Can you feel that?

No, we're not down with the sickness. (Not all of us - I can't speak for everyone.) No, we're feeling the excitement of the Chess Olympiad in Baku! Clermont actually has two players (one current, one former) playing in the Olympiad this year: doughty club stalwart Jim McTigue*, and Ray Robson, who made his way through the club many years ago on his way up the ladder. (Clermont - where Champions are made! Several Olympic medalists from the recently concluded Summer Games train in Clermont, too.)

And it's not just us. I think there's more excitement for this event on my Twitter feed than any other since I got on Twitter several years ago. Not even world championships have had this much interest. It really is a unique event in the chess world, and I'm looking forward to it.

The opening ceremony is today. The games start tomorrow at 7:00 AM Eastern Time. One should be able to follow the games at the Baku Olympiad Official Website, ICC, Chess.com, Chess24.com, or any of the usual suspects.

So far many of the people that have gone have commented on the hospitality of the organizers, but a few glitches have been reported. Nigel Short has reported some problems with the accreditation process, and he also reported that Uganda and Kenya have had problems.

Two countries - Uganda & Kenya - left high and dry by promises of tickets from Presidential Board friends. #nosympathy #bakuchess

— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) September 1, 2016

We'll see. It'll probably be the usual large event, where some people have a great time and some have nothing but problems - and some create nothing but problems for themselves. (Note to the players and other people associated with the Baku Olympiad: Don't be Ryan Lochte**!) Hopefully the average will tend towards the former.

One other thing I'm wondering about: Will the French team adjust their board order so that MVL plays White in every game?

No word from Jim, and I don't expect to hear anything from him during the event. He'll be too busy having a good time, we hope! Good luck, Jim, and here's hoping for a great event!

* I'm probably reading too much @HowardStaunton at the moment.

** Who does NOT train in Clermont!

Annotations for Giri-Caruana

Not by me! No sir, that game gives me a headache.

The Frenchman with two names, who is also known by three letters, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, has been annotating a Game of the Day for Chess.com's coverage of the Moscow Candidates Tournament. Yesterday he rightly chose to annotate Giri-Caruana. Apparently it took him several hours, and he admits parts that it still isn't all clear. Anyway, those notes can be found in this article, about halfway down the page. (I recommend downloading the .pgn file and looking at it in the program of your choice.) If you're a Grunfeld player, or expect to play against the Grunfeld, you might want to take a look at this in the currently trendy 3. f3 line.

The "Grand Chess Tour" is a joke.

I've tried to write this post a couple of times now. The topic just makes me too angry for coherence. The Grand Chess Tour, consists of the Stavangar Tournament in Norway, the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, and the London Chess Classic (not in Ohio). Players accumulate points in the overall standings based on their performances in the individual tournaments.

After the final tournament, concluded a week ago, Magnus Carlsen was declared the winner of both the London leg and the Tour as a whole. This last was due entirely to the most asinine tie-breaks ever used in the history of Chess. (Yes, I am including the time a Roulette wheel was used to settle the outcome of a Candidates Match between Huebner and Smyslov.) You can read about that The Chess Mind, in the perfectly named post Grand Chess Tour Tiebreaks: A System Than Which None Lesser Can Be Conceived.

The upshot is this: Despite only finishing on +1 for the tour, Carlsen finished first  in the overall standings, ahead of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (+2), Hikaru Nakamure (+3) and Anish Giri (+5). To add to the absurdity, Carlsen finished behind or tied with Giri and MVL in all three stages of the tour, yet still finished ahead of them in the standings! (Call Magnus the Tortoise of Chess.)

MVL really got hosed more than once, though. As recounted elsewhere, despite beating Giri in a tiebreak, he actually finished behind Giri in London. All these tiebreak shenanigans resulted in MVL missing out on qualifying for next year's Grand Chess Tour. So, not only does he get lesser prizes than deserved this year, he will miss out on next year's Tour as well, meaning he will miss three of the best (and most lucrative) tournaments of the year, plus whatever money he might have won for his placement in the tour next year. 

This is an egregious ... hmm, how to put this without using foul language? This is an egregious mistreatment of a player for playing well. But the Grand Chess Tour had already set a precedent for this when they didn't invite Karjakin this year, despite Karjakin having won the first two editions of the Stavangar Tournament ahead of Magnus Carlsen. So at least the GCT is consistent!

What a joke.

Your Moves for the Day: h7-is-a-great-square-to-sack-a-piece Edition

Two moves today, both of which offer a standard motif, but with a catch! From the insanely complicated game Alexander Morozevich vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Biel 2009.