I was going over some information on the FIDE site about top players and looking at the rankngs for the World's Top 100 Players and I came across the link for the 2010 Olympiad, which brought me to the site linked below:

 http://www.ugra-chess.com/

  Then I checked Chessdom, the link also below, and found the schedule and the teams that were announced for every country, with the players listed by country, starting September 21st and running through October 3rd. The times are posted on the Chessdom site.

http://www.chessdom.com/news-2010/chess-olympiad-2010/schedule

  This is a tidbit from their site:

 159 men and 119 women teams have registered for the Chess Olympiad 2010 that starts this month in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. A total of 1380 players will compete in the two sections for the medals of the top team event in chess. The statistics are impressive - 772 titled players will be present, out of them 247 GMs, 63 WGMs, 160 IMs, 87 WIMs, 81 FMs, and 80 WFMs.

  Russia(the 1st of three men's teams) have the highest rating at 2749 headed by former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. The U.S. is 9th with a rating average of 2691 headed by former U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura.

  Norway, home of our beloved Magnus and teammate Jon Ludvig Hammer, is ranked 26th, and has a ranking of 2594.

   Since we did a thread of the FIFA World Cup where everybody picks their favorites, I figured this morning I would do a little work and take one for the team and start a thread about it. Now I realize obviously people are going to pick the country that they most likely hail from. Me, well, I have Russian blood, which I am very proud of. But I am also a little sketchy because of how GM Kramnik is playing lately, but I am sticking to my guns here and choosing the Russian team headed by GM Kramnik. Go Russia!

   So let's keep this friendly shall we? I would hate to see this topic closed before the Olympiad even starts.

   Mods, I don't know if you were going to start a topic about this, but I had it in my head to do it last night, so, I did it now. I hope that's ok.

Hi.  I'm going to be playing for Hong Kong in the Olympiad.  My Fide ratings only 1760, so its going to be really tough for me, but fingers crossed I'm hoping I'll do well.  If not it'll still be great for my chess.  I can't believe that I'm going to be sitiing in the same hall as Carlsen, Kramnik, and Nakamura. 

 That's going to be a great experience for you. To be in the same place as some of the world's best Masters, I'm pretty envious actually. I wish you luck and I hope you play well. Just learn from the experiences that you have there and have fun.

-Mark

 Reb - this is what the site said:

120. Hongkong (HKG / RtgAvg:1967)

1 Tsang Hon Ki 2085
2 Borigas Edgardo 2005
3 Lee T H Bryan 1935
4 KUAN Julian 1760
5 Chan Kwai Keong 1844

  He's going to have a wonderful time. I wish him all the luck and I told him to keep me informed during the tourney if possible.

  Julian, afterwards, you should probably do a blog entry about your times and experiences there. It would make for a great read.

  -Mark

What about Germany and Bermuda?

  here is the link everyone to see what teams are ranked where, the average rating for the team, and the individual ratings for each player:

http://www.chessdom.com/news-2010/chess-olympiad-2010-participants

as for Bermuda and Germany, here they are:

42. Germany (GER / RtgAvg:2534)

1 GM Buhmann Rainer 2563
2 GM Bogner Sebastian 2549
3 GM Bindrich Falko 2507
4 IM Kraemer Martin 2516
5 IM Huschenbeth Niclas 2461

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122. Bermuda (BER / RtgAvg:1940)

1 CM Faulks Nick 2109
2 Radford Michael 1895
3 Bacchas Clevert 1871
4 Cooper Gary 1886
5 Simmons Kennedy 1499

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remember everyone, there are 159 men's teams overall.

   -Mark

Yes, so no Naiditsch, Gustafsson, Meier, Fridman for Germany... and I could not find Bermuda on the alphabetical listing but apparently they are there anyway.

 heinzie - click on the last link I posted in the post just above the one you just made. It has a listing of the teams by ranking. Bermuda was 122 out of 159. That link will give you a lot of info.

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How are the teams selected, exactly? I'm sure Germany has more than 3 GMs. Also, why isn't Anand on the Indian team?

Hell, the Russian team is scary.

What is the format? A swiss? And where do I see the pairings?

 

Go team SA!

77. South Africa (RSA / RtgAvg:2338)

1 IM Solomon Kenneth Solomon 2394
2 IM Kobese Watu 2370
3 FM Steel Henry Robert 2300
4 IM Mabusela Johannes Manyedi 2288
5 CM Van den Heever Donovan 2285

Huh? Torre? how old is he? he must be very, isn't he?

 About Anand - I was wondering that myself, unless there is something that I missed along the way. If anyone has any idea why Anand is not in the Olympiad, let us all know here.

 rooperi -

   I haven't seen the pairings yet myself for the 1st round, so if anyone else has an idea on what the opening round pairings will be, let us know.

   And the Wikipedia entry for the Olympiad says that it is a Swiss System.

  Here is the Wiki link:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_Olympiad

  EDIT: Torre will be 59 on November 4th

Someone from Bermuda's team is probably skilled in other fields too :-)

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Thank You.

glad I can help. 

 I'm sure there are going to be more responses than this as the time for the Olympiad grows closer. This is the biggest team event of the year and requires so much work, time and effort to put together. I haven't made my top 3 picks yet and I want to be objective about it. If you haven't noticed, I changed my avatar in support of my ancestral country of Russia until the Olympiad is over. Anyone want to fess up and put their picks up?

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 I qualified for the team by finishing 7th in the Hong Kong Championship as shown here http://chess-results.com/tnr31906.aspx?lan=1.  The players who finished 1st, 3rd, and 5th couldn't attend due to work commitments, and so I get to play board 4 for Hong Kong.

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 So I'll pick... Hong Kong!  :)   Just Joking.  Really I think 1,2,3 will be Russia, China then the USA in that order.