Daily News of Torino Olympiad May 24 /2006. Kramnik in action Lithuania on top his time we shall start with match was something like a civil war since ladie’s competition whe- seven out of eight players were Russians! A re some dramatical chan- second victory was scored by Bareev against ges occured in yesterday’s Lutz, Morozevich couldn’t escape from per- round. In match number petual check against Jussupow, but Ruble- one China won convincingly against France vsky against Graf unexpectedly lost an en- (2,5:0,5),T but this was not enough to take the dgame which looked rather eaqual, at least lead because in match number two the Bal- at fi rst sight. tic derby fi nished with a maximal victory of Aft er such a modest result the leader was Lithuanian team who took the lead wit still a joined by two teams who managed to cash perfect score! Russia won with the same re- 3,5 points: China and Uzbekistan winners sult against Poland and joined China. Both against Slovakia and Australia, and by actual teams have 8,5 points. Half a point behind champions of Ukraina victorious against them are Ukraine (3:0 against Mongolia) SCG (Serbia&Montengro) with 3:1.All these and Romania (2,5:0,5 against Italy «A»). teams have 10,5 points. Half a point behind Th ree more teams came closer to the top them are Netherlands, 3:1 victory against with 7,5 points: USA, Bulgaria and Israel af- Turkey and Greece, 2,5:1,5 against Poland. ter their victories against respectively Cuba, Seven teams follow with 9,5 points. Th e- Bosnia&Herzegovina and Hungary. se are: Armenia, Bulgaria, Spain, Iceland, It was a black day for Italian teams. Italy Norway and Brazil. «A» lost to Romania by making just half a As for Italian teams they scored slightly point. Some excuse can be a very unlucky better than yesterday, but still they managed pairing which gave them a strong opponent to win just one match – Italy «C» against and two black pieces. Th e honour was saved Botswana- loosing other two – Italy «B» was by Zimina on board two where they had smashed on zero by a strong Czech team, white. Italy «B» lost as well, this time against while Italy «A» lost with a narrow margin to Norway. Albania. An interesting detail is that three Th e top pairings for tomorrow are : Rus- Albanian players are actually living in Italy! sia-Lithuania, China-Ukraina, USA-Roma- Th e top pairings for tomorrow are: Chi- nia, Bulgaria-Israel and Georgia-India. na-Russia, Uzbekistan-Ukraine and Nether- Th e most interesting match by men was lands-Greece. It could easily happen that we between Russia and Germany and for two shall see the clash of titans – Russia against reasons. First, Kramnik fi nally appeared in Ukraine – already in round fi ve! Russian team and won rather easily and con- vincingly against Naiditsch and second, this (M. Cebalo) Huge success on-line f there was such a thing as a “sold out” for access to websites, the Chess Olympiad would probably have already been turning people away in droves. On Sunday, the opening day, the pages at www.chessolympiad-torino2006.org were browsed by nearly 2 million people and yesterday contacts were way over 3 and a half million. Today, less than an hour from the start of the games, 2 mil- lion enthusiasts have already accessed the site from all over the world and at the end of theI day we expect confi rmation of record contacts. “Chess has benefi ted enormously, more Visit the National Cinema Museum free than other sports from the spread of information technology, particularly the internet”, says Misho Cebalo, Grand Master and member of the Organising Committee of the Turin 2006 Th e National Cinema Museum at Turin’s Mole Antonelliana Chess Olympiad. Wrongly, the media do not give much space to chess even though millions of off ers all players at the Chess Olympiad a FREE TICKET. players follow it. “And yet thanks to the Internet”, adds Cebalo, ”today it is possible to follow Opening hours 9 am - 8 pm every day - Saturday 9 am 11 pm - Closed Monday -Via Montebello 20 the great chess events such as the Olympiad live at the Turin Oval, in real time and from all corners of the earth”. Chess in India Interview with hess in India has taken bar and Ruslan Sherbakov. center stage and the Indian GM Vladimirov Evegeny has been instru- team is seeded second in mental in development of Harikrishna and Geurt Gijssen the chess Olympiad. Th e Sasikiran. While recently Deepan Chakara- Team is led by Vishy Anand varthy, Neelapotal das and Mahesh Chan- with Krishnan Sasikiran Pentala Harikrish- dran became Grandmasters. Vladimirov is he arbiters na Cand Surya sekar Ganguly forming the top a brilliant coach known for his exemplary team is the boards of the team. Chess in India has been end-game technique having a magnetic ef- largest here booming with many youngesters doing well fect, spectators and the participating players in the Olym- in Asian & world youth chess championship. being drawn towards his board at the sli- piad hall: 116 ghtest hint of an approaching end-game. the people assure that all the chess master technician makes endings appear a rulesT are closely complied with matter of natural ease, squeezing wins out of and that the overall competi- the equal positions. Winning a GM event of tion runs smoothly. In order to the magnitude of a Category 10 event with carry out their task in the most two rounds to spare is has enhanced his re- effi cient way arbiters are orga- putation. Th e Kazakhstan GM with a rating nized in a precise hierarchy. of 2598 has been a former trainer of the le- Geurt Gijssen (Netherland) is gendary Garry Kasparov. the chief, with the assistance of India has many junior events and the- two deputies, Franca Dapiran re is a weekend event happening in every (Italy) and H. Elgendi (Egypt). major city. Many coaches are involved in Th e playing area is divided into training and the talented juniors spend a seven sectors, each one under minimum of 4 hours preparing. There is the supervision of a senior ar- also sponsorship available for the juniors biter. Th e remaining 106 arbi- from sports ministry as well as corpora- ters are almost equally divided te support. There are 12 grandmasters between Italy (48) and the rest of the world bles. Rather, there may happen facts that I and numerous International master. In- (58). Chief arbiter Geurt Gijssen has kindly would rather call mistakes. Here in Turin, dia is set to surge ahead to the pinnacle of accepted to answer a few questions. for instance, a few of the chess sets that were Many foreign coaches have been working chess with youngsters like Parimajan negi given by FIDE had an unconventional shape, with the talented juniors and prominent knocking the doors of grandmaster title at «Have you already been arbiter in other and some teams refused to play with them, among them are Grandmaster Evegeny Vla- an tender age. chess Olympiads?» but the issue was readily fi xed. Of course we dimirov and Anand’s second Ubilava Eliza- (Ravi Kumar) Yes, indeed this is my fourth Olympiad as may receive complaints, but this is normal chief arbiter, the others being Bled (2002), and makes the tournament less boring... Th e Istanbul (2000) and Elista (1998), while in chief arbiter should indeed act as a manager. Erevan (1994) I was deputy chief. But I took I remember especially the Elista Olympiads, part to other Olympiads since 1984 with where the organizers had little experience other duties. for such a great event, and I was able to pro- Chess in Sri Lanka vide extensive training with very good resul- «What is the diff erence between Olympia- ts. Also here for the Turin Olympiads I held ere are 3000 registered many divisions like novice , major National ds and other chess tournaments?» in march a special seminar for the italian players in srilanka and B and National fi nals We have junior Na- Its special atmosphere, that you fi nd arbiters in Chianciano Terme. their National chess fe- tionals for under 20 players in women and nowhere else. Only here you can fi nd players deration is in Colombo men boys & girls. We are planning for a of all levels in the same hall, from the world «What is your opinion about the Turin the capital of the island foreign coach to prepare the team . Fide is champion to almost a beginner. It happens event so far?» country. Th e chess fraternity has 3 fi de ma- contributing to the development but more also that every two years a lot of players from Th ere are weak and strong points, of stersH and the offi cials of the federation are is needed and in 2003 we had the CADEC every corner of the world meet together and course. On the minus side I have to mention working on getting the fi rst International ma- seminar in Colombo. they become friends. Of course several of some problems with the dislocation of the ster title. Th ere is government support and a FIDE has earlier supported chess among them are professional and play at internatio- sites, the village and the playing hall, that team of experienced offi cials are working to developing countries and with an expert fo- nal level, but some others, for instance from are not far, but not so close.