Hal Bond
10-20-2008, 03:31 AM
Polina Tsedenova is the wife of Chief Arbiter Panagiotis (aka Takis) Nikolopolis and the main executive assistant in the Athens Office. She is one of many Kalmik women who have graduated from the Elista Office to take on a variety of roles in chess. She quite reminds me of Sebastian’s mother Ligia Predescu. Her voice , accent and vocabulary seem almost identical. She even laughs at my silly jokes. Early on we were at breakfast and I was expressing concern that I only brought one size of clothes. She burst into laughter and has been cautioning her husband ever since.
No doubt Kramnik was happy with a relatively peaceful draw yesterday. Despite his outward calm at the post game press conference (" Ok ,I have lost a game, but it is still early in the match. I have been in this situation before") you can bet that Vladimir is not sparing the lash with his team on this "rest day" as they look to even the match with White tomorrow.
By all appearances Team Anand has prepared more effectively thus far, despite being outrated. Team Kramnik: Leko 2747, Rublevsky 2702, Fressenet 2676. Team Anand: Kazimdzanov 2672, Heine-Nielsen 2662, Ganguly 2603, Wojtaszek 2599. At the opening press conference Anand was asked about the rumoured involvement of Magnus Carlsen on his team. Vishy acknowledged his respect for Carlsen, even speaking to him from time to time, but "Further details will not be forthcoming!"
Once again there was drama away from the board. This time the players were late, arriving at about 2:58. So I took Kramnik to his room, wanded for metals, he quickly hit the can and we hurried upstairs. Both he and Anand approached the playing stage (as opposed to the larger stage where the arbiters are) right on cue.
Anand departed to his private quarters twice during the game. Kramnik left the stage 13 times from move 11-27, and on 10 occasions he used the loo. I snuck in for a random check while he was on move 16. As usual, nothing was awry. Kramnik just likes to walk off his nervous tension, as most players did in the World Cups that I worked. The Chief would signal the arbiters to start the clocks and within minutes, as if signalled by Nancy Sinatra ( “Are you ready boots, start walking!”) half the players were on their feet.
We arbiters took a bus tour of Bonn and area today. It is just gorgeous. The landscape is slightly more dramatic that the Niagara escarpment, and perhaps slightly less so than the Gatineaus. The trees are very familiar - lots of maple, oak, chestnut and birch. What sets this town apart though is the architecture and layout. I love the pedestrian malls in the city centre - they out number the roads. The Rhine is not so wide, but quite deep and the barge traffic is constant in both directions. Somehow this does not detract from the visuals.
We have been able to enjoy a different restaurant each night. So far we have enjoyed Thai, Greek, German, Turkish, Italian and French. Tonite we were planning either Mexican or Argentine but we ended up at an Iranian place. It was glorious! But you can’t be in a hurry. We were there for 4 hours! Takis and I shared a waterpipe at the end. They had about 10 flavours to choose from so we went with apple. Very enjoyable. I quit smoking 20 years go but the tobacco product shisha (sp?) is nothing like cigarettes.
To cap it off the owner visited our table with a chess board in tow. I was the lucky designate. Takis and Werner were mumbling suggestions which I tried not to follow. (has that ever happened to you?) My opponent dropped a piece early but when I took it he seemed to transfer his patzer virus and soon I was lost. He didn’t know how to finish me off and I Flintstoned him on the back rank. The next game was better – I was able to win the game and the post mortem against the arbiters.
I managed to hit the gym before dinner tonite. 45 minutes on the elliptical machine probably negated about 45 minutes at the restaurant. I’ll need all the help I can get if my clothes are still going to fit by the end of the match. And if we have tiebreaks, well...
No doubt Kramnik was happy with a relatively peaceful draw yesterday. Despite his outward calm at the post game press conference (" Ok ,I have lost a game, but it is still early in the match. I have been in this situation before") you can bet that Vladimir is not sparing the lash with his team on this "rest day" as they look to even the match with White tomorrow.
By all appearances Team Anand has prepared more effectively thus far, despite being outrated. Team Kramnik: Leko 2747, Rublevsky 2702, Fressenet 2676. Team Anand: Kazimdzanov 2672, Heine-Nielsen 2662, Ganguly 2603, Wojtaszek 2599. At the opening press conference Anand was asked about the rumoured involvement of Magnus Carlsen on his team. Vishy acknowledged his respect for Carlsen, even speaking to him from time to time, but "Further details will not be forthcoming!"
Once again there was drama away from the board. This time the players were late, arriving at about 2:58. So I took Kramnik to his room, wanded for metals, he quickly hit the can and we hurried upstairs. Both he and Anand approached the playing stage (as opposed to the larger stage where the arbiters are) right on cue.
Anand departed to his private quarters twice during the game. Kramnik left the stage 13 times from move 11-27, and on 10 occasions he used the loo. I snuck in for a random check while he was on move 16. As usual, nothing was awry. Kramnik just likes to walk off his nervous tension, as most players did in the World Cups that I worked. The Chief would signal the arbiters to start the clocks and within minutes, as if signalled by Nancy Sinatra ( “Are you ready boots, start walking!”) half the players were on their feet.
We arbiters took a bus tour of Bonn and area today. It is just gorgeous. The landscape is slightly more dramatic that the Niagara escarpment, and perhaps slightly less so than the Gatineaus. The trees are very familiar - lots of maple, oak, chestnut and birch. What sets this town apart though is the architecture and layout. I love the pedestrian malls in the city centre - they out number the roads. The Rhine is not so wide, but quite deep and the barge traffic is constant in both directions. Somehow this does not detract from the visuals.
We have been able to enjoy a different restaurant each night. So far we have enjoyed Thai, Greek, German, Turkish, Italian and French. Tonite we were planning either Mexican or Argentine but we ended up at an Iranian place. It was glorious! But you can’t be in a hurry. We were there for 4 hours! Takis and I shared a waterpipe at the end. They had about 10 flavours to choose from so we went with apple. Very enjoyable. I quit smoking 20 years go but the tobacco product shisha (sp?) is nothing like cigarettes.
To cap it off the owner visited our table with a chess board in tow. I was the lucky designate. Takis and Werner were mumbling suggestions which I tried not to follow. (has that ever happened to you?) My opponent dropped a piece early but when I took it he seemed to transfer his patzer virus and soon I was lost. He didn’t know how to finish me off and I Flintstoned him on the back rank. The next game was better – I was able to win the game and the post mortem against the arbiters.
I managed to hit the gym before dinner tonite. 45 minutes on the elliptical machine probably negated about 45 minutes at the restaurant. I’ll need all the help I can get if my clothes are still going to fit by the end of the match. And if we have tiebreaks, well...