CHESS OLYMPIAD ISTANBUL TURKEY 2012

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.

Chess is a recognized sport by the International Olympic Committee with FIDE being the recognized International Sports Federation for chess since June 1999.

The 40th Chess Olympiad is going to be held in Istanbul, Turkey between 27th August and 10th September 2012. Womens FIDE Grand Prix Series will take place from 16th November to 30th November 2012 in Istanbul.

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As a member of the International Olympic Committee, FIDE adheres to its rules, including controversially having doping tests. The prospects of chess becoming an Olympic sporting event at some future date remain unclear.

The naming of FIDE's team championship as the "Chess Olympiad" is of historical origin and implies no connection between this event and the Olympic Games.

Each FIDE recognized chess association can enter a team into the Olympiad (for the UK one team for each of the four countries plus Guernsey and Jersey can enter a team separately).

Each team is made of up to five players, four regular players and one reserve (prior to the tournament in Dresden 2008 there were two reserves). Initially each team played all other teams but as the event grew over the years this became impossible.

At first team seeding took place before the competition. Later certain drawbacks were recognized with seeding and in 1976 a Swiss tournament system was adopted.

The trophy for the winning team in the open section is the Hamilton-Russell Cup, which was offered by the English magnate Frederick Hamilton-Russell as a prize for the 1st Olympiad (London 1927). The cup is kept by the winning team until the next event, when it will be consigned to the next winner. The trophy for the winning women's team is known as the Vera Menchik Cup the first Women's World Chess Champion.

The 2012 Olympiad is going to be held in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 78th FIDE Congress held during the 38th Chess Olympiad taking place from 12 to 25 November 2008 in Dresden ended as another organizational triumph for the Turkish Chess Federation, representing one of the most rapidly developing chess countries in the world.

In the FIDE Congress, the election for hosting the 2012 Chess Olympiads were made which were won by Turkey (Istanbul) with 95 votes against 40 votes (1 vote not counted) of the other bid coming from Montenegro (Budva).

Strong Government and Sponsor Support

2012 Olympiad had a very strong governmental, bureaucratic and sponsors which played a major role in the election of Istanbul has a host. Apart from Istanbul being one of the most attractive metropolitans into the world, the traffic jam problem is on the way to a clear-cut solution, which improved, compared to 2000.

The State Minister of Sport, Mr Murat Basesgioglu stated his personal support in the name of the Turkish Republic and the cabinet. His personal letter to the is going to be published later on.

The main sponsor of the TCF, Is Bank is giving its full support as ever but also there will be other sponsors for the 2012 Chess Olympiad. The Metropolitan Municipality of Istanbul, The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, Istanbul Congress and Visitors Bureau are the other major sponsors.

The minimum planned budget is announced as the 7.5€ million but it is planned to be increased gradually. According to the legislation of Turkey, there will be special institution named for the Chess Olympiad 2012 which is going to be led by the State Minister himself as stated in his warranty letter.

Turkey: The Country in the Chess Boom

Turkey has already hosted a Chess Olympiad in 2000 again is Istanbul among with more than 100 international tournaments in the last eight years including 3 European Individual Championships, 2 European Club Cups, 3 World Junior Championships, 1 World Youth Championship, 1 European Youth Championship, 4 Under 16 Children’s Chess Olympiad among many others.

The number of the members of the federation has increased from 3.000 to 255.000 in about eight years with an increasing number of titled chess players. There are also some major successes among which Ekaterina Atalik’s European Individual title in 2006, Mikhail Gurevich’s participation to the World Cup and the Candidates Matches for Mexico 2007, Kubra Oztürk’s two consecutive European Under16 titles in 2006, 2007 and silver medal in the World Junior Ch., Cemil Can Ali Marandi’s European Under 10 title among many other youth and junior titles.

Ali Nihat Yazici, the president of the Turkish Chess Federation was the leader of the boom is now also Vice President of FIDE, respected among international circles and known as one of the most dynamic organizers in the chess world.


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