Ireland at the 41st World Chess Olympiad Tromsø 2014

Ficheall

Next time they should off a player before the match and then one in the first round or somesuch - would get plenty of coverage then.

No offence intended to the poor guys in question.

eclipsechaser

eclipsechaser wrote: »

Sam seems to be holding out for a fatal cardiac incident from his opponent...

And that's the last time I ever make that joke.

Very, very sad for those involved. Jonathan O'Connor posted to say that he knew the opponent of the player who passed away during the game. As for the Sky report, there was a lot of media coverage when a premiership player had a heart attack mid-game. That game was abandoned. I wonder if that was considered in the final round or if they knew the seriousness of it.

Sparks

eclipsechaser wrote: »

I wonder if that was considered in the final round or if they knew the seriousness of it.

According to Pete Morriss's blog entry,

I have already described the playing arena as one huge room, which is true; but the room is not quite rectangular, but sort of L-shaped. The lower teams in the Women’s event play in the foot of the L, without a view of the rest of the hall, and that is where we were playing. (It is, incidentally, better to play there as it is free of the draughts I described in an earlier report.) Shortly after Hannah and her opponent reached the time control, we all heard a commotion taking place in the main area of the hall, with a lot of very loud shouting and screams. It was difficult to work out what was going on – at first it sounded like a fight – but it eventually turned out that someone had had a heart attack and was on the ground surrounded by paramedics who were trying to revive him. This disturbance affected both Hannah and her opponent, and so they decided to agree a draw in their game, rather than play on when neither could concentrate properly. Some other players in other matches managed to continue, but I frankly don’t know how; it was a very distressing and disturbing event, which was made worse when we all discovered – some hours later – that the medics had been unable to revive the person and he had died in the middle of the tournament hall.

Sparks

The Guardian's coverage of the deaths was a bit better, but still ended on a dodgy tone:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/aug/15/deaths-world-chess-olympiad-norway

Ficheall

The quotes they've chosen are a bit... odd...

eclipsechaser

Sparks wrote: »

The Guardian's coverage of the deaths was a bit better, but still ended on a dodgy tone:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/aug/15/deaths-world-chess-olympiad-norway

Pete's account sounds just terrible. I doubt I would have been able to continue if I had witnessed that.

As for the end of the Guardian piece, it seems tenuous at best. Chess tournaments involve many people of varying body types and age-groups. People have heart attacks all the time; frankly it would be more surprising if they never happened at the board or at the end of a tournament. The fact that they had to go back 14 years to find another incident says it all.

Zugszwang

The Uzbek player was Alisher Anarkulov, in his mid-40s. RIP. Very distressing for anyone there and a tragic loss to his family of course. Some of us will remember Desmond Perry passing away suddenly during the Ballyfermot Open in 1996. I'm glad to say that that tournament was immediately abandoned.