Page 6 … Jamaica at Olympiad 2002 (Ian Wilkinson)

• Zambian IM Amon Simutowe's strong play, especially against the Grandmasters (the Brazilian GM Gianni Vescovi and the Albanian GM Erald Dervishi come to mind).
  
• The restaurant staff at the Hotel Krim, particularly Damian and Ramiza.
  
• Hanging with the beautiful African brothers and sisters, especially those from Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Woweee those sistahs were fine!
  
• Hearing Reggae music (Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff) being piped through the ceiling while in the restaurant in the Hotel Krim.
  
• Spending time in the press centre, especially watching, working with, and listening to, the (other) journalists.
  
• Meeting, chatting and taking pictures of/with a lot of beautiful women including China's Zhu Chen, France's Almira Skripchenko-Lautier and Russia's Alexandra Kosteniuk.
  
• Meeting, chatting and taking pictures with many marvelous players including Simutowe, Kasparov, Svidler, Vladimir Akopian, Nigel Short, Loek Van Wely, Alberto David, Miguel Ilescas, Joel Lautier, Alexander Beliavsky, Yasser Seirawan, Sergei Rublevsky, Vassilios Kotronias, Walter Arencibia and Etienne Bacrot just to name a few.
  
• The warmth and hospitality of the Slovenes.
  
• Being in Bled, Slovenia!!!
  

Mixed Feelings

It was with mixed feelings that I left Bled. I was, of course, happy to return home but I was very sad that it was all over. The ambience and atmosphere of the playing hall, the press centre, the view of the Alps and Lake Bled, the players milling around, meeting and greeting each other, furrowed brows searching for the truth at the chess board are images which will remain with me forever.

In my humble opinion the 35^th chess Olympiad was a resounding success. One only hopes that the 36^th edition scheduled for the island of Minorca in 2004 will be even better.

Ian Wilkinson
Kingston, Jamaica
1^st December, 2002