The 39th World Chess Olympiad will be opened today in Khanty-Mansiysk. The President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev welcomed the participants of this event. The welcoming speech of the Russian President will be broadcast tonight at the Opening Ceremony.

“Today Khanty-Mansiysk is hosting the representatives of 160 states. The leading world chess players are to perform their professionalism and strong character in the tense competition to be the best. FIDE delegates representing each national chess federation will get together to discuss their burning issues and to elect FIDE leadership for the next 4 coming years. Hosting of such an important sport event once again proves the high reputation of the Russian national chess school.

I am confident that the outcome of the 39th Chess Olympiad and the 81st FIDE Congress will contribute to the popularization of chess in the world and further development of sport alliances as an important part of international cooperation. Let me wish all of you success and all the best’”- says the message of the Russian President.

Let us remind you that this World Olympiad will be a record-breaking one in terms of participants as well the equal number of men and women players in each team. There will be 160 men and 120 women teams.

The favorite of the tournament is the Russian team with its leader Ex World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. The spirit and the results of their games will depend much on the performance of the leader. At the 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden Kramnik showed strong result “+1” and in 2006 in Torino he brilliantly defeated his opponents at the 1st board.”We stake everything on the victory”, - declared Kramnik.

One of the strongest challengers for the victory is the Ukranian team with their leader Vassily Ivanchuk. Together with Eljanov and Ponomariov they contribute a real threat. The national team of China has made a very big progress for the last 15 years. At first there were only women champions and now China has a range of strong chess players. The winner of the previous Olympiad, the Armenian team with their leader Levon Aronian, will do their utmost to win this tournament this time as well. The European Champion – national team of Azerbaijan – is another runner for the medals and their leaders Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov are real challengers for the best individual results in the Olympiad.

The teams of Israel, USA and Germany are traditionally strong. It is quite possible that the team that does not relate to favorites will be the “top shot” of the tournament.

The Russian women’s team is also a rating-favorite in this tournament. The combination of the team is very strong: Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, sisters Tatiana and Nadezhda Kosintseva that are in the Top 10 of the FIDE Rating List, twice Vice-Women’s champion Alisa Galliamova and Valentina Gunina.

The national women’s team of Georgia (the winner of Dresden Olympiad), China, Ukraine, Poland, USA and Armenia will compete for the medals.

We will witness the performances of great Grandmasters, the leaders of national teams, and the strongest chess players of the planet in Khanty-Mansiysk.

The 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik was the first in 2006 Torino Olympiad and the Ex-World Champion Vesselin Topalov showed the best individual result at the Olympiad in Dresden. The number one of the world rating list Magnus Carlsen will come to support his country as Norway is running to hold the Olympiad 2014. Recently Magnus has won several FIDE top tournaments and undoubtedly will please the fans with his game.

The opening ceremony of the World Chess Olympiad will take place today on September 20. More than 1000 actors will take part in the show and the spectators of the complex “Arena Ugra” will witness the birth of the world from the universe. The organizers of the ceremony have assured the most up-to-date equipment to provide this show with the great amount of the special effects.

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