Women's Olympiad: some interesting observations

[Frank Dixon]

Georgia has been awarded first place and the gold medals, on tiebreak, in the 2008 Dresden Women's Olympiad, ahead of Ukraine (team silver), with those two nations ending up tied in overall match points. The United States captured the team bronze medals, also on tiebreak.

Interestingly, none of the team medal winners faced each other during the 11 rounds!! An outcome of the unusual pairing system, perhaps!? And also of the shortened tournament (11 rounds, down from the usual 14).

Georgia was led by an astounding performance from its board one, the former Women's World Champion, GM Maia Chiburdanidze, who has passed her 50th birthday. She posted a 2715 performance with 7.5 points in nine games against top-class opposition!! :) :) This might be the best result, from a performance rating standpoint, in her long and distinguished career.

Finishing ahead of the Russians must have been especially sweet for Georgia. After all, it was only a few months ago that the Russian army invaded Georgia, and intervened further in a long-running civil war.

Three top players who are well known in Canada anchored the American team. IM Irina Krush played board one, IM Anna Zatonskih excelled on board two with the second-highest performance rating, and WGM Rusudan Goletiani played all 11 games on board three, without a loss. All three have played either in Canadian Opens or in other international events on Canadian soil. The American reserve board player may have fallen ill, as she played only three matches out of 11, putting immense strain on her teammates. It would have been very interesting to see what the U.S. might have done with an in-form GM Susan Polgar on board one.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Women's Olympiad: some interesting observations

I would not suspect illness. In Calvia, over 14 rounds, USA fielded US Women's Champion Jennifer Shahade only twice. She was perfectly healthy. It was part of their team strategy: go with your hot players to the end. Same team hierarchy in 2008, AFAIK.

[Frank Dixon]

Re: Women's Olympiad: some interesting observations

Very good point, Jonathan.

Oh, and although I originally posted on this site in favour of the end of the one-hour-late-and-still-eligible-to-play rule, a couple of weeks ago, as the Olympiad was starting, I also very much like Jonathan's post today on the end of the Rubinstein Rule. It's a bit more complicated than I thought; Jonathan came up with a few new wrinkles that I hadn't considered. I still think that chess rulesmakers do need to modify this rule. Jonathan's post is very thoughtful and important, as are most of his posts. But, in this respect, simply compare chess to other sports and games. Many people travel by sometimes unreliable public transit, to hopefully arrive on time, to compete at other sporting and competitive events, either individually or as part of a team, as well.

It's also worth noting that all of the players on the three medal-winning women's teams from Dresden (Georgia, Ukraine, USA) were, so far as I know, very likely born in what once was the USSR. This puts into perspective just how strong the OLD USSR teams were, in both men's and women's play, since ALL of the players appearing now for the former Soviet republics wouldn't be playing for their new countries, if the USSR were still in existence. The top echelon among them would be the USSR team, and the rest would be at home.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Women's Olympiad: some interesting observations

I would not suspect illness. In Calvia, over 14 rounds, USA fielded US Women's Champion Jennifer Shahade only twice. She was perfectly healthy. It was part of their team strategy: go with your hot players to the end. Same team hierarchy in 2008, AFAIK.

Portugal show only 4 players on their women's team. They team played all 11 games and seemed fresh enough in the last round.

I don't know if you put much importance on performance ratings. Personally, I like my performance rating in an event to be at least as high as my rating.

[Duncan Smith]

Re: Women's Olympiad: some interesting observations

Actually, Yuanling's opponent got ill during the game and quit. A reserve might have helped depending on how she felt prior to the game.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Women's Olympiad: some interesting observations

Actually, Yuanling's opponent got ill during the game and quit. A reserve might have helped depending on how she felt prior to the game.

In any case, Portugal won the match.

I don't know why Portugal would only field 4 players but assume cost had something to do with it. Also, 11 games in 13 days isn't too many for a player who comes to play. They were seeded 49th and finished 46th.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Women's Olympiad: some interesting observations

Many people travel by sometimes unreliable public transit, to hopefully arrive on time, to compete at other sporting and competitive events, either individually or as part of a team, as well.

Other sports may have Draconian rules, and maybe they need such rules. Other sports don't have 12-hour competitive days. The Rubinstein Rule provides a self-administering system of punishment for showing up late. You show up 10 minutes late and you lose 10 minutes on your clock.

A "game" of chess is not like a "game" of hockey. The start of a chess game might be more like a hockey faceoff or a hockey period. If a team is late for the faceoff, the referee may wait for a few moments. If they continue to absent themselves, what is the next step? Maybe a warning or a bench penalty? Lucky chess, we have clocks and don't have to descend into judgment calls of the referee, at least not until an hour into the game, where most of us think that losing the game is a fair rap for not showing up.

A "game" of chess might be like a hole of golf. If Tiger is a bit reluctant at the tee, most likely nothing happens. If the golf umpire finally decides he's taken too long, what does the umpire do, give him a stroke penalty for slow play? Again, lucky chess to have a gradual and self-administering system of disciplining players for lateness, thanks to the chess clock.

I think that these points were sufficiently dealt with in earlier discussion. I wanted to make the most salient point--about how a zero- or 15- minute rule encourages cheating--because that's what I'm going to send to FIDE.