2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad

[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

The events in Ukraine

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Tromso Chess Olympiad

The list of teams excluded from Tromso Olympiad

Jul 17, 2014

The Russian news agency Itar-Tass revealed the list of teams excluded from the 2014 Tromso Chess Olympiad.

Men: Cambodia, Central African Republic, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Oman, Pakistan, Senegal

Women: Russia, Afghanistan

This makes a total of nine teams, all supporting FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in the coming elections according to the agency.

[Miroslav Stefanovic]

Re: 2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad in danger of being cancelled??

and now we have Gary's response:

Garry Kasparov on the threat to Tromsø
Why must it be that chessplayers always suffer for the errors and arrogance of officials and bureaucrats? It is a shame for any team to miss out on the Olympiad for technical reasons out of the players’ control. I am a candidate to be a president of FIDE who represents all the federations, not only potential medal winners from powerful federations. But of course the Russian women’s team is not just any team. The Olympic champions! So of course all the attention is on their exclusion, because it is a tragedy not only for the players, but also for the organizers and the fans.

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? And he wants to cancel the Olympiad in retaliation? Punish 175 teams for the mistakes of one? Such absurd arrogance! This matter does not involve me or my campaign for FIDE president. This is a transparent attempt to look for excuses and scapegoats for a self-inflicted disaster. The Russian Federation’s statement doesn’t address the obvious question of why they didn’t submit their women’s team on time, as they did with the men’s team. It’s obvious they were waiting for Lagno’s transfer to strengthen their team and intentionally allowed the registration deadline to pass to do so. Would permitting this devious maneuver be fair to all the other teams that followed the rules and registered on time?

http://en.chessbase.com/post/garry-k...hreat-to-troms

I always thought that it's obvious to everyone that FIDE is corrupt to the bone and that everyone would jump on the chance to shake it up. Now I see that there are a lot of people supporting the way business is conducted with Fide.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: 2014 Tromsø Chess Olympiad in danger of being cancelled??

Just noticed this message
https://chess24.com/en/olympiad2014/...olympiad-venue

This has a simulated video of the venue.

A pic.