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38th Chess Olympiad Dresden 2008The City of Dresden, the German Chess Federation (DSB) and FIDE have the honour of inviting all FIDE member Federations around the world to participate in the 38th Chess Olympiad Dresden 2008 (12th-25th November 2008) and the 79th FIDE Congress Dresden 2008 (17th-25th November 2008) which will take place in Dresden, Saxony, Germany. |
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Twenty-four hours before the start of the Olympiad: everything in place
in the main hall
An hour before the start of the opening ceremony: preparations in the ice skating
stadium
A cheer-leader number warms up the audience
The performance is very leggy and very athletic
Balancing acts that leave the audience breathless
And impossibly high girl tossing (all survived without a scratch)
The final spectacular pyramid
A German pop singer on skates
Scenes and songs from the Abba musical "Chess"
A German talent show winner Max Mutzke
The German Minister for the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble, declares the games
opened
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was not present at the opening of the Olympiad, as his car had been involved in a traffic accident in Moscow on the previous day and Kirsan had to be hospitalised. We were told by his niece Danara that the injuries were not serious or life-threatening. It does not appear that there was any malice involved in the accident – just a woman driver who ignored the traffic policeman's instructions and drove her Ford Focus into Illumzhinov's Mercedes.
Pictures and videos of Ilyumzhinov's accident in Moscow are available at
this "Life" report
In lieu of the injured Ilyumzhinov the Honorary President of FIDE, Florencio
Campomanes, officiates
...and is led gingerly across the slippery ice after his part is over
The delegations and teams from from national teams are present in the galleries
Chess youth on the ice, bearing the banners and flags of 152 different nations
Wait a minute, isn't there something missing?
GM Levon Aronian considering a protest since the Armenian group did not have
a flag
Just kidding. The good-natured Armenian poses with Indian player Mohota
Two very talented ladies from India: Tanya Sachdev and Harika Dronavalli
While we are at it: here is the entire Indian team, with trainer Elisbar Ubilava
left
Viktor and Petra Korchnoi pose with the Iranian women's team
Pictures by Frederic Friedel in Dresden
Video reports provided by Gérard Demuydt and GM Robert Fontaine by
Europe Echecs
Live coverage on PlaychessA selection of 32 games will be broadcast live on our chess server Playchess.com. There will also be live video interviews with players after their games. If you are not a member of the Playchess community (which as of Monday, November 8th 2008 had 307,966 registered users) you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games. If you have ChessBase, Fritz or any Fritz-compatible program (Rybka, Hiarcs, Shredder) you can automatically access the server. All these programs come with a one-year subscription to Playchess. Note that if you have a trial account you may not be able to watch the games if too many registered members are logged in. |
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