Tag Archives: australia

Meet the real Queen of Katwe (and other interesting facts)

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The opening Ceremony has been held and everyone is ready for the first round. The pairings were been made available last night and we can only imagine that across Batumi, many players spend their Monday morning in front of their laptops, preparing for their first game.

Festive celebrations at the Openings Ceremony

For the teams that have been ranked at the lower end – round 1 is the opportunity to play against some of the greats. For example, the women’s New Zealand team, will play India in round 1. The Ugandan Open teams plays against Russia, and the Women’s team from Tajikistan plays against power house Russia. Those opportunities don’t come along very often!

The Australian Open team, ranked 41st in the opening standings, will play against Qatar in round 1, while the Australian Women’s team will play against United Arab Emirates (UAE). Those facts in itself are not super interesting, it is when you dig a little deeper that you find some amazing stories.

Australia’s Women’s team

For example, the women’s team from UAE is one of the youngest playing teams in the tournament, with a 15, 16 and a 9 year old! Alserkal will most likely be the youngest competitor of the Olympiad. However, she is not the only player that is not a teenager yet; Rishon Bastienne from Seychelles is only 11 years old. We will be keen to catch up with them during the tournament. For now they have a rest for round 1.

Another interesting fact is that 17 year old Polina Karelina from the Bahamas is one of the very few two women playing in the Open category.

Polina Karelina

Another team we will be watching is Uganda. Our connection with this country is through our Rotary membership, where the Rotary Fellowship of Chess has been setting up chess programs at schools with the assistance of fellow Rotarian Christopher Major and the Ugandan board 2 player WFM Christine Namaganda. On board 4 there  is 17 year old Gloria, who we will introduce to you later in the tournament.

Christine and Gloria from Team Uganda

 

Chess programs in Uganda – photo courtesy of Christopher Major

On board 1 they have the one and only Queen of Katwe playing! I am sure you have all seen the amazing Disney movie about a Ugandan girl, following her dreams through chess!

The real Queen of Katwe; Phiona Mutesi

In the Open category, the Iranian team is one to watch – not only has this country been smashing it at the last few World Youth Championships, their team is ranked 22nd and three of their players are under the age of 18.

So what do we think will happen over the next 11 rounds?

We expect the US to take out gold in the Open for a second time in a row. It is hard to compete with top players like World Champion challenger Fabiano Caruano, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamaru and current US champion Sam Shankland. However, Russia, China and India are certainly going to give them a challenge to the top. Countries like Azerbaijan and Iran are also very likely to end up in the top 10.

US Champion Sam Shankland

In the Women’s category, the top positions will be dominated by Russia, China, Ukraine and India. Will the hometown advantage be enough for Georgia to take out another Olympiad? We think it is very likely!

We will of course be watching Australia very closely, as well as our friendly neighbours New Zealand. The battles fought by Australia will be fierce and they may end up slightly higher than their starting rank. So stay tuned for all the action!

Australian GM Zong-Yuan Zhao

5 Reasons to attend the Chess Olympiad

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You may be wondering, why have you travelled all the way to Georgia, south of Russia, to attend the Chess Olympiad? You are not an official player, you are not an official arbiter, you are not an official delegate – so why take the time away to go? Well that is easy! Let me tell you why!

 

1.       Chess Community

People involved with chess instantly become a community of friends. We see that in the Adelaide Hills, the Campbelltown library chess club and the wider (South) Australian Chess Community. The same applies for the chess community around the world. We have made some fantastic friends over the years and the Olympiad brings them all together. It is a great way for us to catch up with chess friends from everywhere.

David with GM Vasily Papin

 

2.       Seeing the world

Who doesn’t love to travel the world? It is healthy to plan a break regularly and take time out from your day to day activities so that you can recharge. These Olympiads take us to some amazing places every two years. We often take a week before the Olympiad start to discover the sites, before we settle in to report on the chess Olympiad.

Mount Kazbegi

 

3.       Learning from the greats

Surrounding yourselves with the best, will allow you to grow and become a better person. Always try and learn from people that have already walked the path or are more experienced. At the Olympiad we learn every day, not just from the players, but also from the photographers, the reporters and the supporters. It allows us to see how others do things and how we can improve to make chess back home even better!

 

Hou Yifan, Olympiad Baku 2016

4.       Promotion of Australian Chess

Chess is a big deal around the world. Many have made playing the game their profession. There are arbiters that travel from tournament to tournament and of course there are many professional chess reporters. Australia is only at the beginning of their journey, with the amount of GM’s doubled in the last few years and the amount of coverage about the Australian players growing. We are here to assist that growth and help wherever we can to promote Australian chess.

 

GM Anton Smirnov

5.       Promotion of Junior Players

We love seeing the young legends rise to the top of their abilities. The Australian junior players have been showing us they have what it takes, it is just a matter of time. In fact, this year’s Open team for Australia is one of the youngest the country has seen playing.  However, they are not alone, there are hundred and thousands of amazing young chess players around the world. We will showcase some of them, so you can be inspired and continue to follow your dreams.

 

GM Pragganandhaa

As you can see there are lots of reasons to attend the Olympiad. The chess community is a great community to be part of and we are proud to be able to represent Australia as official press. In fact, we recommend that you one day plan a trip to an Olympiad just to experience the atmosphere!

The Chess Olympics! (or better known as the Chess Olympiad)

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It’s Paris, 1924.

Written by chess coach Alex Jury

France is about to host the 1924 Summer Olympics. An idea, an unprecedented idea has been proposed: amongst the sailing of boats and the throwing of balls, the riding of horses and the shooting of guns, why not add Chess to the venue? After all, Chess is a duel of minds and a test of skill and ability.

Why not honour Chess with a venue in the Olympics?  

Alas, it is not to be. There is an issue in determining which players are truly professional and which are merely amateur. When the Olympics went ahead, Chess, sadly, was left behind.

But the dream did not die there. As the 1924 Summer Olympics commenced, so did the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad. Fifty-four players from eighteen different nations competed for the title of Amateur World Champion. The victor was Latvian player, and later World Champion, Hermanis Matisons.

But this was only the beginning.

From these humble origins emerged the World Chess Federation, a governing body of international chess competition. By 1927, it had organised the very first official Chess Olympiad, taking place in London and attended by sixteen nations. From there, a Chess Olympiad has been hosted every two years, to an ever widening international audience of Chess players, masters and enthusiasts.

Chess Olympiad in London 1927

At the time of writing, we are eagerly anticipating the 43rd Chess Olympiad, to be hosted in Batumi, Georgia. Mens and women’s teams from over one hundred and ninety nations are expected to participate, including an Australian team, captained by Melbourne born Grandmaster, Darryl Johansen. The full team composition is as follows:

And the Women’s team is as follows:


 

 

Also in attendance shall be Chesslife’s very own David and Sabrina, who shall have the honour of seeing it all play out first hand (take lots of pictures!). They will be there as part of the Australian press team and will return with their blog about Juniors at the Olympiad. 


For everyone else, however, we may be rest assured that our chess community is forever on the grow. From a little, sidelined event, brought together by a collection of enthusiasts, the Chess Olympiads has grown into a century long, worldwide tradition. 

Such is the indomitable will of Chess!