[imagefield_assist|fid=6737|preset=fullsize|lightbox=true|title=GM Hikaru Nakamura hopes to lead the U.S. to victory in Khanty-Mansyisk.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=254|height=375]By IM John Donaldson
The FIDE Presidential race between incumbent Kirsan Ilumzhinov and challenger Antaoly Karpov has been attracting most of the media attention to date, but that will likely change as soon as the Chess Olympiad begins on September 21.
The 39th in a series of competitions dating back to London 1927, the 2010 Chess Olympiad will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk in Western Siberia not far from the confluence of the mighty Irtysh and Ob rivers. A rapidly growing oil town and home to a population of 62,000, Khanty Mansiysk may be almost 1,800 miles from Moscow but is well known to the chess world for hosting the 2005, 2007 and 2009 World Cups.
This latest undertaking will be considerably more challenging as the number of contestants will not be 128 but closer to 2,500 with most of FIDE's approximately 200 member nations scheduled to compete. The organizers have arranged charter flights from Dubai, Milan, Prague, Munich and Moscow to deal with the influx of people. They have just completed a giant hotel and arranged the food service contracts - no small deal in a town that is not on a rail line and can get as cold as -50 Fahrenheit. Fortunately during the Olympiad temperatures should be in the 40s and 50s!
Temperatures may be moderate outside the playing venue but inside the competition will be heated with arguably the strongest congregation of chess talent ever assembled. Partly this will be due to the fact that Russia, as the host country is allowed a second team and a third if the number of nations competing is an odd number (which seems to be the case). To put things in perspective the second Russian team will average well over 2700 FIDE and the third team will have several present and former 2700s.
[imagefield_assist|fid=6738|preset=fullsize|lightbox=true|title=GM Robert Hess brings youth and depth to the U.S. team.|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=375|height=237]
The U.S. Team and U.S. Women, both defending bronze medalists and likely seeded somewhere between number 8 and 10 in Khanty Mansisyk, will feature mixtures of veteran and young players. 18-year-old Robert Hess of New York City and 20-year-old Sabina Foisor of Baltimore will each be making their Olympiad debuts for the United States but both have previous team tournament experience – Hess in the 2010 World Team Championship (where the U.S. finished second) and Foisor for her native Romania.
The teams are:
USA - Hikaru Nakamura, Gata Kamsky, Alex Onischuk, Yury Shulman and Robert Hess. Captain John Donaldson and Coach Varuzhan Akobian.
USA Women- Irina Krush, Anna Zatonskih, Tatev Abrahamian, Camilla Baginskaite and Sabina Foisor. Captain Michael Khodarkovsky and Coach Melik Khachian.
Among the top seeded teams will be:
[imagefield_assist|fid=6739|preset=fullsize|lightbox=true|title=The 2010 U.S. Women's Champ, IM Irina Krush, looks to lead the U.S. Women's team to victory in Siberia.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=375|height=256]Armenia (Two-time defending gold medalists) - GM Levon Aronian, GM Vladimir Akopian, GM Gabriel Sargissian, GM Arman Pashikian, GM Avetik Grigoryan
Russia 1 - Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Sergey Karjakin, Peter Svidler and Vladimir Malakhov.
Russia 2 - Alexander Morozevich, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Nikita Vitiugov, Evgeny Alekseev and Ian Nepomniatch
Israel (Defending Silver Medalists) - Boris Gelfand, Michael Roiz, Emil Sutovsky, Evgeny Postny and Maxim Rodshtein
Azerbaijan - GM Teimour Radjabov, GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, GM Vugar Gashimov, GM Gadir Guseynov, GM Rauf Mammadov
Ukraine - Vassily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Pavel Eljanov, Zahar Efimenko and Andrei Volokitin
The U.S. team's participation is made possible by the generous sponsorship of the Kasparov Chess Foundation and the U.S. Chess Federation.
