Farewell to Dresden
Susan Polgar on Chess
ChessCafe Column
December 2008
Everything must come to an end one day. In Dresden at the 38th Chess Olympiad, that day came on November 25, 2008.
The Olympiad began on November 11th with a spectacular Opening Ceremony at Dresden’s Freiberger Stadium. It was an amazing show with a wide variety of music and dance performances, and much more. As an ambassador for this Olympiad, I had the honor of lighting the Olympiad torch during the ceremony. My other duties included producing the daily Olympiad Newspaper and hosting two daily Chess Talk Shows.
All the players in Dresden compete to fulfill a goal, whether it is to aim for a medal or just to improve on a previous Olympiad performance. However, a Chess Olympiad is much more than competition and hard work, it is a chance for participants from all over the world to meet old friends and make new ones.
Chess enthusiasts in the twenty-first century are very fortunate because they did not need to travel to Dresden to be in on the action. The entire Olympiad was broadcast on Chess TV and all games could be seen live via the Internet. For the first time in the history of chess Olympiads, anyone could witness the entire spectacle in the comfort of their home.
Aside from all the great players participating in Dresden, many celebrities came to support the event. Among them were former world champions Anatoly Karpov and Boris Spassky; World Boxing Champion Artur Abraham; super-model Carmen Kaas; and dignitaries such as the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan; and the Prime Minister of Saxony, Stanislav Tillich, among others.
The Dresden Olympiad had a record number of teams participating from 144 nations. After eleven grueling rounds, two nations defied the odds to capture medals. Armenia deservingly won the Gold medal with 19 points after leading throughout most of the Olympiad. They only lost one match to Israel and tied against Ukraine, but defeated all others, including the top seed Russia. The Silver medal went to Israel with 18 points. The Bronze medal was won by the United States with 17 points, because of a better tiebreak against Ukraine. As a reward for their repeat Gold medal performance, the Armenian team was flown home on President Serzh Sargsyan’s presidential plane!
In the Women’s Olympiad, the Gold went to Georgia on tiebreak points after a great comeback, including three consecutive 4-0 matches. The Silver went to the Ukrainian team, and the seventh seed US team got the Bronze on tiebreak with 17 points.
Congratulations to all the winners, especially the U.S. Bronze medalists! Farewell to Dresden and see you all again at the Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad in 2010!
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Thanks for the great coverage.