Istanbul Olympic Report

Day 0

We are here in Istanbul and everything is excellent.

Start: Before things begin...

We arrived in Istanbul yesterday. The entire team (the men’s team and the women's team) are staying at the Taksim Square Hotel. This hotel is a 4 star hotel,completely modern and with the usual perks of mini-bar, satellite TV, etc. To give a general idea, a Coca-Cola costs 5 dollars Canadian. (One Canadian dollar is worth approximately 400,000 lira)

The first thing that struck me about Istanbul was its size: enormous. And modern. The architecture is distinctly western European in style. The organizing committee thought of everything from the traveler’s point of view. At the airport we were met by professional, friendly service that quickly had the players on buses to their hotels. I arrived at about 5:30 pm, and with the weekend traffic starting, it took about one hour to get into the city. Checking in to the hotel was smooth.

I have to give credit to the organizers: never has an Olympiad had such success in getting the players installed into their hotels. Also the quality of hotels is very high. According to Ulf Andersson, this Olympiad will probably go down in history as the Olympiad providing the best accommodation.

Food is excellent. The breakfasts are buffet style from the 10th floor of the hotel. The panoramic view of the windows is worth the price of the ticket to Turkey alone!

Also in our hotel are the US team, the German team, and the Danish team.

The Canadian Men’s Team has the following room assignments:

Alex and I in one double room. Pascal and Jack in another double room. David and Igor in another. Team Captain Dale has the only single room among the group.

I am not certain who thought up this room assignment, but it is quite intelligent for a number of reasons.

First, there is the youth + experience breakdown.

Then there are similarities with opening preference:

Jack and Pascal are both 1.e4 players. Igor and David are both 1.d4 players. Alex and I can play both e4 or d4 !

The opening ceremony went very smoothly. The speeches were quick and to the point. A couple of piano pieces were offered. Perhaps the only black mark I have seen so far has been the very poor behaviour of a number of

Eastern European countries: during the concert the players had very lively discussions amongst themselves, making it very difficult to follow the concert.

Today the Canadian Team plays Suriname. The four Canadians playing are: Alex, Igor, Pascal, and David.

We hope for a 4-0 result.

Security is very tight all around. In the vicinity of our hotel there are sharp shooters from the roof top.

Various levels of police/military police patrol the city quite conspicuously. On top of this there are many plainsclothes police/security officials.

In the area of our hotel there are at least 3 or 4

cybercafes. Numerous supermarkets, telephone shops, etc. Istanbul lacks nothing that you can find in any other major city around the world. Just yesterday as I exited my hotel and crossed the street I happened upon a young man who offered to get me any drug I might fancy!

The weather today is cloudy and cool.

More later in the day.

Kevin