Baku 2016

[Roger de Coverly]

The next Olympiad is due to be played in Azerbaijan in 2016.

This year they are holding the grandiosely titled European Games (no chess content) and in 2020 some of the matches in the European Cup (football). Also they are due a motor racing Grand Prix. A journalist or two has been banned from attending the European Games making the Guardian and others restless.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/j ... ormula-one

The involvement of Azerbaijan in chess sponsorship both with the Olympiad and the State Oil Company SOCAR has yet to be noticed, so unlike UEFA, there are no calls for FIDE to reconsider.

[MJMcCready]

They are slowly building their way up, many teams and clubs have azeri sponsorship. Many journalists have been banned from Baku due to the negative criticism they leveled at the country, as I am sure you know it isn't a democracy, and in fact, something very far from it. The great tragedy that I must have heard on an hourly basis during the year and a half I spent there is that the government invested so heavily in high-profile events, to put little Azerbaijan on the map but at the neglect of common amenities. Running water doesn't exist, power is not always 24 hours a day, the roads are utterly atrocious, it is a country beseeched with problems, and the millions spent on these events would be better served helping people who live in the city. Azerbaijan is a very divided nation, it is one rule for the rich with their great ambitions, and another for those who live an ordinary life, all of whom are very frustrated with their government and the money (they claim) they waste on such events.

The Olympiad next year is likely to have its fair share of problems.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Are they not holding the World Cup there this year as well? Is there a reason the focus here is on the Olympiad next year and not the World Cup this year?

[NickFaulks]

Azerbaijan is a very divided nation, it is one rule for the rich with their great ambitions, and another for those who live an ordinary life

Not like the UK at all then.

[Mick Norris]

Are they not holding the World Cup there this year as well?

Yes, 10 September, finalists get places in Candidates
see here

[MJMcCready]

Yes they are and it would appear that Aronian will play, which should be interesting.