The Chess Olympiad is a team tournament organised every two years by FIDE, the international chess federation. The 32nd Chess Olympiad took in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
Armenia is a former Soviet republic, situated to the north of Turkey. Chess was the national game of the USSR, and has equal status in Armenia today. The former world champion Tigran Petrosian was Armenian, and Yerevan even has a building called the "Chess Palace", which is named after him.
Yerevan is not particularly popular as a tourist destination, and the only company serving it is Armenian Airlines. However, the British Foreign Office advised us that it is not clear whether Western maintenance standards are adhered to in the former Soviet Union, so a charter flight for most of the Western European teams was organised by the German Chess Federation. The entire plane was filled with chess players, most of whom hadn't seen each other since the previous Olympiad. This seemed to bemuse the poor air hostesses, who had to negotiate the people standing chatting in the aisle while coming up and down with refreshments. It also led to the following announcement :
"Sir, would you please stop talking in the aisle and go back to your seat. The 'fasten seatbelt' signs came on ten minutes ago, and we have already begun our descent."
We arrived in Yerevan just before midnight, to find that the terminal building had already closed. This led to the rather curious game of "hunt the baggage", where 220 cases are spread out on a partially-lit runway, and the participants have to find the one that belongs to them. Once everyone was in posession of their luggage, some Armenian interpreters appeared, holding signs. We made our way towards the one that said 'Scotland', and were taken to our hotel in our own minibus.
The chess players stayed in the centre of Yerevan, in several different hotels. The immediate vicinity was very pleasant, with a park, and a large square containing fountains which were lit up at night. However, much of the rest of Yerevan is in a state of disrepair, although it is difficult to tell how much of this was caused by the terrible earthquake in 1988.
The Chess Olympiad proper started two days after our arrival. 114 teams took part in the 'Open' (Men's) competition, and 74 in the Women's tournament, making it one of the largest Olympiads ever. Interest was added by the participation in both competitions of a team from the International Blind Chess Association.
The open teams consist of six players, four of whom play in each match, and the woman's teams have four members, with three playing at a time. The players must play in order of strength, which is determined by the FIDE rating list : most strong players have a rating which is an indication of their strength (eg. the world champion Garry Kasparov is 2780, a beginner would probably be around 400). Since the FIDE list starts at 2000, weaker players play in the order of their national ratings. There are fourteen rounds in an Olympiad, and game points are counted rather than match points (ie. a 4-0 win is better than a 3-1 win). Pairings are done by computer according to the "Swiss System", which tries to pair teams on the same score together. This means that in order to win the tournament, the top teams must play most of their close rivals, which is a fair way of doing things.
Usually, some teams experience difficulties travelling to the Olympiad, due to visa problems and lack of cash. This was indeed the case in Armenia, and the first round was delayed by an hour while the organisers tried to find out which teams had arrived and which hadn't. (The Afghanistan man's team turned up halfway through the tournament, and were allowed to play : they still managed to finish ahead of the hapless U.S. Virgin Islands!)
The Scottish Women's team had Carey Wilman (FIDE 2070) on board one. Carey played for England in the 1982 Olympiad, but has lived in Scotland for several years and qualified for the team on residential grounds. She had broken her arm the week before and was unable to write down the moves during her games, but most of her opponents kindly wrote her out a copy of the scoresheet afterwards. I played on board 2 (my rating is FIDE 2065), and Alyson King (1855) was our board three. The team was completed by Siegrun MacGilchrist (1575), who was playing in her first international tournament at the age of fifty-one! We are not a particularly strong nation, and were seeded 57th out of the 74 teams which eventually arrived.
The Olympiad took place in the Yerevan Sports and Concerts Complex, a huge building at the top of a hill on the outskirts of the city. Buses were provided to ferry the chess players back and forth from the hotels to the playing hall. The organisers were extremely security-conscious, and we had to go through an airport-style metal detector before being allowed to enter the building. Woe betide anyone who forgot their 'player badge', a pass which allowed access to otherwise forbidden territories!
We played in what was normally used as an ice rink, but the ice had been removed and a carpet had replaced it. At least this meant that the air-conditioning was good : playing chess in 35°C is not my idea of fun! A stage at one end of the hall hosted the top matches, whose boards were wired up to computers allowing the games to be shown on large demonstration screens. There were probably 100-200 spectators every day, with numbers increasing near the end of the tournament.
The opening ceremony took place the day after we arrived. In my experience, opening ceremonies are usually very boring, with long speeches which are delivered one sentence at a time, as they are translated into several languages. This one was a pleasant break from the norm, at a shade under 50 minutes, and in only Russian and English! We were also treated to some music composed specially for the Olympiad, which was used to accompany dancers dressed as chess pieces on a huge chessboard floor. However, it was marred slightly by the words of the Armenian president, Levon Ter-Petrosian, who seemed to be using the chess as a huge propaganda exercise in the run-up to the Armenian elections, which took place mid-way through the Olympiad.
Usually at chess tournaments, a routine of eating, preparing, playing and sleeping is quickly established. It is normal to use tournament bulletins or a computer database to look at your opponent's previous games in the morning, before playing at 3pm. However, round one was very different, as we did not know who we were playing against until after we arrived at the sports complex. We were drawn against Greece, a strong team containing two Women Grandmasters (WGMs). With no time to prepare, we had to rely on our wits and hope we weren't crushed too quickly. I played Makropolou, one of the WGMs, and followed the game Rublevsky - Anand, which I had seen in a newspaper in May. Amazingly, my opponent played the same line, and I was able to achieve a position where she had no choice but to agree a draw, as trying to win was far too risky. Unfortunately, neither of my team-mates were able to hold their strong opponents, so we lost our first match 2.5-0.5
Most of the really strong teams had dispatched of their opponents 3-0, so because of the Swiss pairing system, we got a relatively tough team in round 2 : Canada. They have a very strong board one, and I was unfortunate to play Leger, who came close to winning the prize for the best individual score on board three (the Canadians rested their board two for the match against us). However, Alyson saved our dignity, winning a game which lasted almost eight hours.
During my game against Leger, I began to develop flu symptoms, and was unfit to play in round three. The team beat Ecuador 2-1, with Carey and Siegrun both drawing, and Alyson again bringing home the bacon, this time on board two. Suitably recovered, I was brought back in for round four. Carey was rested, so I played my first game as top board for Scotland against Mexico. I won, but Alyson was unable to keep up her run of victories and lost. Siegrun was confused by the digital clocks which were used, thinking that she had only 44 seconds left when in fact she had 44 minutes. Still, she managed to win, so 2-1.
Our run of good results continued when we drew 1.5-1.5 with Norway in round 5, but we were brought back down to earth when we were crushed 2.5-0.5 by the strong Swiss team in round 6 : Carey and Alyson both lost, and I only managed to draw a commanding looking position.
After round six came the first rest day, and many of the players went on excursions to various places in Armenia. I decided to take the opportunity to catch up on lost sleep, then went with some of the other Scots to find a restaurant in the afternoon. At first, we had thought that the food provided in the hotel was quite good, and certainly better than we had feared. However, there was little variety from day to day, and after a week we were pretty fed up of it. After eating at the restaurant, we went for a walk round Yerevan. There are no estate agents in Armenia, so when someone wants to sell their house they have to put up advertisements themselves. The walls of the subways were thick with notices, and there were streets where the people were lined up, each trying to sell their house or flat. Perhaps Ter-Petrosian should have been directing some of the IMF's money towards the people of his country, rather than using it to stage the Chess Olympiad. Although we had hot water and electricity for the duration of our stay, electricity will be back to 14 hours a day in November, and some people will be completely cut off. Our route back took us round past the Presidential Palace, and some other pleasant buildings and monuments. We returned to our hotel having enjoyed our walk, and glad in the knowledge that we had managed to eat some food whose temperature was on the hot side of lukewarm!
The next day, the action recommenced. We were drawn against Malaysia, who were all FIDE-rated, but had been under-performing for most of the tournament. We rose superbly to the occasion, with Carey and Alyson both winning. I also reached a won position, but some of the Armenian food got the better of me, and I was unable to concentrate properly. My advantage disappeared with interest, and I should have lost, but was able to salvage a draw after some poor play by my opponent.
I was rested for round eight, and spent the day in bed, recovering. At least this gave Siegrun a chance to play : she was clearly weaker than the rest of us, and probably wasn't going to get many games except against weak opposition. The team lost 2-1 to Turkmenistan, a rather catchily named former Soviet republic, with Alyson again sparing our blushes by scoring our only point. Carey became famous for a day by getting her picture in the bulletin, broken arm and all!
I came back for round nine, and a tough match against Macedonia, a former Yugoslavian republic. Carey wasn't feeling well, so I played my second game on board one. I won a pawn, but went wrong and lost horribly. Alyson didn't fare any better, but Siegrun managed to swap most of the pieces off to a drawn ending.
That evening was when most of the drama started. Some of the team decided to go to a pavement cafe, and look at the games we had played that day. As we sat eating ice-cream Mars bars, our team captain came over to tell us that there had been some shootings at the Presidential Palace, only a mile or two away. We went back to our hotel, and I went to my room but some of the team stayed in the lobby to socialise with the Australians. The police then started arresting people outside the hotel and dragging them in through to the back somewhere (because of the security arrangements, there was a large police presence in our hotel). It transpired that the polling stations had expected Ter-Petrosian to be defeated in the election 37%-55%, but that he had actually won by 52% to 41%. The opposition leader Manukyan had been none too happy about this, and neither were many of the Armenian people. Riots and demonstrations involving 50,000 - 100,000 people ensued, and an attempt was made to take over the Presidential Palace. I managed to phone my parents to tell them that we were OK : in fact, we were probably the safest people in Yerevan at the time!
The next day seemed almost unreal. We saw tanks in the streets setting up roadblocks : this was especially evident in the square outside our hotel. We didn't know if the Olympiad was going to continue. We didn't even know if the opposition had managed to take over. Eventually, Alyson managed to find a French radio station, which said that fifty people had been injured during the demonstrations, Ter-Petrosian was still in charge, public meetings had been banned and parliament was in emergency session. Later in the day, we watched a TV station called 'Euro News', and found that the situation in Armenia was headline news, second only to the troubles in Israel. It was strange to think that we were actually in Armenia : the roadblocks meant that the atmosphere was very peaceful and unspoiled by the noise of traffic.
The Olympiad went on as if nothing had happened : the buses appeared in the afternoon, and were let through the roadblocks without any trouble at all. Our 10th round match was against Syria, a team we knew we had to beat. In the end, we won 2.5-0.5, Siegrun being the only one to drop anything after being unable to win despite being a pawn up in a knight ending.
Ter-Petrosian put in an appearance at the Olympiad, presumably as a show of strength. There were rumours that Manukyan had been arrested, although he may have gone into hiding. We learned through 'Euro News' that an independent commission was going to look into the election results, although I am not altogether sure about how 'independent' this commission will be. But still the Olympiad went on.
The next day was our second rest day, and was more normal than the previous day had been. The tanks were still in place, but we were allowed through on showing our player badges. Away from the square, things were more normal, and people were out and about doing their shopping. We had lunch with some of the Australian team, then went for a walk. As we passed the soldiers, we could hear them saying "Schakmaty Olympiad" : they obviously knew who we were! In the evening, we discovered that one of the German journalists who had been there to cover the Olympiad had persuaded two of the Armenian soldiers to play chess on top of one of the tanks. The photograph went world-wide and made him a fortune!
For the final four rounds the team strategy was simple : play the top three in every match and score as many points as possible! Our 11th round match was against Brazil, who were seeded ten places above us. I scored our only point when I defeated Chaves, a Woman International Master (WIM), after she had pressed too hard to make something of a drawish position. I won again in round twelve, in a game which lasted almost seven hours, but the other Scots were unable to hold their opponents.
Our two 2-1 losses had moved us down the leaderboard, and we were paired with Puerto Rico in round thirteen. The match was a complete rout : we all won easily. However, this had the disadvantage of shooting us up the table again. If the Olympiad had ended after round thirteen, we would have come 40th=, a massive seventeen places ahead of seeding. As it was, we were given the nightmare pairing of Bosnia-Herzegovina, who had just come off a 2.5-0.5 loss to Belorussia and had yo-yoed in the opposite direction to meet us. The situation was complicated further by Carey getting an awful migraine after we had put the team lists in : she was unable to play and we had to default on board one. I wasn't feeling too well myself, and played my worst game of the tournament, so it was left for Alyson to score our solitary half point.
In the end we finished 53rd with 19.5 points and our men's team finished 56th with 28.5 in their competition. However, Scotland can claim a little glory : Keti Arakhamia-Grant, member of the victorious Georgian women's team and individual gold medallist on board three, is married to our team manager Jonathan Grant! The men's tournament was won easily by Russia, as expected.
The flight back was quite comforting : we were presented with hot food! However, there were a few problems about what to do with the butter provided, as there didn't appear to be anything for it to go on. Eventually, someone asked one of the air hostesses if there were any rolls, and was told that there had been rolls aboard the aircraft when they landed in Moscow, but that they had mysteriously disappeared by the time it took off again!
So, eventually we arrived back in cold, rainy London, two hours late. I realised that I still had the prospect of a long bus journey to Manchester and all the stresses of late registration the next day, but that I had been very lucky to go to Armenia, and nothing could take the memories away.