Monday, June 16, 2008

Wohl Applies for Olympiad

IM Alex Wohl and FM Igor Goldenberg are the latest to throw their names in for the Australian Men's Olympiad team thereby pushing the number of applicants to nine. For both these guys, chances of being selected have suddenly shot up after IM George Xie's and FM Igor Bjelobrk's poor outing in the NSW Open last weekend.

The 5-Olympiad veteran Alex Wohl, especially, will be hoping that selectors will look to his solid experience despite recent setbacks in Europe. On the other hand, Goldenberg can point to his performances in this year's Doeberl and SIO as well as his recent joint first finish (with Domagoj Dragicevic) in the Victorian Open.

On the distaff side, three other women have joined medical student Shannon Oliver. These are IM Irina Berezina, WIM Biljana Dekic and Giang Nguyen. There is no sign of current Aussie women's number one, WIM Arianne Caoili. Arianne did tell our readers, "Anyway, as I said to Gary [Wastell] and Ian [Rogers], I will not bother applying if I cannot see that I will have time before November to work on my chess". Well, let's hope she makes the time; she has a super-GM beau after all!

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