Batumi Chess Olympiad 2018 Round Three Press Report
There are dozens perhaps hundreds of small hotels in Batumi. Prices are low. If anybody wants a recommendation. I recommend my hotel I found on hotels.com Hotel Poseidon It was the lowest priced hotel on hotels.com It is on the main street, Gogebashvili
Str 36 overlooking the Black Sea and at the intersection with the other major street. There are dozens of electronic shops and restaurants nearby, everything your heart could desire. There are also dozens of casino slot-clubs with Las Vegas style slot
machines. I went into one where a woman showed me how to play the slot machines and then offered to come to my hotel room!!!
I took a taxi from Tbilisi to Batumi. I have been studying genealogy lately. Crossing the Caucasus Mountains I was able to see why the early humans took thousands of years before they could cross them and why we are called Caucasians. The mountains are
not high but there are folds of seemingly endless mountains.
When I told a taxi driver I was from America, he said “America Good. America President Good!” I replied “America Good. America President Bad.”
This is my third trip to Georgia. The first was in 1977 when I came through on a transit visa. I think some of the chess players may still remember me. I beat the woman director of the Chess Palace 13 times in blitz chess with no draws and no losses. I
was better then than I am now.
FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos is considered to be the overwhelming favorite to win the FIDE Election for President. He is campaigning along side Zurab Azmaiparashvili Georgian Chess Federation President.
The Nigel Short slate is considered to have no chance. Rumor has it that Short has dropped out but this is not true.
While representatives of Makropoulos and the Russian guy were making campaign speeches near to the main playing hall, Short himself was campaigning over the second playing hall talking to the delegates from the lower rated teams. Short told me that he
has some votes. The USA is voting for Short. This cannot be changed.
The tie-breakers in these elections have been the African Teams with Campomanes and Ilyumzhinov winning by paying their transportation air fares to the Olympiads. Nobody knows how the Africans will vote this time.
US Chess President Allen Priest has arrived in Batumi. He barely knows the legal moves of chess but has improved his US Chess Rating from 541 up to 701. Nobody knows why he wants to come here. He had to get a passport because he had never been out of the
USA before. We wonder why he wants to be a chess official. Why not learn the game first?
The fat girl and her consort are here. Everybody who knows about them are worried about what they might do.
The two top players from Qatar, Mohd Al-Mudahka and Zhu Chen husband and wife are not here but Qatar has a team here. Does this have anything to do with the boycott against Qatar? Saudi Arabia does have a team here.
Phiona Mutesi, star of the Movie “The Queen of Katwe”, is here playing first board for the Uganda Woman's team. I met her and told her I had published a book about her, “Phiona's Greatest Games of Chess” http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871877272 I did
not think to bring one so I could not give her one.
Sabina-Francesca Foisor of the USA lost again, this time to a player rated nearly two hundred points lower. Looks like the team captain Melikset Khachiyan will have to bench her.
A representative of the Sharjah Womans Chess Club in the United Arab Emirates is here trying to recruit a trainer to teach chess to children. They are offering to pay $250 per week plus accommodation.
Teams this round are more closely matched so no major team upsets. Individually, GM Duda from Poland lost to Galego from Portugal rated nearly 300 points lower. GM Wei Yi from China lost to Jorgi Cari from Peru but China and Poland both won their matches.
The USA team had a tough match against the Netherlands but won a close match 3-1 with So and Shankland winning, when it looked like So might be losing.
Sam Sloan

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