"When we got to know that we play against Russia we spent 45 minutes laughing."

KARLOVICH: Dear ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome our new guests: the representatives of the National team of Greece: GM Stelios Halkias and GM Ioanis Papaioannou. The match Greece-Russia is still under way but Ioannis Papaioannou has already made a draw against GM Vladimir Kramnik, Please share your impression on the match with me, Goran Urosevic and our journalists.

PAPAIOANNOU: Well, it was of course an interesting game. Some time ago I prepared a novelty. I was keeping it to try against some big fish so I had Kramnik today to use it. To say the truth I did not care a lot if I win or lose for he is very strong to play against.

A Chess and education conference, organized by the Chess in Schools commission, TCF, and FIDE, will take place during the 2012 Chess Olympiad at Polat Renaissance Hotel in Istanbul, 10:00 - 17:30 on 30 August. The conference will be opened by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Professor Dr. Caner Acikada and President of TCF, FIDE CiS Commission Chairman Ali Nihat Yazici.

The morning and afternoon sessions include talks with GM Bologan, SCF President Martin Huba, Alessandro Dominici, WGM Martha Fierro, Malola Sundaramadhavan, Spela Orehek. Video from the conference will be available on the official site of the Olympiad.

The Chess and education conference is sponsored by Rosneft Oil Company.

KARLOVICH: Dear ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome the guests of our first press conference for today: the second board of the Womens’ Team of Kazakhstan WGM Maria Sergeeva and the head of the Kazakhstan delegation GM Nurlan Ibraev. My first question is to both of you: how do you feel here in Istanbul and what are your impressions on the organization of Istanbul Olympiad.

The long awaited 40th World Chess Olympiad began today at the Istanbul Expo Center with the games of the first round.

A record breaking 158 teams compete in the Open Section, while the Women Section has 124 teams participating.

The Turkish Minister of Youth and Sports, Suat Kilic, made the ceremonial first move for GM Zhao Xue in the match China - Bangladesh. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the Turkish Chess Federation President Ali Nihat Yazici were present.

As usual in the events run by Swiss pairing system, the top seeded teams faced the lower rated opposition.

The second press-conference was devoted to the National Turkish men teams and their goals and expectations for the Olympiad 2012.

Among the main participants were: Efstratios Grivas, coach of Turkish men team and Captain of National A Team of Turkish Federation, Alexander Ipatov, winner of Under 20 Chess Championship and Burak Firat, representative of B team.

As Efstratios Grivas has mentioned, the preparation to the Olympiad itself had started many years ago, when Turkish Federation formed the team, which could do her best to represent the country. The Captain hopes that the A team will manage to enter the list of 15 best teams, but the situation will be clear only during last two rounds.

Afterwards the Captain told a few words about new members of Turkish men team: Dragan Šolak and Alexander Ipatov. He assured that all players are on good terms with each other and feel very comfortable in the team, which gives them an opportunity to play well in the Olympiad.