Dresden Olympiad Starts Next Week

The 2008 Chess Olympiad starts at Dresden on 12th November. The first rounds will be played on the 13th. A record number of Federations and players have signed up for participation. This edition of the Olympiad promises to be a spectacular one with 152 nations participating in the Open team event and 119 in the Women's team event.

The fresh World Champion Vishwanathan Anand will be missed. He will not be playing for India in this edition. In some of the previous Olympiads, Anand lost valuable rating points. Also, there is also a lot of pressure to perform in a team that does not have a world class second player. Topalov may also opt out of the Olympiad. Kramnik is expected to play for Russia. He will be joined by Morozevich, Svidler, Grischuk, and Jakovenko.