| The 38th Chess Olympiad has been officially opened |
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| Thursday, 13 November 2008 05:27 |
 Only two weeks after Vishy Anand became World Champion in Bonn, we are going to witness another big chess event in Germany. The start of the 38th Chess Olympiadhas been given at the opening ceremony in Dresden today. The hall looked impressive, full of representatives of a record number of participating nations and a crowd of journalists. Very similar to the Beijing Olympics model, the Olympiad in Dresden started at 8:08. One after the other on the scene came singers, cheerleaders, ice skaters, drum bangers, and many more performances. Every country in the Dresden Olympiad was represented by German school children in the Opening Ceremony. All of the children who carried the flags and country names are chess players who qualified to be at the opening ceremony through a series of tournaments.
Kirsan Ilymzhinov could not attend the opening ceremony in DresdenThe FIDE President Kirsan Ilymzhinov could not attend the opening ceremony. As many Russian sources informed his car was involved into a car accident on the way to the airport. The reports state that Mr. Ilymzhinov did not suffer important injuries. The Chessdom team wishes him a fast recovery. Photos from the opening ceremonyAll photos by our good friend Susan Polgar. 
The press conference before the opening ceremony where all the details were explained 
The Olympiad was opened by a cheerleaders show 
Followed by "We will rock you" and "We are the Champions" 
A smoking ice skating show for the audience 
More songs followed in the opening ceremony 
Why not a combination of all of the above! 
FIDE Honorary President Campomanes welcoming the players on behalf of FIDE President Ilyumzhinov 
Let the Olympiad begin! 
The first round of the Chess Olympiad starts tomorrow in this fantastic playing hall |