The main attraction is of course the live game annotations. Yasser Seirawan can, like very few other top grandmasters, explain games in a way chess amateurs and advanced players alike are able to follow. He does it in a clear, well-articulated English that people from all over the world are able to understand. He explains the ideas behind the moves and manoeuvres, not just variations and alternate lines. It is a great experience which you should not miss.
Apart from the commentary Yasser also does interviews with interesting players, typically just after they have won a game and are breathless, flushed with success. Apart from the stars you also get to know young and exciting players who will dominate the scene in a few years from now.
Here are a few scenes from the playing hall, the way they appear in the Playchess broadcasts:
From Russia vs Germany
Ubilava, Anand and Shirov chatting
Germany vs Ecuador in the women's section
Anna Sharavich playing for Belarus
The games of the 37th Chess Olympiad are being broadcast on the official web site. But a large number of selected games will also be shown on Playchess.com, in a special Chess Olympiad broadcast zone:
Apart from the games transmissions, which are free, there are the special multimedia broadcasts with live commentary and interviews, hosted by GM Yasser Seirawan, who is present in Turin for the entire duration of the Olympiad.
GM Yasser Seirawan doing walk-around coverage in the playing zone
In order to watch the live commentary and interviews broadcast by Yasser Seirawan you will need to have "ducats", the currency that is used on the Playchess server.
You may already have ducats on your account, e.g. if you have purchased them or won some in games and tournaments. Check your account using "Edit – Payments – View Account".
The price for viewing all the Seirawan broadcasts for a full round is ten ducats, which translates to €1 or $1.30. If you have 192 ducats on your account, as displayed in the picture above, you are fine and set to go. If not you should order some quickly. It usually takes a day or two for the transaction to be completed.
You
can buy ducats in the ChessBase Shop
Ducats can be used to purchase all kinds of services on the Playchess server, and also to buy products in the ChessBase Shop. So stock up on them now, they will not go to waste...
Note: In order to be able to watch the multimedia broadcasts you need to update your Fritz 9 client. The Playchess server will automatically offered to do this for you when you log in with an outdated Fritz 9 program. It takes just a few minutes and costs nothing. Alternately you can download a new version of the Playchess client from www.playchess.com. That will also allow you to watch the broadcasts.
