A Chess Olympiad of this size must be planned diligently in every detail. That such does also include the preparation of the volunteer service has shown the past Saturday, 14 June 2008, when the first half of the 146 registered volunteers met for their first briefing in the plenary hall of the Dresden City Hall.

Every participant received an Olympiad calender and an exclusive Olympiad pin as a welcome gift. Jörn Verleger and Dirk Jordan lead through the agenda and visualized the status quo of the preparations for the Olympiad via a power point presentation and introduced all present full-time and honorary staff of the Organizing Office. Following, Olaf Modrozynski, Manager Operations, took on the scepter and presented the volunteer programme.

Subsequently, all participants had the opportunity to place their questions concerning playing venue, volunteer tasks and working times. Some 30 volunteers also went along together to the KIA FAN FEST later on, in order to enjoy the Chess Olympiad stage programme in bride sunshine.  End of the informative Saturday afternoon marked the public viewing of the EURO2008 Soccer Championships game Spain vs. Sweden.