The impact of the Olympiad decision

The organizers did not want to let 10 national teams compete who failed to sign up by June 1. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov approved the late registrations, which included the reigning women’s champions from Russia. But organizers controversially refused to follow Ilyumzhinov’s edict, said they’d adhered to FIDE’s own regulations, and it would cost too much money to add the latecomers to the program.

The president wrote an open letter to the event holders late last week that was published on FIDE’s website, demanding the excluded teams get to participate, reported Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). “As FIDE president I will in the strongest appeal the olympiad organizing committee’s recent decisions and behaviour,” Ilyumzhinov wrote. He threatened to invoke rule 6.1 which allows him to overrule all contracts, including national federations’ own rules.

“We’re giving into the demands, but we still do not agree,” Tromsø 2014 director Børge Robertsen told on Monday. “We have record enrollments, and have needed to adhere to the rules FIDE has set. But now we see that all would be better served if everyone gets to come.” He said they’d discuss with FIDE the economic impacts of letting the 10 extra teams compete.

As well as the Russian women, teams from Cambodia, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Oman, Pakistan, Senegal and Afghanistan would now be allowed to participate.

“I think it is totally the right decision,” said NRK’s chess expert, Torstein Bae. “A considerable part of the point of the event is that you gather the whole world into this kind of competition, so it would be a shame if because of a deadline you missed so many countries.”

Full article: http://www.newsinenglish.no