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The Chess Olympiad, due to start in Tromsø, Norway on August 1, is in crisis for odd reasons. The Russian women's team, the defending champions, is one of nine teams disqualified for not sending in a team list before the stipulated deadline of June 1, 2014. TASS (the Russian news agency) says the excluded teams are Cambodia, Central African Republic, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, Oman, Pakistan and Senegal for the Open event and Russia, Afghanistan for the women's event.
All nine nations are believed to support incumbent Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's bid for re-election. Conspiracy theorists also allege the Russian Chess Federation (RCF) delayed submission of the women's list because it wants to induct GM Kateryna Lagno.
Lagno has applied for transfer to the RCF. Under FIDE's transfer system, a citizen of nation "A" may play for nation "B" in an accelerated transfer with a fee paid by B to A and a transfer fee paid to FIDE. For a free transfer, a two-year wait period is needed.
Lagno's transfer involves a fee of ^5,000 to FIDE and ^20,000 to the Ukranian association (UCF). She is eligible to play for Russia from July 12, 2014. The relationship between the RCF and UCF is strained for obvious geopolitical reasons. The UCF has protested against the transfer and selected Lagno for the Ukrainian squad!
RCF responded to the disqualification with threats of legal action. No penalties were stipulated in the letter sent by the organisers asking for lists to be declared by June 1. An ambiguous clause seemed to suggest that delegates and players could be named, by paying late fees, until just 20 hours before the start on August 1.
This could be a storm in a teacup or it may lead to a huge schism. FIDE will have to resolve the mess quickly and diplomatically. Ironically the organisers wanted names early to ease visa-related problems for 170-odd participating nations. Under Schengen, every visa applicant must submit biometric data at a Norwegian embassy and Norway doesn't have embassies everywhere.
Fabiano Caruana leads at Dortmund with 3.5 from 4, followed by Arkadij Naiditsch (2.5), Michael Adams, Peter Leko, Georg Meier (all on 2), Ruslan Ponomariov (1.5) , Vladimir Kramnik (1,5) and David Baramidze. At Biel, Vachier Lagrave is 2.5 from 4, with Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Pendyala Harikrishna, Hou Yifan, Anish Giri (all 2) and Alexander Motylev (1.5).
THE DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (Caruana Vs Meier Dortmund 2014) is deceptively sharp. It looks equal. Opposite castling is dangerous and opposite-bishops make the dark squares hard to defend. Black made no obvious errors.
But after 30.Qf3! Qa6 31.Red1 Qa3 32.Bb2 Qa6 33.Qe3 Kh8 White breaks in with 34.f6! gxf6 35.exf6 Rg8 36.g5 h6 37.Rg1 Rcc8 38.g6 (1-0). It's mate after 38.--Rxg6 39. Rxg6 with Qxh6 to come.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
