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By International Master Jimmy Liew

On to Dresden

The Malaysian Men's Team comprising of Mas Hafizul, Lim Yee Weng , Mok Tze Meng, Jimmy Liew and Edward Lee left Tuesday night on a two hour flight to Bangkok. The a twelve hour haul to Frankfurt in Germany and another one hour flight and we landed in Dresden, host of the 38th Chess Olympiad.

So far the conditions are excellent. We are staying at the four star Ramada Hotel. The organizers are making full use of the public transportation system, meaning there are no chartered buses to ferry the players from the hotel to the playing hall. Except for the opening ceremony when special buses were provided to bring the participants to the stadium, everyone has to use the public buses for the daily rounds. At first we were quite apprehensive until we got to experience the efficiency of the German public transport system. Buses arrive on schedule almost to the second!!

There are a number of changes in the tournament rules. One of these rules is the players are not allowed to agree a draw before move 30. The other more drastic rule is that all players must be present at the start of the round. Any player who is absent when the bell rings to signal the start of the round is forfeited straight away. Chess players are generally a  tardy lot and this rule was not accepted with total enthusiasm. But eventually everybody will learn that this is for the good of the game.

Arrival at Frankfurt Airport	Here I am on the streets of Dresden with team manager,  Ibrahim Bakar.
Breakfast in the hotel	Brunch in the hotel
Opening ceremony	Former World Champion, GM Kramnik.

Round One

We are paired with Libya which we considered an easy opening opponent. The result is a 3.5 win for us, with Yee Weng drawing from a totally lost ending. There was a minor situation in Mok's game. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and an additional 30 minutes thereafter. When they reached the 40th move, the clock did not show the additional thirty minutes that the players had expected. Both players were down to less than a minute by then. They continued to move quickly while staring with amazement at their clocks. Mok profited from this the most as he played more consistently during the time pressure and won from a difficult ending. The mystery was solved as it was revealed that the additonal 30 minutes will be added to the clocks when one of the clocks have reached zero. This is probably another Dresden first. I would guess half of the players in the hall were not aware of this, and much confusion experienced by those not in the know.