Published on 12:00 AM, April 27, 2014

Dutch coach for chess Olympiad?

Dutch coach for chess Olympiad?

Sergei Tiviakov, a Dutch Grandmaster of Russian origin, is likely to be appointed coach of the Bangladesh national chess team ahead of the World Chess Olympiad, which will be held from August 1-14 in Tromso, Norway. Bangladesh showed unprecedented success in the last Olympiad in Istanbul last year, finishing 33rd and the Bangladesh Chess Federation (BCF) wants similar success this time too. With that aim, the BCF has contacted Dutchman Tiviakov, a 2651-rated Grandmaster, for a short-term coaching stint before the Olympiad.
The Dutch Grandmaster, who will take part in the Olympiad himself as part of the Netherlands team, is likely to be hired for one month at a salary of 5,000 dollars, apart from other facilities, if ongoing negotiations prove fruitful. The federation wants to hire him for one and a half months but Tiviakov is purportedly intent on staying for one month, it has been learnt. A final decision on hiring him will be taken after general secretary of the federation, Gazi Syful Tareq, returns home from Malaysia.
The Bangladesh contingent in the Olympiad will include four grandmasters -- Niaz Morshed, Ziaur Rahman, Enamul Hossain, Abdullah Al Rakib and IM Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar. The other GM Reefat bin Sattar, who was part of the five-GM team last time, misses out this time due to not participating in the latest national championship.