After that, the press conference dedicated to the countdown of the Chess Olympiad was held at «Crystal Hall». The official symbol and mascot of sports event called "Chess guy" was presented to Musa Ganja. It was reported that the venue for the formal opening ceremony of the Olympic Games would be the National Arena of gymnastics.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said in his welcoming speech that the 100 days before the sporting event was rather exciting moment in time.
"FIDE delegation visited Baku recently and familiarized with the course of preparation. We had time to look around and I would like to say that Baku is now ready to hold the tournament. It will be notable by the fact that it will go down in history as one of the most beautiful Olympiads both in quantitative and qualitative structure. The record number of participants applied for participation even as of today. The Chess Olympiad is second to the summer Olympic Games according to such number", said Ilyumzhinov.
He added that Azerbaijan is an example of the development of chess. "At the time, the state program for development of chess has been adopted here, and your country has become an example for others", said the president of FIDE.
The distinguished guest reminded that Azerbaijan held chess events of the highest level. "We witnessed the World Cup in Baku last year and the final match between Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler turned out to be the dramatic fight. Therefore, there is no doubt that the Olympic Games in Baku will be exemplary", said Ilyumzhinov.
In addition, Ilyumzhinov mentioned the participation of the Armenian team. "The team of this country will participate in the upcoming event. Anyway, it has not been rejected. I was in Armenia recently and the team leader Levon Aronian fondly recalled how he played at the World Cup in Baku", concluded the head of FIDE.
After the press conference, the guests inspected the venue of the Olympic Games and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov played a game of chess with Azad Rahimov, which ended in a draw.