Shortly after 1 pm local time on Tuesday 12th October, 2004 a silky smooth airplane landing heralded the arrival of Jamaica´s team to the beautiful city Calvia in Mallorca (Spain) for the 36th Chess Olympiad. The team comprising National Masters Shane Matthews, Duane Rowe, Russel Porter and Malaku Lorne will be captained by Ian Wilkinson the president of the Jamaica Chess Federation (JCF). A combination of Hurricane Ivan  and other events decimated the original Jamaican squad.

 

The team actually left Jamaica 7 am on Monday 11th October, 2004 for Miami where, for about five hours, the members relaxed, studied chess and played blitz (Lorne doing very well) before leaving for Madrid, Spain. After the seven-hour flight to Madrid we arrived in the lovely Spanish capital where we spent another two hours playing chess, including an interesting blindfold Sicilian between Rowe and Wilkinson which was adjourned at move 22 because we had to board the flight to Mallorca.

 

In Mallorca we were greeted at the airport by Jose and Esteban, representing the Olympiad organisers, andthey told us that we were the second team to arrive for the event, China being first. After our credentials were confirmed we had to wait for almost an hour to share a bus to our hotel with the Armenian team which included GMs Smbat Lputian and Rafael Vaganian. Indeed, I showed Lputian (who took pictures with me during the 35th Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia) his photograph and his game in my book Magnificence In Bled and he read for a while and then smiled.

 

The Jamaicans have settled in at the Hotel Acorn Pionero  in Santa Ponsa Park where they are in good spirits and have been training assiduously, determined to do well, especially in the absence of top players such as FM Warren Elliott, NM Jomo Pitterson and NM Robert Wheeler, all of whom formed a part of the team in Bled.

 

The Olympiad commences officially with the opening ceremony on the 14th October, 2004 at 5 pm local time at the Playa Santa Ponsa Park with a chess festival. At 7 pm the reception for the "dignitaries" will be held. The tournament is scheduled to be held at the Gran Casino, the first round starting at 3:30 pm on Friday 15th October, 2004, and already the atmosphere is pregnant with anticipation.

 

 

There are 131 teams in the men´s competition including two teams from Spain, a privilege traditionally accorded to the hosts. Interestingly, Latvian-born GM Alexei Shirov (2726) reclaims the top board from GM Francisco Vallejo Pons for Spain while India welcomes back GM Viswanathan Anand who at 2781 is the highest rated player in the competition in the absence of Russia´s Garry Kasparov. The second highest rated player is Russia´s GM Alexander Morozevich (2758) who is listed on board one. England´s board one is GM Michael Adams (2740) who is the third highest rated player in the competition.

 

Zambian IM Amon Simutowe (2424) is registered as his country´s board one while there is no sign that Zimbabwe will be sending a team. It seems that the Calvia Olympiad will not be having any Robert Gwaze magic.

 

Also of note is the return of GM Joel Lautier (2682) who will lead France on board one in the absence of the 2700+ rated GM Etienne Bacrot. There are about 750 players registered in the men´s section, about 250 being grandmasters (GM), 148 international masters (IM) and 78 FIDE Masters (FM). The highest rated IM, based on the official website, is Bulgaria´s board 2 Ivan Cheparinov (2576) who is the 104th highest ranked player.

 

 

The highest rated FM is China´s board 5 player is FM Wang Yue (2536). Please note that this is NOT the martial arts/Shaolin movie star! About 300 untitled players will participate.

 

Of interest is the fact that GM Peter Svidler, although being one of fellow Russian GM Vladimir Kramnik´s seconds in his world championship match against Hungrian GM Peter Leko in Brissago, Switzerland, has been registered on board 2 for Russia. Similarly, Armenia´s Vladmir Akopian (2692), one of Leko´s seconds, is slated for board one duties for his country. GM Alexander Graf (2646) will now lead Germany, replacing GM Christopher Lutz (2596) now on board 3.

 

 

Monaco´s WIM Julia Lebel-Arias (1986), who lost to Trinidad & Tobago´s Ravishen Singh during his silver medal board 5 march in the Bled Olympiad, is a rare female presence in the men´s competition, having been registered on board 5.

 

 

There are 88 teams in the women´s competition with approximately 350 players down to do battle. China, the defending champions, will be led by former world women´s champion GM Xie Jun (2569) who was absent in Bled, having given birth to a child. Ironically, the number one from Bled, GM Zhu Chen, is absent from the team this time around as she is also giving birth!! The Chinese really know how to plan!! WGM Zhao Xue (2487), the top female performer in Bled as the reserve (11/12), returns this time as the official board three player. WGM Xu Yuhua will be on board two.

 

 

Russia, who finished second to China in Bled, is back with a very youthful aggregation and will be led on board one by the 2500-rated IM Alexandra Kosteniuk. Trinidad is fielding a women´s team but not Barbados and Jamaica, both of whom had done so on the last occasion.

 

The chief arbiter is Ignatius Leong.

 

 

 

---