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.

Please find pull-down menu below to chose your home country (and other countries as well -- if you can help about them) and scan the data that appears next after you select the desired country. There is our contact email at the very bottom of each page to make e-mailing us as easy as only easy can be. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

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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.

Today we have something special for you as we have prepared an extensive listing of Chess Olympiads' records and summaries. The data have been split into four separate parts: the miscellanea, the game records, the all-time records and the ELO trivia, respectively. The content is the following:

- World Champions at the Olympiads;
- Longest and shortest games;
- Most unusual opening lines seen at the Olympiads;
- Most unusual positions that occurred in the course of the games;
- Uncommon endings;
- Most Olympic appearances, games played, points scored, games won;
- Match results summary;
- Biggest game and match upsets;
- ELO distribution skewness test
- and many, many more.

Please read the Chess Olympiads' Trivia file.

http://1994.olimpbase.org and find your home country there to scan for errors. I believe this is the only way to get rid of all the bugs.

See also:
Manila 1992 -- http://1992.olimpbase.org
Yerevan 1996 -- http://1996.olimpbase.org
Elista 1998 -- http://1998.olimpbase.org
Istanbul 2000 -- http://2000.olimpbase.org
Bled 2002 -- http://2002.olimpbase.org
Calvia 2004 -- http://2004.olimpbase.org

The experienced chess swashbuckler Ivanchuk and five kids proved superior to the rest of the world. The exciting games of the 36th Chess Olympiad are over leaving shocked world in a suspense. The Ukrainians ran over the whole event undefeated and the world held their breath waiting how long would that bonanza last. Sorry for the rest -- the Olympiad finished prior to Ukraine's streak.

Here's concise summary of the top teams of the memorable (and already historical, would you believe?) Calvia Olympiad:

1. Ukraine - everything what could be said had already been said about the Ukrainian dream team. Not only Ivanchuk and superb Kariakin overperformed but also Volokitin and Elianov did excellent job. Apart from Ponomariov maybe they had no blind spots inside the team. No one but Ukraine deserved gold.

2. Russia - a silver would be a dream place for everyone but the Russians, who won six consecutive Olympic championships before. Many believe with Kasparov and Kramnik in the pool they would stay unstoppable but still without K's duo their average ELO was several notches above Ukraine - and not enough for gold. They played as they were expected to, so just a bad luck for them!

3. Armenia - the veteran Vaganian was their star earning 25 ELO points and providing his team with 7 wins and 6 draws (no loss!). Another notable performances were produced by Aronian and Lputian. Akopian came late (he was Leko's second) and didn't score exceptionally well. Although this is not major surprise still a huge success for tiny Armenia to enjoy their third ever Olympic bronze.

4. USA - the veteran team of Soviet expatriates were condemned to a calamity by many. But they surprised all with their vivid chess. Kaidanov played as if he was in his prime. Other weren't much behind. Hadn't only Armenia hammered Georgia in the very last round in dubious circumstances it could have been even better for US!

5. Israel - they aimed at first ever Olympic medal but unexpected round 6-7 crash threw them far away of medal zone. Avrukh attained most noticeable score. Gelfand was too defensive heading towards draw all the time. 5th is not bad, but perhaps a little disappointing for 3rd seeds.

6. India - that's by far their best ever performance but still with Madras tiger Vishy Anand at board 1 they were hoping for more. Anand did what he was expected to do but the rest of the pack proved too weak to pave way into top 3. Ganguly and Sasikirian did well and Harikrishna's spirits sagged after halfway gong.

7. Cuba - they are definitely the discovery of the event. Seeded down in 20th they weren't expected to do as good as they did. Not only their final position is excellent, but also it is fully deserved success achieved after series of matches vs top teams. The team was firmly lead by reliable duo Dominguez & Bruzon with support coming most frequently from Arenciba's side. Their 4-0 vs Slovenia was the biggest upset of the event according to ELO table!

8. Netherlands - final position is decent, but not the play. They were very lucky to get that high, only thanks to ultimate round win. Van Wely lost as much as 3 games and Sokolov came late, although he scored 4/5 with a terrific ELO performed of 2790. Tiviakov was a disappointment.

9. Bulgaria - another minnow among giants. They quickly recovered from round 4 debacle making it top 10 without much problems. They relied on Georgiev and Delchev mainly. Who knows what if Topalov was in?

10. Spain - the host nation simply deserved a top 10 place. The first half of the Olympiad proved successful, but then a nightmare came. With one round to come they quickened the pace to sneak into top 10. Shirov was exceptionally badly shaped but Paco Valleco's play compensated that with interest. Illescas' performance was also notable.

Apart from those the following have to be noted:
* Poland down in disappointing 12th,
* FIDE WCh Kasimdzhanov scoring an impressive 2799 to boost Uzbekistan's final ranking up to 14th,
* Germany's 16th, remember Istanbul's silver medal!
* The Philippines up in 19th (40th seed!),
* Romania down in 20th, their top star Nisipeanu scored =10-1 (no comments out of pity for him),
* Georgia in 21st after awful ½-3½ in the last round vs Armenia; some claim the match hadn't been fair. Jobava won two individual gold medals,
* Azerbaijan teens down in 22nd -- perhaps too tiring for them to keep concentration for 14 rounds,
* France lying only in 23th -- but no Bacrot,
* China in 24th, still hunting for first ever medal for Asia,
* England and Hungary in 30th and 31st respectively. R.I.P.

Some Olympic trivia:
* Most points scored: Ermenkov (PLE) - 10½
* Most games won: Ermenkov and Anya Corke (HKG - a woman!) - 9
* Most games drawn: Sasikirian (IND) and Morovic (CHI) - 11
* 100% score: Forster (SUI) - 2 games; Lyong (FIJ) - 1 game
* Most matches won: Russia - 11; matches drawn: Iceland - 7; matches lost: Seychelles - 12.
* Most games won: Ukraine - 27; then Morocco (!), Bangladesh (!!) and Armenia - 23; most draws: France - 37; least losses: Russia & Ukraine - 4.
* Overall ELO performed: Ukraine 2755, Russia 2700, Armenia 2680, Israel 2664, USA 2659, India 2653.

Visit our Calvia page: http://calvia.olimpbase.org (now all the games are in and the all-time statistics have been updated too!)