Chicagoans in Istanbul

Gata Kamsky & Irina Krush
Tony Rich for St. Louis Chess Club / Chess Life Online

GM Yury Shulman of Barrington is not playing in the 2012 Olympiad; instead, he's the head coach!  The U.S. team (Nakamura, Kamsky, Akobian, Robson; third board Onischuk is cheerleading this round) is playing a strong team from Lithuania right now in round two.  Catch up on the U.S. team's round one results (both men and women) at Chess Life Online.

Sevan Muradian of Chicago (North Shore Chess Center / North American Chess Association) is also there, schmoozing away. Armenians are reminded to keep a low profile at the Bermuda Party, especially when rowdy Brits are around.

GM Mesgen Amanov of Glenview is once again playing first board for his native land, Turkmenistan.  As I write, Mesgen is playing Black against GM Bator Sambuev of Canada.  (Update 11:45 a.m.: the website reports that Mesgen lost. , but it looks to me like Black-Mesgen-won a pretty game with multiple queen promotions: confusing!  The broadcast gamescore was completely wrong.)

How old is this photo from the Olympiad website?

If you have more luck than I did, you may be able to follow live games here.