The Chess Capitol of Israel

On Thursday, I had the rare opportunity to attend part of the World Team Chess Championships, which are being held here in Beersheva. The place was hilarious. Russian was the most common language spoke there: of the nine teams, all had Russians except the Chinese men, the Chinese women (the only women's team present) and the Cubans. We arrived a bit late so only caught the tail end of two matches: we watched a Ukrainian guy, apparently ranked fifth in the world, take out a young Cuban guy, and an Armenian guy draw a Chinese woman. The American and Israeli teams were mostly Russian, though USA got smoked by China in that round and Israel lost to Georgia. The commentary room was fun, as they played out different scenarios of the games on a big screen, as some guy spoke in Hebrew and Russian. It's pretty incredible that such a small country as Israel can be in the top 8 in chess in the world, but that's what happens when a million Russians immigrate to your country.