Olympiad: six days to go

The 39th Chess Olympiad starts in six days from now. On Tuesday, September 21st the first round of the biannual mega-event is scheduled. So far we've paid attention to the FIDE presidential elections, and to the worries about accommodation and transportation, so it's about time to look at the Olympiad itself.

The Chess Olympiad is the largest team contest for chess players from FIDE (World Chess Federation) member federations. Olympiads have been held since 1927. Before 1940 they were called “tournaments of the nations”.

Over the years the terms and program of Olympiads have been changed. Open Olympiads have been held every other year since 1931. Separate competitions for women, also with biannual events, have been held since 1972.

Soviet, and later Russian, chess teams won the Open Olympiads many times, including a sequence of 13 times in a row from 1952 to 1976. The women's team has also won 11 Olympiad titles.

In the last three Olympiads, the Open title has been won by Ukraine (Calvia, 2004), Armenia (Turin, 2006) and again Armenia (Dresden, 2008). Honours for the women's teams went to China (2004), Ukraine (2006) and Georgia (2008).

The 39th Chess Olympiad takes place September 20th - October 3rd in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Currently 785 players are listed for the open tournament, and 586 for the women tournament. In the open section no less than 152 federation entered, with 251 GMs an 124 IMs coming to Siberia.

The strongest participants are Carlsen, Topalov, Aronian, Kramnik, Eljanov, Grischuk, Mamedyarov, Ivanchuk and Gelfand. The women's section has Hou Yifan, Tatiana & Nadezhda Kosintseva, Stefanova, Lahno, Muzychuk, Dzagnidze and Kosteniuk.

Below we have put the two lists of participants, taken from Chess-Results, so you can scroll down yourself and have a look at which players will be in the teams of the federations. Below that is the official schedule for both the Olympiad and the FIDE Congress, where important decisions will be taken, including the elections for European Chess Union President and FIDE President.

Current list of participants (open tournament)

Current list of participants (women tournament)

Chess Olympiad & FIDE Congress 2010 | Schedule