Seychelles left disappointed at Chess Olympiad |08 September 2016

A team of 12 chess players who are representing Seychelles at the 42nd Chess Olympiad taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, have been left bitterly disappointed after they have not been paired in the first round for not arriving on time.

According to an article on the website www.chess.com “many games in the first round, including those of two strong grandmasters, were over before a move had been made. On the very top boards, top-seed Russia faced Nigeria, who had only managed to get to Baku with three players. Playing on fourth board grand master (GM) Alexander Grischuk scored a point without playing. The same happened to GM David Anton, who won by default for Spain versus Syria, who also played with three boards. Ditto for Palestine. For many teams, things were much worse. The organisers knew that Angola, Madagascar, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Eritrea, and Central African Republic wouldn't arrive in Baku in time so these countries were not paired. However, Malawi, Cameroon, Mali, Haiti, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi, Senegal, Gambia, Congo, Djibouti, and Lesotho all also lost 0-4 due to no shows”.

A handful of countries not arriving in time is quite common, but there have been few Olympiads in which so many countries missed the first round. Some of these cases might be related to visa issues. Sources told Chess.com that some teams are stuck at airports because their electronic visa or their visa-on-arrival arrangements were refused.

International Chess Federation’s (Fide) chief executive Geoffrey Borg denied there were visa problems. “This has nothing to do with visas for sure. The process was much more straightforward this time round,” he said.

Tournament director Takis Nikolopoulos wrote to Chess.com: “Malawi appeared with only one player and Mexico with only two. According to regulations they could not play (the team must have at least three players in order to start the match), but tomorrow they will come with full teams, according to their captains. Haiti and Malawi came late in Baku and will play tomorrow. For the rest of the teams, which are all from Africa, I have no clear information.”

As it turns out, Angola, Madagascar, Mexico, Uganda, Haiti, Congo and Lesotho are all paired for round two.

As of yet, it is still not clear if Seychelles has been paired for round two since round one is still ongoing.

A record-breaking 180 teams are competing in this event where the best chess players on the planet meet to contest for the top prize.

As usual the event is run by Swiss pairing system with the top seeded teams facing the lower rated opposition.

The Seychelles men’s team in Baku comprise Max Larue as captain along with Timothy Kate, Harish Pillay, Michel Zialor, Ragul Pillay and Benjamin Hoareau. Bernadette Contoret leads the women’s team who feature Snegha Pillay, Kaviya Sekar, Rachelle Hoareau, Dericka Figaro and Marie-Ange Moustache.