Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Dobrodošli v Sloveniji

Dobrodošli v Sloveniji (Welcome to Slovenia)

When I would tell people that Cameron and I were traveling to Maribor, Slovenia for the World Youth Chess Championships, the first question that came out of most people's mouths was, "Where in the world is Slovenia?"

The Republic of Slovenia, is located just east of Italy and directly south of Austria.  It is part of the region formally known as Yugoslavia.  In the late 80s and early 90s, there was a Slovenian  "Spring", of sorts, which led to the adoption of democracy and independence from Yugoslavia.

To get to Slovenia, we flew from San Francisco to Frankfurt, Germany.  Our flight was on board an Airbus A380.  This massive aircraft, with two levels, carried over 800 passengers to Lufthansa's hub airport in Frankfort.  From there we had to transfer to a very small jet for a short one-hour flight to Graz, Austria.  The tiny plane was full of young chess players from all around the world, including USA teammates Kevin Moy and Joshua Sheng (both traveling with their mothers).

Once in Graz, we had to rendezvous with a couple of other flights for our transfer, by bus, to Slovenia.  While waiting for the other flights to arrive, Cameron and Joshua broke out a small magnetic set to get in some quick preparation.  The drive to Maribor took us through some very picturesque scenery in both Austria and Slovenia.
We are staying at Hotel Habakuk in Maribor.  This hotel seems to be located at a small "ski resort" although there is no snow and barely any hill to speak of.  It must get a lot colder here in the winter.  Some of Team USA is staying at a hotel "up the hill" and they have to take this gondola each day to get to and from their hotel.
Back at our hotel, the entire delegation from the USA gathered in the "team room" to get an update from USCF Director Jerry Nash and Head of Delegation Michael Khodarkovsky.  Michael also gave out the coaching assignments.  For this tournament, Cameron will be working with Nick deFirmian (GM-in-residence at the Mechanics Institute Chess Room).  The tournament starts tomorrow at 3pm, so we will try to keep you posted on this blog or you can check the official site at http://wycc2012.com
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