The first Olympiad

Everyone remembers their first Olympiad. As I boarded the flight to Chennai last month, it struck me that two full decades have passed since my Olympiad debut in Bled, 2002. Respectable in the seniority stakes, though one of the charms of this biennial team event is that you can count on meeting someone excited to reminisce about Dubai 1986, or perhaps Lugano 1968, and who hasn’t missed one since.

This year, teams from around 200 nations – perhaps 2,000 players in all – made the trip to India. The event was moved from Moscow with just a few months’ notice, but any fears about the hasty organisation were quickly allayed. The country’s abundant respect for chess was evident at every level, from the volunteers who met us warmly at the airport, to the presence of Narendra Modi at the opening ceremony.

If international chess can be said to have an oral tradition, then the Olympiad is its most important conduit.