THERE were upsets, blunders and other wonders when 129 teams from around the world came to Calvia, Spain, this month for the biennial Chess Olympiad. But perhaps the biggest surprise was the team you wouldn’t count on showing up – Iraq.
Chess hasn’t been popular in Iraq since the game was called shatranj and played under different rules – some nine centuries ago.
With turmoil in much of the country, Iraq wasn’t expected to send a team like the one that finished in a tie for 52nd place out of 134 at the 2002 Olympiad.
But they were represented in Calvia – with an entirely new team – and did surprisingly well. Iraq began with a draw against Croatia in the first round and crushing victories over Hong Kong, Nigeria and Guatemala.
No matter what is going on in a country, it manages to send a team to the Olympiad. One of Iraq’s victories was over “Palestine” – which was headed by a 55-year-old Bulgarian grandmaster, Evgeny Ermenkov.
There was even an Afghan team in the 1996 Olympiad – at a time when the Taliban had virtually banned chess in the country. Actually, the team that went to play in Armenia that year wasn’t representing Kabul, but rather the Northern Alliance.
They didn’t show up until the eighth round because they had to travel to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan before reaching the tournament hall in Yerevan.