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It is the halfway point in the Olympiad and that means it is the first free day in the Olympiad. The players took time to rest from the stressful tournament and they did so in many different ways. The city of Tromso is rather small but it offers many alternatives for at least one day of leisure.
One of the more popular destinations today was to hike up the mountain. Tromso is a very hilly city and it is quite normal for streets to be very steep. On the other side of the Island there is a small mountain range that players could climb to take pictures.
The Indonesian women's team was one of the many teams that went up the mountian, which is in the background in this picture
The view from up there is quite spectacular. Players have to cross the bridge and hike up the trails to reach the top... unless they want to pay 130 Kroner to simply take the cable car up. Irene Sukandar "was not dressed to hike anything" and decided to shell out the money.
Everything's worth it as long as there is a good selfie. Photos from the Indonesian team by their captain, Kristianus Liem.
Elliot Liu and the infinitely energetic Alexander Ipatov actually hiked it
Other players went to explore the culture offerings of the city. Luis Esquivel Golcher from Panama pointed out how many stuffed polar bears there are scattered across the city... there is even a museum named "Polaria" here!
The Italian team had a more adventurous rest day, but before that they ran into Loek Van Wely and his wife Lorena Zepeda de Van Wely, players of the Olympiad but for different countries (Netherlands and El Salvador)
A speedboat ride!
Which also would not be complete without a selfie...
Fabiano Caruana seems pleased with the adventure. Italian National Team's pictures taken from their Facebook Page.
By 4 p.m. a small downpour started, and although it quieted down after half an hour there was a small amount of rain coming down for the remainder of the afternoon/evening. That of course was not a problem for the players that wanted to go out and stretch their legs. Or for the most dedicated of soccer players:
A small grass court was found relatively close to the city center, only a few minutes away. This has been the playing site for a large group of chess players every day after 9 p.m. (one of the advantages of the sun never going down!) during the round days. In the rest day the game went on from 4 p.m. to well after 7.
The games are open to everyone and normally are seven on seven, teams are switched out every 15 minutes with the loser team stepping out. Carlsen's team yesterday went on a large winning streak.
The games are very intense!
The Bermuda party the previous night has not been the best ever held, but it was still a rocking party
The venue was very crowded at some point and they had to let people little by little. But at the end everyone did get in and had their share of fun with whatever their preference was; socializing, dancing or something else.
The ChessBase crew took a walk around the lake, one of the many pretty bodies of water around the city
The one and only Andre Schulz is just in awe of the beautiful surroundings
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The local graveyard is a landmark for basically everything outside city center
Untagged photos by Alejandro Ramirez & Andre Schulz
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During the games we have live broadcast by expert commentators,
with post-game interviews and analysis directly from the venue.
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Three of our live game commentators: Yasser Seirawan, Simon Williams, Chris Ward
Live postgame interviews by Daniel King, above chatting with Alexei Shirov...
... and analysing a game with Nigel Short
Interviewing Indian IM Tania Sachdev immediately after her game
Danny King's daily midnight wrapup on Youtube – recorded in the midnight dusk of Tromsø
Schedule of live commentary, TV shows, training and tournaments
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