THE captain of the Palau Chess Team, Jan-Olav Berglund of Sweden, that will participate in the 2008 World Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany on Nov. 12-25 is trying his best to find sponsorship for Palau's first participation in international chess competition abroad.
However, there is a bad timing now. The fall of the world economy makes it difficult for him to get sponsorship but he still continue to persuade Continental Airlines, World Chess Federation (FIDE), International Olympic Committee and others to contribute some.
Roughly, each member of the team needs $2,000.00 to cover the flight cost and the exchange rate of SEK (Swedish currency) used to be 6 to a dollar and it's now 7.10 to a dollar and still unstable because of the trend.
He is asking the team members Menandro Manuel, Manny Nedic, Roberto Hernandez, Cyril Montel, Jr., Gene Pastrana and Dennis Lara to chip into the pot.
He will cancel his trip to Palau before the Olympics to put the money into the pot.
He even asks for other chess enthusiasts that are not among the selected ones to chip in.
He and his wife Bessie will shoulder their own accommodation in Germany to give Lara the opportunity to sleep with the team of six.
He found one company that is willing to sell some travel insurance that have a good coverage and some flight tickets that would cut down on transit visa costs so that flying into Schengen on the 12th of November and leave on the 25th would cut down accommodation costs for extra days.
Late last night, October 09, he sent an urgent email to Hernandez that a new opportunity for part sponsorship has turned up.
He needs to talk to someone at Palau National Olympic Committee and he can't find their telephone number.
Hernandez immediately sent him the tel. numbers of the top people in PNOC: Frank Kyota and Baklai Temengil.
Some members of the team are losing hope now that they can not make it in time as the visa will take 2 weeks to be issued.
If it really meant to be, by the grace of God, things will get better.
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 13 & 15
Volume 17
October 13-19, 2008
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