Two players die at world chess event in Norway
..
Kurt Meier, 67, a Swiss-born member of the Seychelles team, collapsed on Thursday afternoon, during his final match of the marathon two-week contest. Despite immediate medical attention at the scene he died later in hospital.
Hours later, a player from Uzbekistan who has not yet been named was found dead in his hotel room in central Tromsø. Norwegian police and the event's organisers said on Friday they were not treating the deaths as suspicious.
"We regard these as tragic but natural deaths," said a spokesman for the Chess Olympiad.
..
Tarjei J Svensen, a reporter for chess24.com who attended the Olympiad, said the event had a reputation for heavy drinking. "There are two rest days during the competition, and particularly the night before the rest days there tends to be a lot of drinking," he said.
A favourite attraction for delegates was the now-legendary "Bermuda party", he added, hosted at each Olympiad by a member of the Bermudan delegation.
The Guardian
