The 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden begins on Wednesday

by ChessBase
11/11/2008 – It starts in the evening at 20:08h local time (reflects the year 2008 – get it?) with a big opening gala which has show stars and musical performances. Over 500 persons are involved in the show. If you cannot be in Dresden you can still catch the opening ceremony and the rest of the event on the Chess Olympiad TV. And on Playchess, which will broadcast 32 games plus video interviews. Details.

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38th Chess Olympiad Dresden 2008

The 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.

The official schedule of the 38th Chess Olympiad will be as follows:

Date

Day

Time

Round

Event

12 November 2008

Wednesday

20:08 h

Opening Ceremony

13  November 2008

Thursday

15:00 h

1st Round

14 November 2008

Friday

15:00 h

2nd Round

15 November 2008

Saturday

15:00 h

3rd Round

16 November 2008

Sunday

15:00 h

4th Round

17 November 2008

Monday

15:00 h

5th Round

18 November 2008

Tuesday

     Free Day

19 November 2008

Wednesday

15:00 h

6th Round

20 November 2008

Thursday

15:00 h

7th Round

21 November 2008

Friday

15:00 h

8th Round

22 November 2008

Saturday

15:00 h

9th Round

23 November 2008

Sunday

15:00 h

10th Round

24 November 2008

Monday

     Free Day

25 November 2008

Tuesday

10:00 h

11th Round

Closing Ceremony

Participants

There will be more than 2,000 active participants at the Chess Olympiad in Dresen. With 152 registered nations Dresden surpasses the previous Olympiad 2006 in Turin with seven additional countries. There are a total of 275 teams, 156 in the main tournament, including a second German team, teams for the deaf, blind, and correspondence chess players. In the women's sections there are 119 teams. All of this makes the Chess Olympiad the sporting event with the second largest number of participating nations worldwide (after the Summer Olympics). In addition to the participants the organisers expect 1,500 visitors per day.

Special rules

Two unusual rules are being implemented in Dresden. The first says that no draws will be allowed before move 30 of a game. And the second, more radical, says that all players must be present at their boards at the starting time of each round. Anyone who is not there when the clocks are started will be immediately forfeited.

Floor plan of the Olympiad


Click to enlarge


The playing hall – on Tuesday still under preparation


Ahh, tables in place, so we are getting there...


And now, , 48 hours before the start, they have set up the sensor boards and clocks


The press center, where we will all be battling for LAN cables and bandwidth

Coverage

You can follow the Chess Olympiad on the special TV channel set up by the organisers, where matches, highlights, interviews and portraits are showsn 24 hours a day. To view the Chess Olympiad TV you need a Windows-based computer (Vista or XP), an updated version of the Windows Media Player and a two Mbit download Internet connection. You have to download a player at the site given on the official Olympiad site (click on the logo on the right). The broadcasts start shortly after the opening ceremony on Monday.

Live coverage on Playchess

A 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.

Links


Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.

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