Most Olympiad coverage stays inside the playing hall. This ChessBase travel diary by Axel Eger steps outside it, following a group of fifteen amateur players on a trip through Uzbekistan from 21 to 29 September: nine Dutch, five Germans and one Italian. They moved along the old Silk Road from Bukhara via Samarkand to Tashkent.
The tour was organised and accompanied by Ardjan Langedijk, a chess player who owns Central Asia Tours in Heemstede, a travel company specialising in Central Asia. The group’s aims were simple: see an unfamiliar country, meet its people, and watch the Olympiad.
Chess before the sightseeing ended
In Bukhara, after an overnight flight via Istanbul, the group walked past mosques, madrasas and the roughly thousand-year-old Samanid Mausoleum. They also visited the Kalon Mosque and the square around the Lyabi-Hauz pond, where a bronze Nasreddin Hodja sits on his donkey beside the Nadir Divan-Begi Madrasa.
Then came the first test at the boards, a team match against a selection of young Uzbek players. The visitors won 15-12, but the lesson was that it is better not to underestimate Uzbek talent. Opponents included an Uzbek U10 champion.
That is a useful reminder of the depth behind the home team’s gold medal in Samarkand. A country where an under-10 champion sits down against tourists in a city square has a lot of children playing.
Samarkand: culture by morning, Olympiad by afternoon
The group’s rhythm in Samarkand was culture in the morning and chess in the afternoon. They visited Siyob Bazaar and Registan, then went to the Expo venue. A day ticket cost 20 dollars and let them watch the elite from close range.
Eger describes the hall as no less impressive than Registan: hundreds of players from more than 200 countries, absolute silence at the boards and chatter outside. After following a livestream at home, being in the room made a difference.
Germany against the Netherlands, on a bus
The final round produced a pairing that might have been drawn for this group. On Sunday, with the travellers already in Tashkent, Germany played the Netherlands, and bronze was at stake for Germany. Nearly everyone on the bus was watching their phones.
Matthias Bluebaum defeated Jorden van Foreest. Frederik Svane and Loek van Wely then agreed a draw at around half past five, which confirmed Germany’s bronze.
The football match between the two nations during the trip ended 1-1. In chess, Eger writes, things were “a little less diplomatic”, though the group on the bus stayed friendly.
A trophy, and a medal for zero out of zero
On Monday, at the Olympic Museum, the group played a young Uzbek team for the second time and won again. Only one player scored perfectly across both matches: Yuri, with four points from four games. His trophy was heavy enough to complicate the luggage allowance, and its gold lettering read “Uzbekistan - Netherlands”, a small inaccuracy that the Germans and the Italian took in good humour.
Several players tied for third in the individual standings, but there was one bronze medal. Langedijk’s solution was to give it to Monika, the only non-chess player in the group, who had sat through eight days of opening variations and game analysis. Eger calls it perhaps the nicest awards ceremony of the trip.
The farewell
The last dinner at Café Olympia included a surprise cake, since Michael turned 60 that evening. Afterwards John wrote to the group about “The laughter, the stimulating conversations, the constant sense of wonder”. Yuri added that “the chess world is not so large; it is a place for good people”.
Eger closes with a line from Casablanca: “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.
Original source: ChessBase
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