체스 아시아게임

4/25/2006

Chess a Medal Sport in Asian Games, Doha 2006

Chess shall be an official medal sport in the Asian Games this December in Doha, Qatar. Some 42 Asian countries shall field delegations for the chess competition which shall consist of three gold medal events: mixed team, Men`s individual and Women`s individual championships. Visit the chess page of the official site. Television coverage of the Games, and our sport, shall project chess to billions of viewers. Qatar Chess Federation President Khalifa Al Hitmi and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov who worked to include chess in the Asian Games and the International Olympic Committee, respectively. The efforts of FIDE to join the International Olympic Committee are paying off. Chess has been included in the 2003 and 2005 Southeast Asian Games, the 2003 African Games and 2004 Arab Games among others. The IOC recognition of FIDE as an international federation, giving chess official status as a sport, has benefited many federations who were then able to get financial support from their governments. National Olympic Committees gave full financial support to chess delegations to the Games. Youssif Ahmed Ali, Vice President of the Qatar Chess Federation and Vice President of the Arab Chess Federation, is the highly qualified DAGOC chess competition manager. The team competition shall be played over three boards with men on the first and third boards and a woman on second board. There shall be no alternates. Youssif explained that when the Asian Games Federation accepted chess, they provided only for two events, men`s and women`s individual championships. The Qatar Chess Federation insisted that there should be a team event but the Asian Games Federation had provided for only 120 places. Therefore there could be only three members per team. Aside from the team competition, there shall be a 9 round Swiss Rapid Chess men`s individual championship and women`s individual championship in three days. The 3-board team competition using the standard time control shall be played in 9 rounds over 9 days. Thus with a day each for arrival, technical meeting and departure, the chess event shall be over 16 days. All athletes shall be accommodated at an Olympic Village. `We expect some 10,000 visitors for the Asian Games,` Youssif predicted. This is the first time the Asian Games will be held in an Arab country and the first time in West Asia. New buildings and stadiums were built specially for the Games. After Busan, Korea 2002, we have been preparing for five years,` he added. National chess federations in Asia and their chess teams shall be the lucky recipients of support from their National Olympic Committees joining the Doha Asian Games.