Olympics often get mired in politics. Even a Chess Olympiad. When the Olympiad was held in Israel in 1976, annoyed Arabs set up a rival “Against Chess Olympiad” in Tripoli Libya. Instead of laughing at them, the against tournament was won by not exactly chess giant El Salvador, The Olympiad leadership cucked. Hence we have an official Chess Olympiad in Dubai. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
When you think of Emirates stamps, you think of the fake dune stamps of Finbar Kenny. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/10/sharjah-lets-you-enjoy-modern-art-thanks-to-finbar-kenny/ . These later official issues are more serious stamps. There is still a little of Kenny’s old whimsy in the depiction of the Arab players. This was a cold war chess tournament, so the actual competitive players were Russians and more Russians. Even on the American team. The USA chess melting pot was serving up Russians, if you can’t beat them….
Todays stamp issue is A53, a 2 Dirham stamp issued by the United Arab Emirates on November 14th, 1986. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations in honor of the 27th Chess Olympiad played that year in Dubai. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $4.50 used.
Chess Olympiads are held every two years. I covered the French stamp honoring the 1974 Nice Olympiad here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/15/france-1974-the-chess-olympiad-mostly-comes-to-nice/ , where I covered the history. Money was hindering those games as Bobby Fischer wouldn’t play without a big paycheck. Darn those people who manage to be the greediest capitalist while thinking themselves communist. Anyway soon after politics became more important. To get the not competitive Arab teams back after the Against Chess Olympiad. this tournament was scheduled in Dubai. Using the excuse of the official but unacted upon state of war with Israel, they were not invited. Several European teams of Russians then sat out in sympathy with Israeli Russian chess players. Not to worry, lots of third worlders sent uncompetitive teams and the Olympiad hosted a then record 107 nations.
You can guess that the Soviet Union team won. This was the period that Gary Kasparov was starting to dominate teammate and 70s champion Anatoly Karpov. There were separate ladies teams where the Russians also came in first. Their scores were 30% lower. Great Britain made a good show in their former protectorate, their team of homegrown British came in second.
Dubai came to host this tournament as part of the opening up to the world that was going on there. In 1979, the Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai opened up there where anyone could set up shop in a duty and tax free zone utilizing facilities built by the government. The area employs 144,000 people and provides 21% of Dubai’s GNP.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Russians. It was quite the act of inclusion to open up their Chess tournaments not just to their diaspora but all comers. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.