We have received both appreciation and expressed concern regarding an individual who is not accredited as journalist or as a guest to the Olympiad venue. 

First, the mentioned person is not a journalist. Second, we do not want to turn a blind eye, even to those present as guests, who attempt to improperly influence the organizers. These actions are unprofessional and will not be tolerated.

It was a walk on a tightrope maybe, but in the end it lead to victory for the young Russian team! Their opponents gave them a good fight and second seed Iran was even closer to the first prize before the final round but as Iran dropped 1,5 points to Poland Russia managed to score 3,5 points against Armenia to move forward, just in the right time!

Congratulations Russia for yet another win in an international competition! Let’s see if their elderly countrymen will also be able to win gold medal in the Olympiad or not.

The registration of the Team Compositions for the last round on 09 September 2012 on Internet will be open from 7 September (Round 10) at 22.00 to 08 September (free day) at 20.00.

Russia made a huge step in their quest for the first gold medal since 2002 as they beat the defending champion and one of the main rivals - the team of Ukraine.

Sergey Karjakin woke up in the perfect moment to outplay his former team-mate Andrei Volokitin and earn the key victory for Russia. The two games in which the Ukrainians played white pieces were balanced and eventually drawn.

KARLOVICH: Dear guests, welcome to our press conference with our guest Andrew Paulson, the founder and director of Agon, the person, who is going to organize World Chess Championship cycle for the next year. We are very glad to see you as our guest, our first question is about the Olympiad: how do you find the Olympiad in general, how do you like the playing venue, if you were the organizer of the Olympiad, what would you improve here?

PAULSON: Well, it’s very exciting to be here, I have visited Istanbul for many times before, but the energy that we see here is just incredible, very positive. It’s interesting to see that highest-level professionals are doing their job and people from countries all over the world are participating in such an amazing chess event. I don’t think I can do anything to improve it, it’s nearly perfect.