40th Chess Olympiad – Starting Rank of Teams!

27 August 2012, Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia’s starting rank is 85th with a team rating of 2299. Top seeded is Russia with a rating of 2769.

Chess.com reported that it's nearly here! The 40th Chess Olympiad takes place from 27 August - 10 September in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Chess Olympiad is the world's premier international team chess competition - a huge biennial celebration of chess for the biggest team prize of them all.

Over 160 countries and more than 1,200 players will be taking part in the 11-round competition, with some of the best players in the world fighting for their country.

The 2010 champions Ukraine will be defending their title, with a number of teams having realistic chances of taking their crown.  They are represented byVassily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Alexander Moiseenko, Andriy Volokitin and Pavel Eljanov.

The top seeds are Russia, who finished second last time, with Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk, Evgeny Tomashevsky and Dmitry Jakovenko.

Armenia are always dangerous opponents, and are at full strength with Levon Aronian, Sergei Movsesian, Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sargissian and Tigran L. Petrosian.

The US team are seeded 7th, represented by Hikaru Nakamura, Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk, Varuzhan Akobian and Ray Robson.