Here in Istanbul, there is a rumor that the FIDE Women's World Chess Championship is being moved to Elista, but the FIDE Men's World Chess Championship will remain in New Delhi.
Kirsan is known to be partial to the ladies. At least they will probably be paid, whereas the same seems doubtful for the men.
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First scandal: The top two women's teams, China and Georgia, drew their match, without much of a fight. Only a few moves into her game with former World Champion Maya Chiburdanidze, Xie Jun offered a package deal: a draw on both of the top two boards.
Maya consulted her team captain and back came a counter-offer of a draw on all three boards. This was accepted.
This may be slightly to the advantage of China because China had black in two of the three games, and China has faced a tougher field thus far, but we as spectators were hoping to see a knock down, drag out cat fight.
It was not much better on the lower boards. On board two among the women, the Netherlands drew Greece and on board three, Russian drew Ukraine. The first decisive match was on board four, where England beat Yugoslavia 2-1.
Among men, peace also prevailed, as Russia drew Germany, Ukraine drew Slovakia, Armenia drew Bulgaria and England drew Denmark.
However, on board 5, Hungary virtually wiped out the Czech Republic, 3-1, with Judit Polgar scoring a quick win against Hracek on board two.
On board 6, Israel defeated Spain 3-1, with Gelfand beating Shirov on board one.
India drew Croatia, China drew Switzerland, but the USA beat Poland 2 1/2 - 1/1/2, with Seirawan defeating Krasenkow on board one. Georgia wiped out Turkey B, 4-0.
As a result, Germany remains in the lead with 18 1/2, followed by Russia with 17 1/2, Slovakia with 17, Hungary and Israel with 16 1/2, Armenia with 16, England, Bulgaria, United States, India, China, Denmark, Georgia, Croatia and the Netherlands all with 15 1/2.
On the Women's side, China and Georgia remain tied for first with 13 1/2, but by beating Kazakhstan 3-0, Moldova moved up into a tie with the Netherlands for third with 13.
Today is the arrival day for the chess politicians. The committee meetings start tomorrow. At least five chess politicians are supposed to come from America, but I have only seen one thus far.
It is not correct to call them the American delegation. Rather, they are members of various rock-throwing factions. They usually throw rocks at each other, but occasionally they throw rocks at FIDE.
The American group consists of sycophants, gadflies and spectators, as well as one official delegate.
The delegate is William Kelleher, the only real legal representative of the USCF. He alone has the right to vote at FIDE meetings and he alone can legally bind the USCF.
For example, if Kelleher placed a bid to hold a World Chess Olympiad in the United States, something I would like him to do, that would be legally binding on the USCF.
However, his position on any subject is unknown.
The sycophant is Steve Doyle. He claims the represent the USA, but he does not. He was appointed by Ilyumzhinov and he does whatever Kirsan tells him to do.
The gadfly is Jim Eade. A bright, capable and extremely wealthy person gone bad. When appointed the USA Zone President, instead of accepting the appointment with grace and humility, he posted attacks on various people on the Internet. His latest offense was his grievously insulting open letter to Yasser Seirawan, where he started: "You and I have enjoyed a cordial, friendly relationship over the years, and I will begin by stating that I both like and respect you [but] I believe that you have been seriously misinformed."
Jim Eade has never attended a World Chess Olympiad or a FIDE Congress and he is not here yet. Yasser Seirawan is one of the best informed people in the chess world. Who is Eade to say that Yasser Seirawan is "seriously misinformed"?
Of course, Eade was appointed to his position not because of his qualifications for FIDE office (he has none, having never attended a FIDE meeting) but because his cronies had gained power on the USCF Executive Board and Eade has a history of personal attacks on their arch-enemy, Bill Goichberg.
If you doubt this, go back and read his long thread entitled "The Silence of the Goich" which Eade posted on the Internet.
The spectators are Redman and Schultz. Although Redman is the current USCF President and Schultz is a past president, neither of them have any official status at the FIDE meetings. Redman made himself look especially bad recently, when he wrote a letter to all the team players informing them that he was cutting their salaries, but explaining that he will not be charging the USCF for any of his travel expenses.
It later came out that Redman was receiving one thousand dollars from the USCF for "entertainment expenses." His travel expenses are being paid by his university.
There is also the "journalist", Sloan.
Two who will be missing are Carol Jarecki and Jerome Bibuld. Jarecki was scheduled to come, but says she cannot make it due to a family illness. Among all of the above, Jarecki is by far the most respected person in FIDE. As to the others, the world chess community knows what they are.
There are constant complaints about Jarecki in the USCF, but all of them originate from rival arbiters who are jealous over the fact that Jarecki gets all the good directing jobs. They claim that she gets the good jobs in return for political patronage or even for sexual favors. They are perhaps not able to grasp the possibility that Jarecki gets all the good jobs because she is actually a better arbiter than the others. Otherwise, why would all sides of all fences hire her all the time?
I am relieved that Jerome Bibuld is not here. His presence has been a blight on every chess Olympiad. He goes around asking the players to sign petitions in support of his various political causes. You say, "What harm does this do?", but I ask, "Would you dare to refuse to sign a petition presented by a person who might be the arbiter who is going to make a ruling on your game tomorrow?"
Usually, Bibuld's petitions involve Palestinian rights or freedom for blacks in Africa. While these are noble causes, usually Bibuld's petition involves banning some chess grandmaster from playing chess for the rest of his life for alleged violations of those alleged rights.
Remember that Bibuld is being paid by FIDE while circulating these petitions.
There was an announcement today that problems with the sensory boards, with the web site and with the tournament bulletins have been solved and that from now on the legal games will be presented. Therefore, I am taking a chance by presenting some games which were played, or which I believe were played, in this round:
Note: I am posting all of my reports from Istanbul on my web site. This one will be posted at http://www.samsloan.com/day-6.htm
Sam Sloan
[Event "34th Chess Olympiad (men)"] [Site "Istanbul"] [Date "2000.11.02"] [Round "6"] [White "Krasenkow, M."] [Black "Seirawan, Y."] [WhiteElo "2702"] [BlackElo "2647"] [WhiteCountry "POL"] [BlackCountry "USA"] [Result "0-1"] [Remark "2482"] [PresId "0000106091"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. d4 c6 5. Bf4 Bb4 6. h3 Qa5 7. Qb3 O-O 8. cxd5 exd5 9. Bd2 Re8 10. e3 Qb6 11. Bd3 Bd6 12. Qc2 Qd8 13. O-O h6 14. Rfe1 a6 15. Rab1 Be6 16. b4 Bg3 17. Re2 Be5 18. Rbe1 Bh2+ 19. Kxh2 Kf8 20. Nxd5 Nxd5 21. g4 Nf4 22. Kg1 Qa5 23. bxa5 0-1 [Event "34th Chess Olympiad (men)"] [Site "Istanbul"] [Date "2000.11.02"] [Round "6"] [White "Gelfand, B."] [Black "Shirov, A."] [WhiteElo "2681"] [BlackElo "2746"] [WhiteCountry "ISR"] [BlackCountry "ESP"] [Result "1-0"] [Remark "2470"] [PresId "0000106061"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. Be3 c6 8. d5 cxd5 9. cxd5 Ng4 10. Bg5 f6 11. Bh4 h5 12. Nd2 Na6 13. Nc4 Nh6 14. f3 Nf7 15. O-O Bd7 16. a4 Qb8 17. Nb5 Rc8 18. Bf2 Bh6 19. Qb3 Nc5 20. Qa3 a6 21. Nbxd6 Nxd6 22. Nb6 Bf8 23. b4 Ncxe4 24. fxe4 Be8 25. Qf3 Be7 26. Nxa8 Qxa8 27. Bc5 Qb8 28. a5 Qc7 29. Rac1 Qd7 30. Bd3 Kg7 31. Qe3 Bf7 32. Bb6 Rxc1 33. Rxc1 Qa4 34. Bc5 g5 35. Qf2 Qd7 36. Qc2 h4 37. h3 Bg6 38. Bb6 Kh6 39. Qc7 Qe8 40. Bc5 Qf8 41. Rf1 1-0 [Event "34th Chess Olympiad (men)"] [Site "Istanbul"] [Date "2000.11.02"] [Round "6"] [White "Vaganian, R."] [Black "Topalov, V."] [WhiteElo "2623"] [BlackElo "2707"] [WhiteCountry "ARM"] [BlackCountry "BUL"] [Result "0-1"] [Remark "2458"] [PresId "0000106031"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 c5 3. d5 b5 4. a4 b4 5. Bg5 Ne4 6. g3 g6 7. Bg2 d6 8. Bc1 Bg7 9. Nfd2 Nxd2 10. Nxd2 Nd7 11. O-O O-O 12. Re1 a5 13. e4 Nb6 14. Ra2 e6 15. b3 exd5 16. exd5 Bb7 17. Nf1 Re8 18. Rxe8+ Qxe8 19. h4 f5 20. Bf4 Be5 21. Ne3 Bxf4 22. gxf4 Qe7 23. h5 Qh4 24. hxg6 hxg6 25. Qf3 Qf6 26. c4 bxc3ep 27. Re2 Ba6 28. Nc4 Nxc4 29. bxc4 Rb8 30. Re6 Qxe6 31. dxe6 c2 32. Qe3 Rb1+ 33. Kh2 c1Q 34. Qg3 Kg7 35. Qh4 Qg1+ 36. Kh3 0-1 [Event "34th Chess Olympiad (men)"] [Site "Istanbul"] [Date "2000.11.02"] [Round "6"] [White "Hracek, Z."] [Black "Polgar, J."] [WhiteElo "2612"] [BlackElo "2656"] [WhiteCountry "CZE"] [BlackCountry "HUN"] [Result "0-1"] [Remark "2467"] [PresId "0000106052"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6 7. Bd3 b5 8. Nxc6 Qxc6 9. O-O Bb7 10. a3 Nf6 11. Qe2 h5 12. f4 Ng4 13. Bd2 Bc5+ 14. Kh1 Bd4 15. Rae1 O-O-O 16. Nd1 f5 17. Ba5 Rdf8 18. c3 Ba7 19. e5 g5 20. c4 bxc4 21. Bxc4 gxf4 22. Rf3 Rhg8 23. b4 Nxe5 24. Qxe5 Qxc4 25. Nb2 Bxf3 26. gxf3 Qc2 0-1