master and decided to commit himself to a professional chess career. His first published ELO ranking was 2595 (in 1979) after excellent performance at GM tournament in Banja Luka.
In 1980 he won the World Junior Championship. On the next World Championship cycle he easily ran into the candidate phase where he ran over Beliavsky, Kortschnoj and veteran Smyslov respectively. In 1984 he faced "Red Tola" from Zlatoust, a Soviet GM Anatoly Karpov in a WCh match.

This one of most memorable WCh matches was set up as best of 11. Karpov took off with excellent 4-0 and it seemed near impossibility for Kasparov to recover even worse that Karpov scored fifth victory soon. But Karpov, having physically weak body, soon fell into serious endurance deficit and was close to total exhaustion. Kasparov made up for a part of a lost ground bringing the score to decent 5-3. Then the match was ended by Campomanes, the head of FIDE and a new match of 24 games was announced to start within a few months.

The second Karpov-Kasparov match in 1985 was quite even both in terms of standard of play and game results and Kasparov went on for a thumping win in the last game to win the match 13-11 and become the youngest ever World Champion at the age of 22. Within next few years he defended his WCh title three times against Karpov. The stand-off lasted until 1993 by which time a new challenger (Short) had qualified through the candidates cycle. Kasparov and Short decided to play their match outside of FIDE jurisdiction and went under auspices of PCA, a professional chess players' association newly created by both players. Kasparov defended his PCA title in 1995 vs Anand before PCA finally collapsed. In 2000 he organised another WCh match, this time under auspices of BrainGames though, and he lost to Kramnik. He played a number of human vs computer matches including a memorable loss vs DeepBlue in 1997 and a spectacular match vs X3D Fritz played at virtual board with use of 3D glasses.

Kasparov sustained his will on playing unification match under FIDE auspices but unfortunately this never came true. Meanwhile he won many major GM tournaments earning reputation of one of most brilliant geniuses in the history of chess.

In 2003 he edited the first volume of his monumental work Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors which he still is working on. The book became total hit winning the title of BCF Book of the Year 2003. His charismatic personality and often showed sense of leadership made it possible for him to exert huge influence on modern chess, both in terms of financial and analytical issues.

Garry Kasparov took part in eight Olympiads starting from Malta 1980 with a gap of 22 years between first and last Olympic game. He represented Soviet Union and Russia four times both and all of his appearances, six of them at board one, gave his team the overall win. Apart from that he won 11 individual medals, including 7 gold. In 1986 and 1988 Kasparov hit the jackpot with a pack of three gold medals, one for overall team performance, one for individual percentage performance and one for best performance rating.

He holds a thumping 64½/82 record with an overall percentage performance of 78.7%. He won 50 games, lost only 3 and drew 29. His last appearance at the Olympiads was in Bled, 2002 where he led Russia to a win achieving an incredible performance rating of 2940.

Thank you Garry for all the joy and magic that you have brought us.
Please do not forget your promise to take part at the Turin Olympiad.

See Garry Kasparov's full Olympic record sheet here.

/ Kasparov's bio was based on Wikipedia - the free internet encyclopaedia. /

Kasparov - Lautier, Moscow 1994 28. Ng4! Resigns (28. ... Qe6 29. Rd8 +-; 28. ... Rxg5 29. Nxe5 Rxh5 30. Rd8+ Ng8 31. Nxf7#) Watch entire game	Kasparov - Nikolic, Manilla 1992 17. Nxg7! Kxg7 18. Qf5 Nf8 19. h4! h6 20. g4 Qc8 21. Qxc8 Raxc8 22. g5 += Watch entire game
Gheorghiu - Kasparov, Thessaloniki 1988 15. ... e4! 16. Nxh5 Nxh5 17. fxe4 f4! 18. Bf2 Bg4 19. h3 Bd7 20. 0-0-0 Be5 21. Kb1 Qf6 with attack Watch entire game	Kortschnoj - Kasparov, Lucerne 1982 17. ... b5! 18. axb5 axb5 19. Naxb5 fxe4! 20. Bxe4 Bd7 21. Qe2 Qb6 22. Na3 Rbe8 23. Bd2 Qxb2 with attack Watch entire game

We are pleased to announce that the 37th Chess Olympiad to be held in Turin, Italy in 2006 has just appeared at the Web. You are welcome to visit http://www.chessolympiad-torino2006.org to watch for details. So far it is still rather beta version with strictly limited information and mostly scattered pieces of information and blurry layout. Moreover, it is only covered in Italian. Anyway, a must-place for bookmarking at your browser's favourites!

We shall follow all the most important details of the forthcoming Olympiad at OlimpBase sub-page. Please find the following site for future visits:

http://2006.olimpbase.org

updates and improvements of OlimpBase, every-day broad coverage of future Olympiads, Chess Olympiads preparations, latest FIDE decisions and regulations, newly discovered documents and articles, and more.

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There has been a lot of controversy over participation of the handicapped teams at the Olympiads. The IBCA team (visually handicapped players) takes part continuously since 1994. Another teams of handicapped players are IPCA (physically handicapped players) and ICSC (the deaf players). Since FIDE aims at IOC membership a controversy arose, whether participation of non-national teams is legitimate according to IOC rules. Below is short extraction of 75th FIDE Congress minutes. Please follow the discussion and let is know what do you think!

W.B.: If you asked me I would support Mr. Makropoulos' views. The handicapped should be trated on equal terms with the rest. There is no reason to lower the entrance threshold for them as if they were separate species. Gens una sumus!

To: OlimpBase Team

Subject: Handicapped players at the Olympiads

Your name:

Your e-mail:

Click HERE to learn what our readers think.

The delegates noted the proposal of Mr. Israel Gelfer in respect of the Affiliated Organisations' participation in the Chess Olympiads (Annex 44).

Mr. Gelfer said that there had been false impressions about this proposal which is meant to protect FIDE Regulations. FIDE, as IOC, is established for the sake of the Federations and not for other organisations. Some ten to twelve years ago we made one exception, where three other affiliated organisations were put to participate in Istanbul Olympiad 2000. Mr. Gelfer said that there had been some oral comments by the IOC that this is in violation of IOC procedure.
(...)
Mr. Reuben said that he respected Mr. Gelfer's position, but that chess has one huge advantage over other sports, that the disabled players could play on absolutely equal terms with non-disabled players.
He said that we should not go back from letting disabled players participate in the Chess Olympiads. It is necessary to emphasise that chess can be played by disabled and not disabled together.
(...)
Prof. Jungwirth supported the comment of Mr. Reuben and said that all disabled persons cannot play football or hockey and for them it is very important to show what they can achieve in playing with normal persons. He proposed to negotiate with the IOC our extraordinary situation and said that the IOC has to understand that chess cannot be put in the same basket with other sports.
(...)
Mr. Al Hitmi said that the proposal of Mr. Gelfer is well sensed. First of all if FIDE wants to become an IOC member, but this can be difficult if we do not comply with the IOC Statutes and regulations. He said that the special team of the disabled players is a violation of the IOC rules, since the Chess Olympiad should be allowing only Federations to participate.
Of course we would be proud to have a disabled player in our Federation's team, if he qualifies to the team through a normal procedure.
(...)
Mr. Kutin said that FIDE is not in a hurry, and we should not be seen just accepting everything coming from the IOC and this will be a shame if they are thrown out of the participation in our main event.
(...)
Mr. Campomanes said that during his tenure he was proud to accept IPCA and then IBCA into the Olympiad participation. He said that this has helped their movement, increased the membership and the quality of their play. He gave an example of this Olympiad, when one of the IPCA players beat a strong Grandmaster.
(...)
Mr. Makropoulos said that the matter is very delicate. These players have our sympathy and he understands delegates that they do not want to be seen to vote against the people who make a great effort in their lives. (...)
He said that only national teams could participate in our event if we want to be in the IOC Olympic Games. Now we have three organisations affiliated, and maybe tomorrow we will accept others. We are in a wrong direction now. He expressed sympathy for the situation, but said that in one moment it will be necessary to take measures. He said that we should have a decision until when we keep this situation.
(...)
Mr. Saleem of US Virgin Islands proposed that this has to be studied more. He said that the disabled are not looking for help, they are looking for a hand. He became handicapped last year and he said that this issue needs more study. He volunteered to be in the Committee.
(...)
Mr. Makropoulos said that the use of the word discrimination is completely wrong and is driving our discussion in a wrong direction. The FIDE Rules are clear; we just say that the disabled can participate in our events, but as members of the federation teams.

General Assembly resolved to study the proposal of Mr. Gelfer regarding the Olympiad participation for a further discussion at the next year Executive Board meeting.

Read full text here

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.

The all-time Olympic statistics are ready (would you ever believe?!) but they are still full of bugs of all kind. Players names' spelling is perhaps most sensitive point. The Olympic bulletins and other printed sources provide low-quality data regarding the spelling. So it is only up to you whether our database will get rid of errors and cavities.

Please note there is number of ways the non-Latin alphabets could be transliterated into English. For Cyryllic-related alphabets we have used one of most popular and worldwide accepted methods. Unfortunately we are not able to provide uniform and consistent way of translation. Your remarks on the issue would be especially useful.

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P.S. Due to by far the most popular demand we have started completing Women's Olympiads data. Please be patient, this will last for a few months so don't forget to come back one day to check for updates! Please send us any data related to the following events (the bulletins and team line-ups are most valuable sources): Emmen 1957 (no bulletin for this event available so it seems sheer impossibility to complete this one, but never say never), Lublin 1969, Split 1972, Medellin 1974, Lucerne 1982.