Last Man Standing
Following the mammoth tusk episode, another emergence threatens our safety here in Khanty-Mansiysk: over the past few days, it seems the entire Olympiad has become ravaged by flu.
Whether it’s because of the sudden cold snap, or simply the simultaneous convergence of 150 nationalities, many players and staff are finding themselves, as many throughout history have before, in a Siberian battle for survival.
Of the Aussies, Giang is the worst. Today, her voice was barely audible, and she is struggling through to the finish line. Her roommate, Emma, has developed a soor throat; my roommate, Yuan, is probably second-worst at this stage. Fortunately, Anastasia went out and got Giang and Yuan (who visited the tournament doctor last night) various prescription medications this morning; unfortunately, she too has developed a head cold.
She tells us that the hostel in which the interpreters are staying has begun to resemble a hospital ward; it’s hard to know which group got the other sick. But certainly the coughing and sneezing in the tournament hall has begun to noticeably increase (though not as bad as at the Malaysian Open – compare posts a month ago).
The Moldovan team claims to be entirely ill, though this coincidentally came to light after our match. However, the sniffles were there for all to hear during the games. On the top boards, the odd tissue can be seen throughout the matches. Strepsils are suddenly a valuable commodity.
One player who certainly has hit the worst of it is Finnish top player Tomi Nyback. I was very much looking forward to playing him yesterday, as in addition to being a very formidable competitor, Tomi’s also a great guy. But the Finnish GM couldn’t even make it to the board, so bad was his flu, and the forfeit actually proved the decisive point in Australia’s match victory. Very unfortunate for him, and also for me missing another game, but good for our team’s performance of course.
With that I had better get back to today’s preparation against one of the top teams, the Czech Republic. Will it come down to chess, or to the last man standing?
Sniff.
Hey Dave – chin up dude, get the Swedes tonight! If you get a chance ,can you find out what the Kyrgastanis have been drinking?? Highest rated is under 2400 and are playing on the top 15 boards???
Good luck tonight dude
He might have thought he was able to play at 9am when the team was handed in (though I imagine that like most teams, they’d have decided the previous night), but not at 3pm when it actually came down to it.
And if you’re board 1 and withdraw in the morning, you’ve just stuffed up the preparation of your boards 2 and 3 too, since they’ll have to move up and swap colour.
But still a bit puzzled as to why they played a sick Nyback and forfeited instead of their 5th player – unless maybe another of their players had the same problem?