"My opponent left a glass of whisky 'en prise' and I took it 'en passant". - Henry Blackburne | SINCE 2007

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Team Kenya stranded in Dubai for 24hrs

The Kenyan contingent to the 2010 Russia Olympiad has not been spared the complexities of the ongoing FIDE Charter Flight scandal. Reports trickling in suggest the team has now been forced to spend 24hrs at the Dubai Airport whilst they wait for the next plane out. Kenyan super-talent Akello Atwoli who is tipped to produce a show-stopping performance alongside players like GM Morozevich and GM Ahmed Adly bluntly stated:

"CK (Chess Kenya) apparently recieved communication from FIDE informing them that our flight to Russia from Dubai had been rescheduled/postponed by 24hrs but they went ahead and brought us here as if nothing had changed. Because of their negligence and carelessness, we will now have to spend a whole 24 hours in the airport basically doing nothing other than sleeping on the floor."

However, it appears this is a world-wide problem as a number of local blogs from Europe to The Carribean to Asia are complaining about last minute changes in the charter flight timetables. Some federations are considering pulling out of the olympiad altogether whilst others have had to incur extra expense in order to sychronise their initial flights with the charter flight changes. It maybe that CK had no other option but to travel on the original date selected. Interestingly, one of Africa's most experienced olympians and Kenya Board 4 player John Mukabi states:

"Strangely enough only African teams are affected!"

The FIDE Charter Flight fiasco is largely considered a symptom of the mismanagement at the top by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. The majority of African delegates are expected to vote in favour of the incumbent.

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