The presentation of the 39th World Chess Olympiad was held in Moscow

                                                                                                                                               Press release

August 27, 2010     
Moscow

The presentation
 of the 39^th World Chess Olympiad was held in Moscow

On August 26, 2010 in Moscow the Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra Natalya Komarova and the Chairman of the Board of “Gazprom Neft”, Alexander Dyukov held the presentation on the 39^th World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Natalya Komarova was speaking about the readiness of Ugra to organize the 39^th World Chess Olympiad and the 81^st Congress of the World Chess Federation (FIDE). FIDE events will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk from September 20 to October 3, 2010.

“This year, the Russian Federation is taking a sporting event of the world significance – the 39^th World Chess Olympiad that will bring together the players from 158 countries around the world, - said the Governor of the Autonomous Okrug Natalya Komarova. - The task of the Government of Ugra and the organizing committee is to ensure the holding of this event at the highest level.”

During the presentation Natalya Komarova and Alexander Dyukov, the Chairman of Gazprom Neft, the General Sponsor of the Olympiad,spoke about the commissioning of the new and the reconstruction of the existing sports facilities and infrastructure in Khanty-Mansiysk that is stated and required by FIDE regulations.

 “We are proud to have contributed to the fact that such a landmark for the world chess events as the World Chess Olympiad, the Congress of the World Chess Federation will be held this year in Russia, in Ugra, - said the Chairman of the Board of “Gazprom Neft”, Alexander Dyukov .– The construction of Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk is a spectacular result of consistent work of the Company to increase the efficiency of regional programs and partnerships with the administrations and the public in the territories of the company.”

Chess Academy is one of the main facilities constructed to hold  the World Chess Olympiad. FIDE Congress will be held here as well. FIDE Presidential elections and the bidding procedure for the capital of the World Chess Olympiad 2014 will be one of the most important events during the Congress .

Natalya Komarova also spoke about the technical innovations that will be applied during the World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. For the first time the most interesting games will be commented by supercomputer BlueGene. On the basis of its own algorithms, it will select 20 most interesting games from 600 simultaneous games and then transmit them via Internet. It will comment the games in three languages. The Governor of Ugra emphazied that the development of the software was made by Russian specialists.

The 39^th World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk will have a record number of participants. This year it will be attended by 1,376 players from 158 countries, 67 foreign and 66 Russian arbiters, as well as 1,000 officials and representatives of Russian and foreign media.

According to the number of countries submitted to participate here, the World Chess Olympiad is on the third place after the Summer Olympic Games and World Championships in Athletics.

The 39^th World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk opens an account of international Olympic competitions in Russia: it is followed by the XXVII Universiade 2013 in Kazan and the XXII Winter Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi.