Dresden will not only be an Olympiad of reforms it will also be an Olympiad of records. After the official deadline of registration 148 teams in common and 114 teams in woman competition have registered so far. In spite of the increase of the woman teams up to four starters and one substitute there are already more teams than in Turin in 2006. The most impressive number is the total amount of participants: 1.984 people are going to take part in the Chess Olympiad 2008. This number includes the 309 companions and trainers, 80 referees and 35 FIDE-officials.

The World Chess Federation FIDE and the Organizing Committee of the Chess Olympiad Dresden agreed on giving ten other federations the possibility to participate if they register until September 19^th, 2008. This exceptional rule is made for federations which already had contact to Dresden. Federations which didn´t contact Dresden yet are not allowed to register late.

Final numbers and more details of the participating nations will be published next week.

Press Contact: Klaus Jörg Lais, Telefon (03 51) 4 88 24 40, E-Mail:

KLais@dresden.de