Baku,
the capital of Azerbaijan, is also the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the
Caucasus region. Baku is located 28 metres (92 ft) below sea level, which makes
it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in
the world located below sea level. The city is renowned for its harsh winds.
This is reflected in the city's nickname, the "City of Winds".
The
42nd Chess Olympiad,
organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) comprises of an open, an women's tournament, as well as
several events designed to promote the game of chess, is being held in Baku,
Azerbaijan from 1–14 September 2016. It is the first time that the Chess
Olympiad has been hosted in Azerbaijan. The
total number of participants is 1,587, with 894 in the open and 693 in the
women's event. The number of
participating teams is 180 from 175 countries in the open section and 142 from
138 countries in the women's section. Eritrea, Kosovo, and South Sudan competed
in the tournament for the first time.
On
Monday, Latvia’s Minister of Finance and woman grandmaster (WGM) Dana
Reizniece-Ozola stunned World No 1 China’s Hou Yifan in Round 4 at Baku. The
34-year-old, a former junior European champion, took a moment to digest her
victory, staring blankly at the board for an instant before cupping her mouth
with disbelief. Her victory though was unable to prevent the Latvian women’s
team from going down 1.5-2.5 to China. Though
the Finance Minister game against the World champion was the biggest attraction
and loss, China still emerged on the top with wins of JuWenjun and Guo Qi,”
FIDE said in their official post-day press release. Reizniece-Ozola is
currently ranked 318th in the
world and has an ELO rating of 2,243. She has represented Latvia in seven
Olympiads, the first of those coming in 1998 when she was just 17. Chess and politics aren’t the only areas
where Reizniece-Ozola has made an impact. She was the project manager for
Latvia’s first ever satellite and has degrees in business, law and linguistics.
India
had mixed fortunes in the round, with the men’s team continuing their perfect
start, smashing Cuba 2.5-1.5. P Harikrishna, SP Sethuraman and B Adhiban drew
with their opponents, but Vidit Gujrathi clinched the round for India with a
win over Yuniesky Quesada Perez. India had earlier defeated Azerbaijan, Costa
Rica and Bolivia in their first three rounds.
The women’s team fared ordinarily, being held by Israel 2-2.
DronavalliHarika and Soumya Swaminathan played out draws but Padmini Rout lost
to MarselEfroimski. It was left to Tania Sachdev to rescue India with a win
over Masha Klinova.
Buoyed
by defeating the best woman player in the world, Latvia’s finance minister is
to skip a top EU meeting this week to pursue her passion for chess, her
spokesman said on Wednesday (8th Sept.). Her ministry confirmed she
would not attend a 9th September meeting of EU finance ministers in
Bratislava, Slovakia, in order to keep playing chess. “The minister is on
vacation and will still be in Baku, so Latvia will be represented by the
secretary of state in Bratislava instead,” spokesman told news agencies. For chess fans (Reizniece-Ozola’s) victory is
so emotionally pleasing even taking into account the team’s loss,” the
federation said on its website.
Interesting
!!
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
8th Sept. 2016.
