TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
40th Chess Olympiad Istanbul 2012 (1)
40th Chess Olympiad Istanbul Round 1 2012
Mark Crowther - Wednesday 29th August 2012
The hall is full. Evgeny Miroshnichenko is commentating. Photo from chesstv feed © | http://chesstv.com
The 40th Chess Olympiad Istanbul Round 1 started at 3:22 local time. Some updates below. Live Video - Pairings - Live Games Official. Surprises Tomashevsky held by William Puntier. Sergei Movsesian beaten by Oswaldo Zambrana. Looking through the results I see Tze Meng Mok beat Loek van Wely. I've produced a file of the top 52 games in the round 1 draw the remaining games should appear tomorrow. FIDE have got good broadcasts going in the last few Olympiads but they haven't cracked the biennial round 1 problems. Men's Olympiad top results: DOM 0.5- 3.5 RUS, UKR 4-0 IRQ, BOL 1-3 ARM, HUN 3-1 KGZ, JOR 0-4 USA, CHN 3.5-0.5 ZAM, LUX 0-4 AZE, FRA 4-0 ZIM, MAS 1.5-2.5 NED, AND 0.5 -3.5 ENG, WLS 0-4 IND.
Update 21:20
Ali Nihat Yazici apologises for the broadcast problems for round 1. But this is surely down to the FIDE technical team. Will try and round things up tomorrow.
Update 17:55
Everything has happened in a bit of a hurry and there are many results now in. Russia 3-0 up against Dominican Republic with Tomashevsky still playing against Puntier. Ukraine 4-0 Iraq, Movsesian did indeed lose on top board to Zambrana in Armenia's 3-1 win vs Bolivia. Judit Polgar won in Hungary's 2.5-0.5 score vs Kyrgyzstan. USA beat Jordon 4-0, England are 2.5-0.5 up vs Andorra. Gawain Jones drew against the experienced Oscar De la Riva. Short and Pert both won.
Update 17:00
The live broadcast is going OK, sometimes there have been delays in seeing the moves. The live video has been great although probably they should just concentrate on a few games.
Update 16:50
Sergei Movsesian vs Oswaldo Zambrana. Photo © http://chesstv.com.
Sergei Movsesian looks like he is going to lose to Oswaldo Zambrana (or at the very best draw) although Armenia are probably going to win 3-1 against Bolivia. Russia are working hard against Dominican Republic but probably won't win 4-0. Uktaine should beat Iraq 4-0.
Update 14:55
Press Conference. Photo © http://chesstv.com.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Ali Nizhat Yazici are giving a press conference. They're very pleased at the organisation which indeed looks good. Yazici couldn't resist a dig at the CAS case saying the money could have been better spent on getting 10 more nations to play. Yazici believes Turkey will develop strong players from the many teams competing in the Olympiad.
Update 14:00
Hall day 1 Photo © http://chesstv.com.
We have the first break in the TV Live Video with Evgeny Miroshnichenko. It's very tough to even decide as to what to look at. Russia have Grischuk, Karjakin, Tomashevsky and Jakovenko against the Dominican Republic. Gawain Jones and Nigel Short out against Andorra.
Norway is to host the next Olympiad in Tromso in 2014. The Government apparently paid for this bid. However the Federation can't even afford to send a representative team with any of their GMs. There should have been something in the budget to fund a team with Carlsen and Hammer in Istanbul. It just looks plain rude to turn up with such a weak team once they have won a bid. Norway will certainly be mortified if many teams turn up weak for their Olympiad.
World Champion Viswanthan Anand yet again doesn't play for India. I only look in from the outside but it seems he has terrible relations with his Federation. Russia has a very well funded team but they're under pressure to succeed every time. Kasparov's old second Yury Dokhoian has been brought in to solve things.
View the games on this Page
Download the PGN from this page
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