Baku Chess Olympiad

     Some months with promises of posts have passed with me having no inspiration at all...

     Finally, some days after the World Chess Olympiad in Baku finished, I've found some energy to share some subjective impressions about it.

 Corina Peptan, Elena Luminita Cosma, Ciprian Nanu, me and Cristina Foisor

     Many people say that it was the best organized Olympiad ever. Frankly, I don't share this point of view. I will try to explain myself.
     I liked the hotel we stayed in and Baku itself but the food was too big of a challenge for my stomach and I had problems with it from day 1 until the last day. Moreover, it was sooooo cold in the playing hall that I also got totally sick at the middle of the tournament. One could imagine my joy going to the round with my stomach crying, sniffing all the time and dreaming of a "Parasinus" I couldn't take because of an eventual doping control.

Elena Luminita Cosma, Angela Dragomirescu, Corina Peptan and me

     Another negative thing I had to experience was some arbiters' incompetence. Imagine the following situation: I am playing my game, the endgame looks quite drawish, though it's me who has to make the draw, I find some repetition, if my opponent doesn't go for it, I can finally have some ideas to improve my position, we've repeated the position for 2 times and suddenly my opponent goes to the arbiter saying she wants to ask the captain if to make a repetition or not, the arbiter allows her. I want to specify that there was no draw offer at all. Practically, my opponent was asking her captain "Should I make this move or not?". Despite our captain's protests nothing happened. The same situation happened to one of my teammates in another match, moreover, that other arbiter couldn't even speak English, though he was quite friendly with our opponents who were Spanish speakers as him and allowed the player to talk to the captain and ask about repetition.
      I suppose that the other participants didn't have the same experiences I had and that's the reason they call this Olympiad the best one ever.
     All these facts had shadowed the joy of being a part of the biggest celebration of Chess.
     Otherwise, Baku seemed to be a really nice city. I was happy to see many of my friends from all over the World. I am normally a very positive person and I've tried to find positive things to hold on to through the tournament...
     The tournament started quite good for our team, culminating in an equal match we've made vs the future winners- China. The 2nd part of the tournament didn't go as we wanted, though we fought very hard each match. I guess that the conclusions are yet to be drawn.
     Sport is sport!