Irina Krush's Siberia Photo Gallery
By IM Irina Krush   
September 28, 2010
One of IM Irina Krush's many hobbies besides rapping and yoga (look for the October Chess Life Magazine cover) is photography. Check out her photo gallery from the 2010 Olympiad including pictures from the opening ceremony and the rest day.

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The opening ceremony's stunning human chess game.


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Can you spot the USA in the procession of nations?


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The view from the balcony of my room- onto the trees. Unfortunately, the good weather seems to have left us....and it's pretty cold now.


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Throughout Khanty-Mansiysk, we saw Olympiad signs like this one (this one featured Mamedyarov, but there were other players as well). The city is just full of signs like this, so there's no way not to know there's a Chess Olympiad going on. It's actually really cool, how the entire city is used as a stage for the Olympiad, and not just the playing area or the players' hotels. The organizers have done a great job publicizing the event.

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These photos are from a walk in a park in the city center called "Park Pobedi" (Park of Victory, devoted to the Soviet victory in WWII). It's located about a 20 minute walk from the Olimpiskiy hotel, where most of the players are staying (but not us). Anyway, I saw lots of chess players making the same walk today...but most of them appeared later, guess they were sleeping in from the Bermuda party last night!


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An action shot of a young skateboarder


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The US is currently tied for 4th-8th with Serbia, Hungary, Russia 2 and Bulgaria. Only Ukraine, Russia 1 and India are ahead of them. Tomorrow they face Russia 2. Good luck! Watch it live on the official site starting at 5 AM EST.