And this guy is a president of FIDE... Seriously. 
Ice Chess in the Winter Olympics?
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Cool! ;)
They will have to play in a freezer then so the pieces dont melt? Its so weird it has got to happen.
Chess would be the worst thing to come into the Olympics.
Nobody wants to watch people sitting there for hours on end to push some wood around.
Almost as bad idea as olympic curling
tigerprowl10 wrote:
How about this idea. You combine curling with chess. You play in teams. One person slides a piece onto an empty board where they want to make the move.
Curling has often been called "chess on ice" as there is a lot of strategy involved in where to play your stones. So it sort of exists, but in a different style.
umirin1991 wrote:
Chess would be the worst thing to come into the Olympics.
Nobody wants to watch people sitting there for hours on end to push some wood around.
Almost as bad idea as olympic curling
If it's blitz or rapid (or even basque chess), then it will definitely be more appealing to spectators. After all, if chess were to appear at a major event like the Olympics, then having classical is probably not the best idea to promote the game.
And as for curling; there was a lot of excitement over curling here in the UK during the Sochi Winter Olympics; where the British teams (or should I say Scottish) won two medals.
That does remind me of the "Burning Boards" exhibition held during last year's Sinquefield Cup:
http://www.chess.com/news/fire-water-and-sport-during-sinquefield-rest-day-4522
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Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/chess/11570939/World-chess-chiefs-bizarre-plan-to-use-pieces-made-of-ice-to-get-game-into-Winter-Olympics.html
The eccentric head of world chess has been quoted as saying the game could be played with pieces made of ice if it is welcomed into the Winter Olympics.
Fide president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who famously claimed he was abducted by aliens, told Chinese media on Wednesday that chess would "fit quite well" at the event.
China's official news agency Xinhua said: "As for how chess is connected to the Winter Games, Ilyumzhinov suggested players use chess pieces made by ice."
The report did not address the possibility of a set being reduced to a damp board in a puddle of water by the end of an hours-long contest.
Fide is a member of the International Olympic Committee. Xinhua said it first applied 20 years ago for chess to become part of the Summer Games schedule.
The long wait for it to be included led Ilyumzhinov to believe "joining the Winter Games might be a better idea", Xinhua indirectly quoted him as saying on the sidelines of World Women Team Championship in the south-western city of Chengdu.
Beijing is favourite to host the 2022 Winter Games, with only the Kazakh city of Almaty standing between it and the award in July.
The Chess Olympiad is the most prestigious competition in the game, held every two years, most recently in Norway in 2014.
"It is difficult for chess to be added to the Summer Games schedule," Chinese women's coach Yu Shaoteng told Xinhua.
"Perhaps there is a chance for us in the Winter Games," added Yu, whose team came third in the tournament behind Russia and champions Georgia.
But Fide vice president Boris Kutin was less optimistic - or more realistic.
"It's not easy," he said.
Ilyumzhinov is a former president of Kalmykia, an internal Russian republic, and ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
He won re-election as Fide president last year after defeating chess legend Garry Kasparov in an election widely described as a sham.
In 2010 Ilyumzhinov claimed on Russian state TV he had met aliens on the balcony of his Moscow apartment and was taken to their spaceship for several hours.
During his reign in Kalmykia, Ilyumzhinov made the game compulsory in school, and plunged millions into Chess City, a theme-park-come-chess academy, on the southern Russian steppe.
What do you guys think about this? It would be good exposure for chess; but I can't see it happening any time soon... Or at all for that matter.