ortabanners 01ortabanners 02ortabanners 03ortabanners 04ortabanners 05

Press conference with the Georgian men's team

Press conference Georgia thumb

Anastasiya KARLOVICH: Dear ladies and gentlemen, let me start our next press conference and welcome representatives of the Georgian team: captain of the men’s team Lasha Janjghava and players Merab Gagunashvili, Levan Pantsulaia and Tornike Sanikidze. My first question is how did you prepare to this Olympiad.

LASHA: We started our preparations one year ago. Our players were preparing individually, participating in many tournaments and we made the training camp for one week right before the Olympiad in Antalia.

LEVAN: The training camp was fantastic, we had sun, sea, the conditions were excellent.

KARLOVICH: You mention only sun and sea, what about chess?

LEVAN: Yes, sure we trained some chess as well. Everything helped us.

KARLOVICH: Probably thanks to these good preparations, you are in such a good shape and you manage to outplay the team from Holland today. Merab, tell us something about it.

MERAB: Yes, today it was a very tense fight. First two boards had a solid position, third board was pushing and the fourth board had a sharp position which you cannot understand right away. At the end the fourth board had a brilliant victory. Thanks to Konstantin Shanava we manage to win.

KARLOVICH: My next question is about your staying here. Do you like being here? We know that you come to Turkey very often, share your impressions with us.

MERAB: Turkey is our second home actually. We like the warming atmosphere here. We play Turkish league as well. The organization is on a good level.

Press conference Georgia

 

KARLOVICH: As far as I know there is always a friendly and warm atmosphere in the Georgian team. Do you think it is important in the team competitions?

LASHA: Of course, it is very important when the team is very friendly. The Georgian team is famous for this quality. We are one family. I would also like to add that unfortunately our leader of the team Baadur Jobava could not make to come to participate in the Olympiad due to his health problems. But we agreed that it will not affect anyhow our performance. We still want to fight.

KARLOVICH: It is all over known that the Georgian Chess Federation takes an active part in the chess life of your players. Do you have a support from the Georgian government as well? Do they follow your performance?

LASHA: Of course we would never go forward without the governmental support. We have all the conditions for training and play. And we are very thankful to them.

KARLOVICH: How do you relax after these tense games?

LASHA: May I tell you one secret now? Our guys just told me a secret that they would like to invite both of you, so beautiful girls, for dinner and coffee.

KARLOVICH: We appreciate your invitation very much, we are going to discuss it seriously today. But from our side we do hope that Georgian team will join the Bermuda party?

TORNIKE: We will go only if captain will allow us to go!

LASHA: I don’t see any reasons to stay in the rooms and not to go to the party. Life is not only chess.

MERAB: Yes, of course. We don’t miss such parties!

KARLOVICH: Good luck in the games.

Video from the press-conference will be published soon.