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The captains of the teams paired their squads |
 The morning of the first day of the championship, on the 18th of December, started with early work for the team captains. The technical meeting started at 10 a.m. in the spacious playing hall. The captains were welcomed to the hospitable Mardin, reminded on the main regulations of the competition by the President of Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici and the Chief arbiter Erdem Ucarkus. Then the drawing of lots started. Each captain was to choose from the 10 souvenirs on the display that hided the numbers from 1 to 10 inside.
The drawing of lots was made according to the average rating of the teams, starting from the highest. China as the leader of the rating was the first and got 9th starting number.
Russian captain (this time it is not Yuri Dokhoian but Alexey Korotylev!) drew number 6 for his team.
India got number 1!
Georgia will start with number 8.
Ukraine will face India in round one as their captain got number 10 for his players.
The President of Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici drew for Armenia to put this team on 4th starting rank
The captain of Vietnam is happy to have 5th starting number
Greece is 7th
Turkey starts with number 2 at their home championship
And last, but not the least – South Africa would start with number 3!
More pictures in the Picture gallery. The full pairing of the first and further rounds you can find on the special page of the website. The opening ceremony is to start at 14.30 on the 18th and the first round would follow at 15.00.
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