PM To Inaugurate 44th Chess Olympiad, Hails Event As "Special" Tournament.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 44th Chess Olympiad today, with the marquee event being hosted by India for the first time.
Birth of the Olympiad
The first Olympiad was unofficial. For the 1924 Olympics an attempt was made to include chess in the Olympic Games but this failed because of problems with distinguishing between amateur and professional players.[1] While the 1924 Summer Olympics was taking place in Paris, the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad also took place in Paris. FIDE was formed on Sunday, July 20, 1924, the closing day of the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad.[2]
FIDE organised the first Official Olympiad in 1927 which took place in London.[1] The Olympiads were occasionally held annually and at irregular intervals until World War II; since 1950 they have been held regularly every two years.[1]
Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi, Chief Minister MK Stalin and Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur among others will be present during the opening ceremony at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor stadium in the city.
The sporting event will be held in the nearby Mamallapuram, about 50 km from Chennai.
The Olympiad is being held in India for the first time ever, after being moved out of Russia and has attracted a record number of entries in the Open (188) and women's (162) sections.
Some of the game's biggest names will match their wits. The Torch relay, after traversing 75 cities in the past 40 days will reach the venue before the official opening.
PM Modi said he was looking forward to being in the city for the inauguration of the event.
"This is a special tournament and it is our honour that it is being held in India, that too in Tamil Nadu, which has a glorious association with chess," the PM tweeted.
The tournament will feature three Indian teams each in the Open and women's events. The legendary Viswanathan Anand will not be playing but will be seen in the role of a mentor to the players.
The Olympiad has captured the imagination of the chess-lovers and general public alike and the Tamil Nadu government has gone all out to promote the showpiece event.
Cutouts of 'Thambi', the Olympiad mascot--a knight wearing traditional Tamil attire, could be spotted at various places in the city and near the venue at Mamallapuram as the state government and the All-India Chess Federation (AICF) went on a promotion overdrive.
The Olympiad was moved out of Russia after it invaded neighbouring Ukraine earlier and was allotted to India with Chennai being chosen as the venue.
Players including Mr Anand feel that the city hosting the event would have a great impact on chess in Tamil Nadu.
Drug testing
As a sporting federation recognized by the IOC, and particularly as a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) conventions,[3] FIDE adheres to their rules, including a requirement for doping tests,[4][5] which they are obligated to take at the events such as the Olympiad. The tests were first introduced in 2002 under significant controversy,[6] with the widespread belief that it was impossible to dope in chess. Research carried out by the Dutch chess federation failed to find a single performance-enhancing substance for chess.[7] According to Dr Helmut Pfleger, who has been conducting experiments in the field for around twenty years, "Both mentally stimulating and mentally calming medication have too many negative side effects".[7] Players such as Artur Yusupov,[8] Jan Timman[9] and Robert Hübner[10] either refused to play for their national team or to participate in events such as the Chess Olympiad where drug tests were administered. All 802 tests administered at the 2002 Olympiad came back negative.[11] However, in the 36th Chess Olympiad in 2004, two players refused to provide urine samples and had their scores cancelled.[12][13] Four years later, Vassily Ivanchuk was not penalized for skipping a drug test at the 38th Chess Olympiad in 2008, with a procedural error being indicated instead.[14]
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