From samsloan@21:1/5 to All on Wed Sep 26 10:22:13 2018
Batumi Chess Olympiad 2018 First Press Report
I am here at the World Chess Olympiad in Batumi Republic of Georgia in the visitors gallery.
The first round is about to begin. It is 24 September.
There is no WIFI in the visitors gallery or on the playing floor.
This is no doubt an anti-cheating measure because otherwise I could look at the games from here, find the best move on my laptop computer and then acting as an accomplice signal the right move to a player down below.
There was also a drug-sniffing dog being led of a leash. No doubt this is an anti-drug measure although there is no known instance of a drug being used to improve a chess players performance.
I am told that all the hotels in Batumi are fully booked by the organizers of the Olympiad. However, I believe I will be able to find a room.
I got to Batumi by an Aeroflot flight from New York to Moscow and then a flight from Moscow to Tbilisi.
Then I paid 200 Georgian Lari for a 360 km taxi ride from Tbilisi to Butami. Two non-chess playing girls from Kazakhstan I met at the train station who wanted to go to Batumi to see the Black Sea and one chess playing man contributed to the taxi fare but
I paid for most of it.
This was necessary because there seem to be no flights from Tbilisi to Batumi. Sam Sloan