Batumi Olympiad

[NickFaulks]

It will teach me to locate the relevant part of the FIDE handbook and treat it as gospel https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/ches ... ations.pdf

I hoped that everyone knew better than to treat any document produced by WCOC seriously. A few years ago I pointed out that the time control prescribed in their regulations was three Olympiads out of date.

[LawrenceCooper]

It will teach me to locate the relevant part of the FIDE handbook and treat it as gospel https://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/ches ... ations.pdf

I hoped that everyone knew better than to treat any document produced by WCOC seriously. A few years ago I pointed out that the time control prescribed in their regulations was three Olympiads out of date.

There was a touch of irony in my comment

[NickFaulks]

There was a touch of irony in my comment

Yes, but that's a shame because most Commissions do make an effort to keep their regulations in order. WCOC is constituted entirely of politicians, with the results you would expect.

[LawrenceCooper]

There was a touch of irony in my comment

Yes, but that's a shame because most Commissions do make an effort to keep their regulations in order. WCOC is constituted entirely of politicians, with the results you would expect.

Hopefully some of the travel horror stories I'm hearing today won't fall foul of the early deadline. I suspect that most will arrive eventually even if delayed by a day or more.

[NickFaulks]

Hopefully some of the travel horror stories I'm hearing today

Any examples?

[LawrenceCooper]

Hopefully some of the travel horror stories I'm hearing today

Any examples?

Overbooked flights resulting in rather drastic changes to itineraries. Turkish Airlines not endearing themselves to travelling chess players and officials.

Apologies if my use of the word "horror" implied something more serious

[NickFaulks]

Apologies if my use of the word "horror" implied something more serious

No, pretty much as understood. I'm heading off to Heathrow soon for a TA flight, they're already messed up our seat selections once. In the light of your info, may try to arrive extra early in case there's a bunfight.

[Roger de Coverly]

Overbooked flights resulting in rather drastic changes to itineraries. Turkish Airlines not endearing themselves to travelling chess players and officials.

Is it any easier to get to Batumi than in 2010?

The description of a Junior squad trip in 2010 involved a flight to Istanbul, then a domestic flight inside Turkey, followed by a lengthy coach trip into Georgia.

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/europea ... i-georgia/

[NickFaulks]

Is it any easier to get to Batumi than in 2010?

Yes, plenty of direct flights from Istanbul and a few from London.

[Nick Burrows]

Short documentary about USA's win in 2016 that I hadn't seen before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... RsZJF1NDEQ

[NickFaulks]

Sitting in Istanbul Airport transit area. Bermuda's top board is negotiating with Turkish Airlines on the subject of being bounced off the onward flight because they've overbooked it.

[Roger de Coverly]

because they've overbooked it.

There's always something that goes wrong. In this case presumably no-one tipped off local airlines about the nature of the extra demand this weekend and that those travelling for the Olympiad were near 100% certain to show up.

[Alex Holowczak]

Sitting in Istanbul Airport transit area. Bermuda's top board is negotiating with Turkish Airlines on the subject of being bounced off the onward flight because they've overbooked it.

I failed with similar negotiations the day before, along with about 8 others. I have now arrived in Batumi a day later than I should have done having been bumped off the corresponding Istanubul-Batumi flight on Saturday.

A number of other British passengers were on the standby list, but from what I can tell, they all made it on board.

I was lucky in that I could get a visa to get into a hotel the airport put me up in. The Algerian players who got bumped were less fortunate; they weren't able to get a visa because they had to go to the Embassy. This required leaving the airport, which they could only do with a visa.

[Chris Rice]

Andrey Filatov the Russian Chess Federation President complains about the ongoing work to the Boom Boom Beach night club next to the official hotel.

[Alex Holowczak]

Andrey Filatov the Russian Chess Federation President complains about the ongoing work to the Boom Boom Beach night club next to the official hotel.

They're staying at the Hilton Hotel, and there is indeed construction work going on next door. But there is everywhere.

Batumi is a very interesting place in that if you take a photograph of three blocks next to each other, you could alternate between a 4+ star hotel, a carcass of a building that looks like it is about to become a hotel (they are advertising that lots of new hotels are coming), and an aging concrete housing tower block that has been very badly maintained. On my way to my hotel, there was a stark contrast of a man standing on his balcony hanging his washing up on a clothes peg, with a newly built 5* hotel in his eyeline about 30 yards away.