Today, in Crystal Hall there was a press-conference dedicated to 100 days before the start of the Baku Chess Olympiad. The event was attended by Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Ragimov, President of the Azerbaijan CF Elman Rustamov, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Mahir Mamedov, Director of the Operational Committee of the Baku Chess Olympiad.

In particular, the Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Ragimov said as follows: “Today it is an important day for us, 100 days left before the start of the Olympiad, the first Chess Olympiad in the history of Azerbaijan. Baku will be welcoming representatives of more than 180 countries. Never before we have welcomed such a number of countries in Baku. The Olympiad will allow to showcase rich history and traditions of Azerbaijan and to demonstrate intellectual potential of the country”.

The foundation of chess traditions has been made by the Leader of the nation of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, who has paid a lot of attention to the development of chess in the country. Today’s leader of the state Ilham Aliyev is also paying great attention to this mind game, by opening chess schools and organizing chess tournaments.

Finally, Mr. Ragimov said, that he is confident that the Operational Committee of the Chess Olympiad has been carrying out all required works to organize the Olympiad on the highest level. All the guests of the forthcoming event will enjoy their stay in Baku.

In his turn, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said: “Today is indeed a remarkable day. We are starting the countdown. Recently the FIDE representatives visited Baku, to get acquainted with the conditions of the Olympiad organization, and reported that Baku is ready to this. Despite 100 days left to the start, the Organisers are ready today to hold it now. The Baku Olympiad will join the annals as one of the best, both in the numbers and the level of the organization. Practically all countries-members of FIDE, will participate in the event. We are second after the Olympic Games, in the number of participating countries. He also said, why we awarded the right to organize the event to Azerbaijan? Because the country and its President Ilham Aliyev have done a great amount of work to develop chess here. Azerbaijan has become the first country to launch a state chess in schools programme, and here many chess schools are opened. Last year they organized the World Chess Cup on the highest level, and we witnessed a spectacular final match between two Russian Grandmasters.

The Head of the Azerbaijan Chess Federation said: “We are all anticipating the forthcoming Chess Olympiad. The organization of chess events as Chess Olympiad, is a big event in social life of the country. The future Olympiad will be the most numerous in participants numbers. Azerbaijan will be represented by three teams.

Chess is sky-rocketing in the country, following the adoption of the chess state programme, young talents are being nurtured, and chess infrastructure is being improved. The Leader of Nation Heydar Aliyev has contributed a lot to this, and now Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbajan, has brought the development of chess to the state level.

Mr. E. Rustamov said that the forthcoming Olympiad will become one of the best in the history and the Operational Committee is doing everything possible for this.

Mr. M. Mamedov has shared several details of the preparation process in his capacity as Director of the Operational Committee of the Baku Chess Olympiad.

«The venue of the opening ceremony of the Olympiad has been finalized. It will be held at the National Gymnastics Arena, which satisfies all high international standards. Besides, by the decree of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, a visa regime for the participants has been simplified. We work in close cooperation with various structures, including the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Transport etc.

He said there will be 70 buses for the needs of the guests. We signed contracts with the hotels where the participants will be accommodated. All of them are situated in the sea zone, not far from the Crystal Hall. The Hall as a super modern complex, is ready to host the event, and the media centre satisfies all standards. We also give a lot of attention to security – Mr. Mamedov said.

During the event, an official mascot of the Baku Olympiad was presented – a boy clad in a national dress – Shakh oglan. The author is Musa Changiev, who received an award for winning the competition among 600 various variations. Besides, the participants of the press-conference started a chess clock, symbolizing a countdown of 100 days before the start of the Olympiad.

Further M. Mamedov touched upon the issue of the captain of the core men’s team of Azerbaijan. It was noted that ex-World Champion A. Khalifman is no more captain. It was mutually decided to stop the cooperation. Soon the name of the new captain will be announced.

During the press-conference FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov replied to a number of questions:

He commented on his recent words about a possibility of a chess Internet-match between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“The main goal of FIDE is to develop and popularize chess. In 2001 we patented collective chess, where a school can play against a school, a city against city, a country against a country, a continent against a continent. But in 2001 it was very difficult to do this technically. Now due to the development of cloud technologies, we have such a possibility. The first experiment was a success, therefore we can organize such tournaments further. In Yerevan I proposed to organize such a match between Azerbaijan and Armenia and I think this can positively affect relations of two countries”. According to his estimations, during the Olympiad in Baku an intercontinental match will be announced. By 2020 it is planned to reach the number of one billion chess players and this programme will help.

The issue of the participation of Armenian team in the Baku Olympiad was raised. He said that when in Armenia, I met with the President of the country S. Sargsian, who is also the President of the local chess Federation and this issue was raised. For the moment they confirmed that they are intending to play in Baku. There is no refusal from their side for the moment. During the press-conference in Yerevan, the leader of the Armenian team L. Aronian also confirmed that he was intending to participate and warmly recollected his participation in the Baku World Cup and a walk in the capital of Azerbaijan. When I was in Yerevan, I once again invited the Armenian chess players, journalists and head of the Armenian Chess Federation S. Sargsian to participate in the Baku Chess Olympiad," Ilyumzhinov said.

Besides, the FIDE President informed that in the immediate future a chess messenger will be introduced. He said: “I was recently contacted by the Telegram messenger representative, who offered to create a chess messenger. The proposal was based on the fact that chess is popular in the whole world. I do not think this messenger will be very different from existing ones, but it will have some applications connected to chess. The messenger presentation will take place very soon.”