2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad

[Nigel Hanrahan]

dirty politics around the Tromso Chess Olympiad

So, to summarize ...

Garry Kasparov: "I cannot explain the bizarre statements of FIDE vice-president Israel Gelfer. What would I or the Norwegian organizers have to gain from excluding the celebrated Russian women’s team?"

Seems pretty obvious.

Wayne K: "The Russian news agency Itar-Tass revealed the list of teams excluded from the 2014 Tromso Chess Olympiad: Cambodia, Central African Republic, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Oman, Pakistan, Senegal (Men's teams); Women: Russia, Afghanistan; making a total of nine teams, all supporting FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in the coming elections according to the agency."

Mind you, it could just be an unlucky "coincidence" that all nine teams just happen not to support Kasparov.

Let's be clear. It isn't just not being able to play in Tromso. It is also not being able to vote in the upcoming FIDE Presidential election.

Let me make a prediction: if the nine really are prohibited from playing chess, I predict that we will hear about the "abuse" of proxy voting (by the nine countries) in the lead-up to the vote. There will be noisy reference to "obeying the rules" and "being fair to everyone" but at the end of the day anyone with the ability to see two move combinations will see through the Kasparovian nonsense.

Talk about dirty politics. What a revolting stench.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: Re : 2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad

Does your country's team have to be playing in the Olympiad for the country to have a vote? I would have assumed all FIDE member federations (whose dues etc. are up to date) have a vote.

[Sasha Starr]

Re: dirty politics around the Tromso Chess Olympiad

It is amazing that all Federations supporting Kasparov filed their registration documents on time.
But, curiously enough, ALL nine teams failing to do so, happened to support Ilyumzhinov!
Perhaps they were so busy supporting their leader, that were unable to comply with registrations' deadline!

[Nigel Hanrahan]

dirty politics at the 2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad

Does your country's team have to be playing in the Olympiad for the country to have a vote? I would have assumed all FIDE member federations (whose dues etc. are up to date) have a vote.

They have to be in Tromso to actually vote, don't they? Alternately, they might be allowed a proxy vote by FIDE.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Re : 2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad

It seems like there is difficulty obtaining visas for some of the teams. Norway doesn't seem to be organized to allow the teams of all the nations easy access. I wonder if they worry about asylum seekers.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: dirty politics at the 2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad

Moving it to Sochi just became more difficult. A Malaysian passenger airliner, with more than 290 aboard was just shot down over Ukraine (from current news reports). All passengers and crew lost.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Malaysian plane crash

Moving it to Sochi just became more difficult. A Malaysian passenger airliner, with more than 290 aboard was just shot down over Ukraine (from current news reports). All passengers and crew lost.

Horrible. BTW, that is the same sort of aircraft that was famously and recently lost on the way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

The whole Ukrainian crisis has been described as a false flag operation, so it would not surprise me if the regime in Kiev (with help from its backers) staged this to blame the rebels and/or Russia. The news the last few days has changed from a steady stream of ethnic cleansing in eastern Ukraine to more of a stand-off.

Both Kiev and the opposition deny involvement in the incident.

Sochi was very safe for the Olympic Games and Para-Olympic Games just held there. If the Black Sea port is safe enough for the fleet of NATO ships patrolling there, then it should be safe enough for a chess tournament. But, of course, it would be better for all the problems in Tromso to be worked out and stick with the current venue.

[Miroslav Stefanovic]

Re: Re : 2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad

Its unlikely that they worry about several hundred chess players seeking asylum. Most likely they're just sticklers for the rules. Something like Germany. This is the rule, and this is how we do it. No exceptions.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Malaysian plane crash

Horrible.
But, of course, it would be better for all the problems in Tromso to be worked out and stick with the current venue.

Do you see anything which indicates to you the problems can be worked out? I don't.

Norway has oil and gas interests in Canada and the U.S. As you know, nations don't have friends. They have interests.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Malaysian plane crash

Do you see anything which indicates to you the problems can be worked out? I don't.

I'm still hopeful that things can be worked out.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The events in Ukraine, OTOH, are in constant danger of spiraling out of control. The latest has RT (Russian media) claiming that the plane of President Putin may have been the target for a Ukrainian missile. Some may say it's just Russian "spin". I hope that's all it is, frankly. Targeting a Head of State could start WWIII.

Malaysian Airlines MH17 plane was traveling almost the same route as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s jet shortly before the crash that killed 295, Interfax news agency reports citing sources. ...

“I can say that Putin’s plane and the Malaysian Boeing intersected at the same point and the same echelon. That was close to Warsaw on 330-m echelon at the height of 10,100 meters. The presidential jet was there at 16:21 Moscow time and the Malaysian aircraft - 15:44 Moscow time,” a source told the news agency on condition of anonymity.

The MT flight was supposed to reach Russian airspace by 5:20 pm local time ... which is not long after what's noted here.

"The contours of the aircrafts are similar, linear dimensions are also very similar, as for the coloring, at a quite remote distance they are almost identical", the source added.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Malaysian plane crash

The events in Ukraine

The thread is about Olympiad not Ukraine. Create a new thread and go on.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Malaysian plane crash

The thread is about Olympiad not Ukraine. Create a new thread and go on.

I'm responding to Gary's comments about the effect of events in Ukraine on the location of the Olympiad. Read his previous remarks to mine. I really hope you are not simply trying to provoke a conflict and blame it on me.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Malaysian plane crash

I'm responding to Gary's comments about the effect of events in Ukraine on the location of the Olympiad. Read his previous remarks to mine. I really hope you are not simply trying to provoke a conflict and blame it on me.

I blame you of going too far from this thread topic to the Ukraine crisis.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Malaysian plane crash

Don't blame me. I'm not interested in Ukraine other than the tragedy of the downed airliner. I'm more interested in the Middle East.

If the downing in Ukraine could effect a move of the Olympiad to Sochi it's probably on topic. I don't care where they hold the Olympiad (more or less) as long as all the member nations are able to participate without undue burden from red tape by the host nation. And that is on topic.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: 2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad

The decision on the situation of non-admission of the nine national teams in Chess Olympiad in Norway will be taken on Friday, July 18, with the Russian team having a good chance to take part in the tournament, said the president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) is entitled to take the unprecedented decision to cancel the upcoming Olympics in Norway due to violation of the organizing committee of the tournament of earlier commitments, said multiple world champion and Olympic Games Ambassador Anatoly Karpov in Tromso.

Source: http://rsport.ru/chess/20140717/758710895.html