Olympiad dates change

[JustinHorton]

From 17-30 September to 1-14, apparently.

Why? Currently we are not being favoured with a reason.

[Roger de Coverly]

Why? Currently[/url] we are not being favoured with a reason.

Speculation or conspiracy is that it's designed to trouble the USCF and the Sinquefield Cup Saint Louis, USA scheduled for August 19 – September 2, 2016 .

As it's only an overlap with the first couple of days of the Olympiad, any team with only one Sinquefield player at least on paper could run on four players for the first couple of rounds. It's potentially a problem for Russia as well, but none of their potential players are absolutely as critical to medal chances as having all of Nakamura, Caruana and So playing for the US.

[Mick Norris]

Not great for anyone who has already made definite plans with work, family, travel etc

[JustinHorton]

Quite.

[LawrenceCooper]

Not great for anyone who has already made definite plans with work, family, travel etc

The clash with the World Youth is also far from ideal, from an England perspective Akshaya could be left having to choose between the two.

[Steven DuCharme]

Choice is the essence of chess

[David Sedgwick]

Speculation or conspiracy is that it's designed to trouble the USCF and the Sinquefield Cup Saint Louis, USA scheduled for August 19 – September 2, 2016.

In my cynical way, that was my first thought.

However, as Lawrence Cooper has pointed out, the new dates for the Olympiad coincide with the scheduled dates of the World Youth Championships in Khanty-Mansisyk. FIDE are now faced with a choice between bearing the pain of that clash, which would be very problematic, or rescheduling the World Youth Championships also.

It’s hard to believe that sabotaging the Grand Chess Tour is truly an objective of FIDE, let alone one for which they would go to such lengths.

[NickFaulks]

It’s hard to believe that sabotaging the Grand Chess Tour is truly an objective of FIDE, let alone one for which they would go to such lengths.

Agreed, it seems far more likely that this is a problem emanating from Baku - given what is going on there, probably not the biggest one.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

It’s hard to believe that sabotaging the Grand Chess Tour is truly an objective of FIDE, let alone one for which they would go to such lengths.

Agreed, it seems far more likely that this is a problem emanating from Baku - given what is going on there, probably not the biggest one.

What problems are these? Something affecting the population/city as a whole, or just the chess finance/organising side?

[NickFaulks]

What problems are these?

The economy is dependent upon oil production and the currency has halved in value. The IMF have been in for discussions.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thanks. More here if of interest:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... ancial-aid

[Roger de Coverly]

The economy is dependent upon oil production and the currency has halved in value. The IMF have been in for discussions.

So is it a similar problem to Norway in 2012, they cannot afford to finance it in the manner promised? Had they previously announced a venue? If they are moving to a cheaper building, that may explain the date change.

[Mick Norris]

It was all going fine in December
FIDE inspection visit

[LawrenceCooper]

The dates for the World Youth have now disappeared from the FIDE calendar: http://www.fide.com/calendar/fide-calendar.html

[LawrenceCooper]

The dates for the World Youth have now disappeared from the FIDE calendar: http://www.fide.com/calendar/fide-calendar.html

New ones now published: http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... dates.html

"The 2016 World Youth Championship has changed its dates to 20 September - 4 October 2016."