5 September 2016

The inside-outside of the Crystal Hall

The Chess Olympiad start in the review of Vladimir Barsky.

Baku welcomed us with a squally wind. The gusts were so strong that they had to haul down the huge state colors, mounted on a 162-meter flagpole. The colors cloth measures 70 meters in length and 35 meters in width -- even though it does not measure up to the size of a football field, it is over seven times that of a basketball court! God forbid that a hefty 220-ton structure should fall on the Crystal Hall, built on the Flag Square specifically for the “Eurovision-2012”. Just think of a half thousand players who arrived at their Olympiad, what are they supposed to do then?

The Crystal Hall and the national flag of Azerbaijan

Visibility of “The Crystal Hall” is perfect from the windows of “Intourist”, where the Russian delegation stays. The same hotel hosts the Chinese, French, Indian and Cuban teams (there are likely to be other teams that I have not identified yet). This hotel is closest to the venue for it takes only 25-30 minutes’ walk from one place to another. However, this is the case should you be willing to take a walk, otherwise special buses with Olympic symbols are always there on duty at the gate to get you to the destination point withing some five minutes. Three-time buffet at the hotel cannot but please your taste receptors. One seasoned veteran with a lot of experience behind his back spent an hour and a half over his breakfast and noted with satisfaction, “Well, the food here is quite decent indeed!"

Baku is seen to be perfectly well geared up for the Tournament of Nations. Airport reception was time-efficient and trouble-free as in the glorious precrisis times, when you used to arrive in Egypt or Turkey on a holiday package of a solid travel agency. It has been even better than that as two passport control windows would be open only for the Olympiad guests, affording no time for queues to form up. However, traffic jams in the city is a nuisance, and quite a serious one at that: we witnessed it when heading for the opening ceremony through the city center. This said, traffic is independent of tournament organizers, who have done their best to address this issue as well. Firstly, the Olympiad has been shifted ahead of schedule by half a month: an academic year in Azerbaijan begins on September 15, at which point the traffic situation would aggravate even further. In addition, the tournament does not operate under the Zero Tolerance rule, which not a few players are so irritated with - one is allowed to be late by 15 minutes.

The opening ceremony held at the National gymnastics arena deserves many good words as it turned out to be a real show with the participation of a bunch of high-class artists. The audience was shown traditional Azerbaijani dances as well as classical ballet and break dance compositions, the entire show being accompanied by a variety of lighting effects. The parade of all participating countries proved a brilliant discovery by the organizers. The drumbeat would be followed by a team flag displayed on the screen, upon which a young man would appear on the scene carrying a drum featuring the very same flag as the one displayed. Gradually the scene was filled by nearly two hundred drummers, whereas the last to appear under the applause of the crowds was the flag of Azerbaijan.

Flags of all participating countries

The ceremony was honored by the presence of the Republic President Ilham Aliyev. Keynote speeches to guests were offered by chairman of the organizing committee of the Olympic Games, First Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Yaqub Eyyubov, and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. FIDE President began his speech in the Azerbaijani language, then switched to English, but when mentioning the name of Heydar Aliyev he stopped reading from his “cheat sheet” and began speaking in Russian about how much was contributed by the national leader towards the development of chess in the country. He was specific in highlighting that for lack of Heydar Aliyev’s efforts Azerbaijan would have unlikely received so many strong grandmasters, including the 13th World Champion. However, he would somehow refrain from mentioning the name of the champion himself.

The Russian team players and coaches were impressive in their uniforms specifically designed for this important event. The uniform design is quite attractive and stylish. White shirts, blue jackets, gray trousers and crimson ties for men, trouser suits with blouses or dresses of same color as blouses for women. I doubt, however, that I figured all colors correctly, so better take a look for yourself. To the left is Andrey Murov, CEO of the OJSC “FСC UES” (Finance and Construction Corporation “United Energy System”), this company being the general sponsor of the Russia’s national chess teams. To the right is our “joker”, honored coach of Russia Boris Postovsky.

With eagles sewn on uniform chests

Since this picture shows Vladimir Kramnik as unfortunately “hidden” behind a senior coach and captain of the Russian men’s team Andrey Filatov, we give you yet another picture. The 14th World Champion took part in the drawing of lots ceremony together with the female World Champion Hou Yifan and the Chief Arbiter of the Olympiad Faiq Hasanov.

Hou Yifan, Faiq Hasanov and Vladimir Kramnik

Our men’s team features a very tricky lineup of boards: 1. Sergey Karjakin (2769), 2. Vladimir Kramnik (2808), 3. Evgeny Tomashevsky (2731), 4. Ian Nepomniachtchi (2740) and a reserve player Alexander Grischuk (2754). He is a reserve one neither by rating, nor by age, nor even by height. I, of course, wonder about the reasonings that guided the coaching staff, but it is no use asking about it now as none is going to disclose inner secrets anyway. However, the women’s team lineup has turned out to be a more predictable one: 1. Alexandra Kosteniuk (2538), 2. Valentina Gunina (2520), 3. Aleksandra Goryachkina (2475), 4. Natalija Pogonina (2484) and a reserve player Olga Girya (2452).

On day of round one your correspondent started for the Crystal Hall in the early morning. Final touch preparations were underway everywhere: street cleaners were sweeping the already clean square, volunteers were being given their last briefings, dog handlers were walking their pets, who were later to sniff through huge areas. The tournament venue, just as in Tromsø, is very close to the sea, but I want to believe that any other similarities stop here. It used to feel very stuffy at the former brewery, while the air in the biotoilets was never subjected to ozone purification. This said, all Baku areas are spacious, air-conditioned and well-lit. Water and food is in abundance not only for VIP-persons, but also for players and mass media representatives.

The kiosk slightly spoils the general view... They definitely need the mayor of Moscow to send an excavator to fix this!

It is a pity that a fly still found its way into the ointment: the journalists (with the exception of a couple of lucky ones) were not allowed into the hall before the start of round one. Organizers explained it by Ilham Aliyev’s arrival to make a symbolic first move, even thought it was exactly for this reason that people armed with cameras were so willing to make it through the triple barrier of guards and volunteers. Seeping inside became possible only after the president left the hall and went to see the exhibition of the Moscow Chess Museum. Well, it was not only about this exhibition, of course, since the vast hall has a lot to offer for guests to tour around. It has something in store for guests to taste as well -- the Lviv handmade chocolate and chess cakes are very tasty indeed.

Ilham Aliyev, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Mahir Mamedov are heading for the vendor place selling the Lviv chocolate

Round one in big Swiss tournaments is rarely interesting from the purely chess point of view as there is too much of a disparity between the opposing teams. The Russian men’s team scored a whitewash victory over the Nigerian athletes, whereas only three of our opponents showed up for the match -- the fourth one either failed to make it to the playhall premises or got lost somewhere in Baku. Anything can happen: I remember a team missing altogether from one of the rounds in Norway... Meanwhile, Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi, despite playing the black pieces, easily broke the resistance of their opponents, while Tomashevsky, having played a little of the “cat and mouse” game, gradually organized a central breakthrough, which Black answered so poorly that it immediately landed him into a hopeless position.

When the journalists finally broke into the playhall, Alexander Grischuk had already ended his game

Even though the Russian girls also won all of their four games, their rivals were stronger in comparison from the Scotland national team, which features the 1988 USSR Champion Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant playing on board one. In the opening Alexandra Kosteniuk offered an interesting pawn sacrifice, which Ketevan rejected to fall into positional bind. The junior Aleksandra handled the game in a very confident manner: gambling on a pinning threat she made her opponent create a weak d3-pawn, then mounted her minor pieces into strong outposts and achieved a decisive material advantage. Natasha Pogonina and Olga Girya faced a harder task, but they coped with it as well.