Olympiad Deaths, and Death In Chess In General
As has been widely reported, there were two deaths at the Tromso Olympiad, both occurring at the end of the event. The first was Kurt Meier, a 63-year-old player from the Seychelles, who died during his final round game. The second was Alisher Anarkukov, an Uzbek player who wasn't part of the country's national team but a participant on a special team for the hearing impaired. (Why being hearing impaired counts as a disability for chess is something I don't know, but assume it has to do with the Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's longstanding and so far futile hope to have chess included in the larger Olympic movement.)
This is sadly not unheard of, and a number of famous players have died "with their boots on" over the years. Is chess a risky sport, even an "extreme" sport? Maybe so, at least as the stress levels rise for one in iffy health. (But parents of young kids, don't worry. The dangers for your children are many decades away - this isn't like boxing, football or even soccer.)
Reader Comments (1)
The first was Kurt Meier, a 63-year-old player from the Seychelles, who died during his final
roundgame. Regarding the upsets: It happens. 450-point Elo differences are 450-point differences, not 800-point differences. And regarding the next World Cup cycle: Do you think Kirsan wants to stick it to the American players? A tournament in Iran? God help Naka getting a Visa for that one.[DM: That sentence was probably the result of both over- and under-editing. I'm guessing that I wrote that it was in the final round, and when for whatever reason I added "game" I didn't change it the adjectival part to "last round" instead. As for discussion of the upsets, that belongs in the other post - especially when the main topic is someone's death.]