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The Opening Ceremonies for the Candidates Tournament take place tomorrow night and the games begin on Thursday the 13th. I got here with the Chief Arbiter Takis Nikolopolous at 5:30am March 10 after about 30 hours in transit. We are staying with 6 of the 8 players at Hotel Taray, a smaller downtown business hotel where Igor Zugic stayed during the 2007 World Cup. Anand looks good - maybe having shed a few pounds. He got here on the 8th to get used to the place. We chatted yesterday about Canada's polar vortex since it is warmer here than when I left Toronto. Aronian is his usual cool self. He refers to me as his "Talisman Arbiter" because we won the World Cup in 2005 when I made my first trek to Khanty.
We Arbiters have spent considerable time in the playing hall during the past 2 days. It was a little surprising that changes I made to the hall the 2012 Women's World Championship tournament were not remembered so we had to impose them all over again. No big deal - they were very co-operative.
The venue is a gym-like room with lighting power of only about 630 lux. We can only put distance between the players and the spectators - no curtains or other means to prevent eye contact. Topalov will reportedly have Danailov present for the whole tournament so there is already some concern about the appearance of fair play. At least we collapsed the stadium seating in favour of floor level chairs for the spectators. Topalov and Mamedyarov are the 2 players residing elsewhere.
The pairings are already posted, and if you noticed that the 4 Russians are playing each other first that is no accident!
We Arbiters have spent considerable time in the playing hall during the past 2 days. It was a little surprising that changes I made to the hall the 2012 Women's World Championship tournament were not remembered so we had to impose them all over again. No big deal - they were very co-operative.
The venue is a gym-like room with lighting power of only about 630 lux. We can only put distance between the players and the spectators - no curtains or other means to prevent eye contact. Topalov will reportedly have Danailov present for the whole tournament so there is already some concern about the appearance of fair play. At least we collapsed the stadium seating in favour of floor level chairs for the spectators. Topalov and Mamedyarov are the 2 players residing elsewhere.
The pairings are already posted, and if you noticed that the 4 Russians are playing each other first that is no accident!
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