Batumian Rhapsody
Eteri Kublashvili’s photo spread from the Gala reception given by Arkady Dvorkovich and his team
With the FIDE President’s election day getting ever so near, social activities at the Olympiad are on the increase with each passing day. October 1st saw a gala concert given by Arkady Dvorkovich and his team in his Chess Lounge.
There gathered quite a number of people, and while they were still arriving, performing for the guests was a choir of "singing and dancing waitresses." Such an unexpected turn of event was an immediate cheer-giver and a positive mood setter.
The official part began with Arkady Dvorkovich giving a speech about his program and his vision of working as a FIDE president, if he wins the election. Then the FIDE presidential candidate gave floor to the members of his team. Bachar Kouatly, Mahir Mammedov, Julio Granda, Enyonam Sewa Fumey (who spoke in English and French) and Zhu Chen said a few words about themselves, their involvement in chess and why they decided to join the Arkady Dvorkovich team.
While speaking, Bachar Kouatly asked to switch on a specially prerecorded video message, and emerging on big screens was FIFA President Gianni Infantino. The latter highlighted the World Cup in Moscow as having gone down into this sport’s history as the best ever and voiced an idea about establishing potential cooperation between FIFA and FIDE in future.
However, the subject of football was not yet exhausted as Mahir Mammedov was replaced on stage by a famous football player Florent Malouda, who thanked Arkady Dvorkovich for the warm welcome in Moscow and here in Batumi and voiced his support of the candidate.
The official part gave way to a rich musical event. In connection with October 1st as a potential International Music Day, it is interesting to note that this holiday was marvelously celebrated as such by the guests of the evening.
Opening the musical program was a balalaika virtuoso Alexei Arkhipovsky, who is known to make his instrument give out truly incredible sounds. Ascending the stage afterwards were the Moscow Operetta Theater artists Ivan Vikulov and Pavel Ivanov to perform their favorite songs ranging from “Black Eyes” to Can’t Take My Eyes of You. The performance was a success, and people were invited to dance. During a closing song, Arkady Dvorkovich invited his wife Zumrud Rustamova to dance with him.
There followed a lengthy disco, upon which various musical pieces were performed by Dmitri Illarionov, a classical guitarist and winner of many international contests.
However, a picture painting a thousand words, I offer you a large picture gallery from the event.
Pictures by Eteri Kublashvili
