Round #1 Report - Ian Wilkinson (Jamaica)
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!
At 11:05 pm Calvia time (7 hours ahead of Jamaica´s) the pairings for the first round, beginning at 3 pm local time, were posted. On board 38 Jamaica (ranked 101st) will face a strong Macedonia team (ranked 38th) which has five grandmasters (GMs) and a FIDE master (FM) in the line-up. Jamaica will have the white pieces on boards 2 and 4. The Jamaican starting team will be NMs Shane Matthews, Duane Rowe, Russel Porter and Ras Malaku Lorne on boards 1-4, respectively. There is confidence in the Jamaican camp and everyone is hoping to spring some surprises!
Elsewhere in the men´s competition, Barbados (ranked 86th) and Trinidad & Tobago (106) will have white on boards 1 and 3 against Slovenia (23) and Iceland (43), respectively.
Among the top teams Russia (ranked no. 1), the defending champions, will have black on boards 1 and 3 against Andorra (63), so too India (5) against Uruguay (67) and Spain A (7) against Tunisia (69).
Ukraine (2) will have white on 1 and 3 against Indonesia (64), likewise third place finishers in Bled Armenia (4) against Mongolia (66), USA (10) against the Dominican Republic (72), France (12) against Lebanon, the youthful Azerbaijan (14) against Luxembourg (77) (without GM Alberto David, board one silver medal winner in Bled, 2002!!) and Cuba (18) (now led by GM Lenier Dominguez instead of GM Lazaro Bruzon) against Pakistan (81). Hungary, second place finishers from Bled, are without GM Judit Polgar and GM Peter Leko and are ranked at 15th. They will have black on boards 1 and 3 against New Zealand (78).
There is no sign of Im Amon Simutowe´s Zambia!
WOMEN IN THEIR GLORY!!
The women´s games are scheduled to start at 3:30 pm, half an hour after the commencement of the men´s games. This is unlike what happened at the last Olympiad in Bled when all the games were started simultaneously. Trinidad & Tobago are ranked 85th of the 86 teams in the women´s competition and will have black on boards 1 and 3 against Spain (B). China, the defending champions are ranked first and will also have black on boards 1 and 3 against Norway (43) on the top board. Russia, who finished second in Bled, will have white on boards 1 and 3 against Iceland (44) while Poland, who finished third in Bled, will have black on boards 1 and 3 against Denmark (50). The USA, ranked third with the influential GM Susan Polgar, will have black on boards 1 and 3 against Venezuela (45). Former champions Georgia (4) will have white on baords 1 and 3 against Bosnia-Herzegovina (46).
CAPTAIN'S MEETING
Earlier this morning at a meeting of the captains in the tent beside the Gran Casino Mallorca where the games will be played, the chief arbiter, Singapore´s Ignatius Leong, stated, among other things, the rules of the competition. The time control will be game in ninety (90) minutes with an increment of 30 seconds from move one. A bombshell was dropped as it was announced that only the games in the top seventeen (17) matches in the men´s section will be broadcast live. In other words, only those games will have electronic chess boards! This is clearly a retrograde step as all the boards in Bled had electronic chess boards.
While some things are better in Mallorca than in Bled (e.g., the accreditation process), several other things leave a lot to be desired. For one, teams have to pay for water at the hotel !! The Jamaicans, through their captain, have objected strenuously and have not been doing so! The next few days promise to be very interesting.
IAN G. WILKINSON
15th October,
2004
Captain, Jamaica
Hotel Acorn
Pionero
Santa Ponsa Park
Calvia,
Mallorca