There have been organizational problems galore, but the chess olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk is finally on! All the top players in the world but Anand are playing, so it should be a great event both for fans rooting for their home countries and for the megatons of high-quality chess.
The men's pairings are here, the women's are here. Here's what the top 14 men's matches look like:
1. Russia 1 - Ireland
2. Iraq - Ukraine
3. China - Kyrgyzstan
4. IBCA (blind team) - Russia 2
5. Hungary - Jordan
6. Costa Rica - Armenia
7. Azerbaijan - South Africa
8. Bangladesh - Bulgaria
9. USA - Faroe Islands
10. Paraguay - France
11. Israel - Yemen
12. Malaysia - England
13. Netherlands - Dominican Republic
14. Andorra - Russia 3
Looks like lots of 3.5-.5 and 4-0 matches are on the cards for round 1. Eleven rounds are scheduled, so there will be plenty of time for the top teams to go head-to-head; the first 2-3 rounds can be thought of as a warmup. The games start at 5 a.m. ET/11 a.m. CET, and I'm sure all the servers will relay lots of games live. (Expect tons of malfunctions from the site, though - that always happens.) The tournament site is here.