The first Olympic selection controversy

[Denis Allan]

Who can forget the time Abe Yanofsky was left off the team? That's an easy question. Almost nobody on chess talk has forgotten because almost nobody knows about it! Just a test to see if any historians are here. And he was back on the team.

[Frank Dixon]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

Denis, which year was that? :)

[Gordon Taylor]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

As best I recall the selection committee chose to include Kevin Spraggett and Yanofsky was left off the team. Abe was none too happy and exerted some influence. Sober second thought put Abe back and dropped Kevin. Kevin was probably not too happy but a good grudge can do wonders to stimulate future progress. I have a recollection that Zvonko Vranesic had a hand in the first choice; probably not in the second. When exactly? My guess would be 1976 or 1978.

[Denis Allan]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

1974. John Prentice had for years paid for everything, picked the team and been captain, but finally decided to turn over the captaincy, so Zvonko picked the team. He was correct in believing in Spraggett 's strength but very few knew, certainly not in Western Canada. KS had never played in a Closed and of course no internet then, very few games readily available. Kevin resolved it by voluntarily dropping off and did not play in the Olympiad until 1986. Of course the 1975 Closed results supported Zvonko's view of Spraggett. I don't know if Zvonko went as captain in 74 or not but do know that in 1980 in Malta, a very cohesive team with Zvonko as playing captain, there was no sign of any ill will on Abe's part.

[Gordon Taylor]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

1974 seems too early to me and this is why. In 1974 I moved to Vancouver to begin post-graduate studies at UBC. Vancouver was home to Duncan Suttles and the then Canadian champion Peter Biyiasas so it seemed a good choice to help improve my chess. But Vancouver also was home to the newly crowned Canadian Junior Chess Champion, Nigel Fullbrook, aka "Mad Dog." Nigel had just won the Junior Champ ahead of Spraggett and Hebert so I can't think Spraggett would be such an obvious pick in that year. I also believe that failing to win the Junior was another factor that drove Kevin's extraordinary rise. I played Kevin in 1975 at the Canadian Open in Calgary and didn't think he was that good. He did beat me but not convincingly. However, he made a pretty good showing at the Closed, also in Calgary, that followed soon after the Open.

[Gordon Taylor]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

Denis, on reflection, I think you're right. I just looked at the Cdn Closed X-table for 1975 and Kevin finished clear second. He only scored 1/2 against the top four but pretty much swept the rest of the field, finishing with 10.5/15. So in 1976 his selection for the Olympic Team would not really have been a controversy. But in 1974 it surely would have been.

[Denis Allan]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

Of course it was a snail mail controversy, but I expect there are traces of it in the Governors' Letters of the day, and no doubt someone still has access to them. Also possible mention in whatever the CFC bulletin or mag of the day was called.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

The First Olympic Selection Controversy

April 27, 2016

From Canadian Chess Chat, Vol. 27, No. 2, March/April, 1974, page 34.

Canadian Team in the 21st Chess Olympiad

June 6 – 30, 1974, Nice, France

Z. Vranesic was chosen by the CFC to select the Canadian team and his choice is:

1. D. Suttles, Vancouver
2. P. Biyiasas, Vancouver
3. B. Amos, Toronto
4. L. Day, Toronto
5. G. Kuprejanov, Toronto
6. K. Spraggett, Montreal

All very nice but where are D. A. Yanofsky, L. Joyner and Z. Vranesic himself? Dr. Vranesic has taken into account participation in major Canadian tournaments and youth, but leaving off Yanofsky strikes us as strange to say the least. Yanofsky (2435) and Vranesic (2425) are clearly ahead of Day (2330), Kuprejanov (2365) Amos (2415) and even Biyiasas (2420). We believe the selection should be seriously reconsidered by the CFC Board of Governors.

[probably written by Prof. N. Divinsky, the editor]

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

The CFC "Bulletin" mentions nothing about the selection of the 1974 Olympiad team except that (prior to selection) Zvonko Vranesic was to select the six players, and (after selections were finalized) there were profiles of the six - including Yanofsky.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

The First Olympic Selection Controversy

April 27, 2016

So, who was finally on the 1974 Olympic team and how did they do?

There were eight preliminary groups. The USSR and Wales had the top two scores after 9 rounds in Group 1. Canada was in Group 2, the top two places going to the USA and England. Canada and Denmark went on to Final Group B and so on.

The Championship Final (A) had 16 teams and the top four places at the end were USSR Yugoslavia, USA and Bulgaria.

Final Group B had these as the top 10 places:

17. Israel 40.5
18. Austria 38.5
19. Italy 38
20. Colombia 32,5
21. Norway 32
22. Iceland 32
23. Poland 32
24. Canada 31
25. Cuba 31
26. Denmark 31

Individual Results

Canada

1. Suttles 55.26%
2. Biyiasas 58.82%
3. Yanofsky 50.00%
4. Kuprejanov 53.56%
5. Day 59.09%
6. Piasetski 69.23%

Other Teams

“Three notable absentees from the Olympiad. World Champion Bobby Fischer refused to play for the United States because the organisers refused to allow him to play his games in a separate building away from the public and the press. The Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen did not play because (presumably) there is no real incentive for him – the Danish Chess Federation could not hope to find enough money to make it worth his while. Lastly, there is the question of the East German team. They didn’t play because they couldn’t win! This sounds like a ridiculous argument, but it is absolutely true. However if everyone who couldn’t win didn’t take part there would be no Olympiad.”

Individual Results

USSR

1. Karpov 85.71%
2. Korchnoi 76.67%
3. Spassky 73.33%
4. Petrosian 90.00%
5. Tal 75.00%
6. Kuzmin 83.33%

Yugoslavia

1. Gligoric 58.82%
2. Ljubojevic 63.33%
3. Ivkov 70.59
4. Planinc 76.67%
5. Velimirovic 75.00%
6. Parma 75.00%

USA

1. Kavalek 56.67%
2. Byrne, R. 75.00%
3. Browne 61.76%
4. Reshevsky 63.63%
5. Lombardy 68.75%
6. Tarjan 84.62%

I have taken the quote about Fischer, Larsen etc and all the results data from the book:

Chess Olympiad Nice 1974 by Ray Keene and David Levy, Batsford 1975

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

#### 1 ####

Chess Canada 1976,12 had a letter by Zvonko Vranesic ("was also entrusted by the CFC with the naming of the six players") to Kalev Pugi (a President of the CFC).

Excerpts:

"First, I would like to explain the guiding principled which led me to select the players listed below. ...
1. Participation in major Canadian Tournaments (i.e. the Canadian Closed and the Canadian Open).
2. Performance in previous international tournaments; particularly the Olympics.
3. Recent overall tournament results, as indicated by the rating, equality of published games, success against established strong players, etc.
4. Future promise and liklihood of success in case of young players who have not yet had a chance to obtain a creditable record under 1 and 2 above."

The he listed 6 players.


"Let me give a brief elaboration about each player.
...
SPRAGGETT - a promising and rapidly improving junior; had good tournament results during the last year (e.g. tied for 2-5th in the 1973 Canadian Open)."

There are two further points that I would like to make:

1- Two of the very highly rated players, namely Abe Yanofsky and Lionel Joyner are not included in the team in views of their total inactivity in recent major Canadian tournaments.
2-.... However, we have a highly promising group of juniors who are not far behind, and it is my personal opinion that one of them should be given a chance, since they represent our hope for the future."

(maybe later I'll make a picture with a whole text.)

#### 2 ####

Chess Canada 1975 February a letter by Camille Coudari discussing the criteria of selection: ".... the present criteria are contradictory and therefore give a power to the selector, whether it be an individual or a committee, to make very arbitrary decisions."
Then he suggested 25 gamed for activity, and "The selection should be made by calculating the percentage of all the players who played 25 or more games against masters and simply taking the top six.... Firstly, it is based on objective results"


#### 3 ####

Chess Canada 1975 March editorial: "Caught up in the fervor of the hustle surrounding the selection of the Canadian Olympic Team for Nice, we are looking forward to seeing how Biyiasas, Day, Kuprejanov, Suttles and Yanoffsky will fare in the 1974 Mecca of the Chess World. The six team member will be the winner of a match between Dobrich, Piasetski and Witt."

#### 4 ####


Chess Canada 1975 April editorial: "Leon Piasetski of Montreal is the name on the Canadian chess scene following his victories in the Toronto Open and the Olympic Team Playoff (see pages 9 and 14). Will he succeed in his bid for a Triple Crown at the Nice Olympiad." (His photo was on the cover with "Piasetski joins Olympic team.)

Page 9 had match games (double-RR) "But then this was a low-budget match - the Chess Federation had decided not to pay any expenses.... ."


#### 5 ####

Chess Canada 1975 July - August (a special issue dedicated to the Olympiad)

p. 43: "It is clear now that the Canadian team suffered from the controversy over their selection and their lack of a team captain. Right from the start there was a dispute over who should play which board and this, no doubt, hurt the team's performance as individuals were forced to press in an attempt to prove they deserved their board position or better. ... The logical choice would have been Zvonko Vranesic but he had a falling out with the majority of the CFC over the teams' selection."

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

I sat next to Zvonko Vranesic at the 1973 Annual Meeting of the CFC, in Ottawa, where he suggested the measure of the captain picking the team, and used all of his powers of logic and persuasion to put it forward. The meeting agreed, one might even say it was enraptured by his vision. I recall that I wasn't convinced by his reasoning, but having made the brave decision, I thought that the CFC should have stuck with it.

In 1974, Yanofsky was 49 (and Spraggett 19-20). In 2016, Alexandre LeSiège is 41. Just in case anybody is counting.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s several players in British Columbia were miffed that Yanofsky, despite not playing in Canadian competitions, was chosen over and over again for the Olympic team. Well, of course we were too young to have witnessed Yanofsky's period of dominance. And we did not even dream of the truth: some years earlier Yanofsky had been banned from the Manitoba Closed Championship. Not for any of the normal reasons, but because the foregone conclusion of his victory was making the event unpalatable for other potential entrants. So it wasn't Yanofsky's fault that he didn't play, though it would have been interesting to see him in the 1969 and 1972 Canadian Closed Championships, the only ones held between 1965 and 1975. I don't think that any of us imagined that we were better players than Yanofsky, just our desire as chess fans (or perhaps advanced chess fans) to see a team more representative of contemporary Canadian chess.

This might have been the first olympic team selection controversy to cause a hubbub among CFC governors. But not the first controversial selection. I recall that Ray Kerr told me that for an earlier Olympiad (perhaps 1966 in Havana), he was next on the list and when one of the Anointed could not go, he was passed over. "We couldn't find you", they allegedly told him. He didn't cry over spilt milk, but he did remember.

[Brian Hartman]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

Hello Jonathan, while I was too young to matter then; however, I then and now feel IM Vranesic made the correct decision, and should have been supported and been captain.

Re Ray Kerr, I can relate, as I recall a similar "snub" for the 1978 event in Mexico...which in retrospect was the good/bad of IM Nickoloff's trajectory.

Completely unrelated, but the enigma from BC for me was Bob Zuk...I won't say when, but in one event he was losing most games, I was in the lead, and he beat me (easily), and after the game I asked him what was going on, and he told me I was the only player he wanted to win against in the event :) - to my chagrin. I equally recall Bryon speaking very highly of Zuk, including an adjournment analysis, where Bryon deployed a brilliant endgame concept, and Bryon after the game, to gushing onlookers, simply said, this was Zuk's idea.

PS - I should have added, in defense of the CFC in 1973-78, when I approached Denis Allan about why I was left off junior/student events, they said, well they saw you smoking and drinking at events and thought you were too old :)

Brian

[Denis Allan]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

Hello Jonathan, while I was too young to matter then; however, I then and now feel IM Vranesic made the correct decision, and should have been supported and been captain.

Re Ray Kerr, I can relate, as I recall a similar "snub" for the 1978 event in Mexico...which in retrospect was the good/bad of IM Nickoloff's trajectory.

Completely unrelated, but the enigma from BC for me was Bob Zuk...I won't say when, but in one event he was losing most games, I was in the lead, and he beat me (easily), and after the game I asked him what was going on, and he told me I was the only player he wanted to win against in the event :) - to my chagrin. I equally recall Bryon speaking very highly of Zuk, including an adjournment analysis, where Bryon deployed a brilliant endgame concept, and Bryon after the game, to gushing onlookers, simply said, this was Zuk's idea.

PS - I should have added, in defense of the CFC in 1973-78, when I approached Denis Allan about why I was left off junior/student events, they said, well they saw you smoking and drinking at events and thought you were too old :)

Brian

I have no idea of what you might have been left off, know I never heard of you till I moved to Hamilton in August,76. But you were pretty wild then - your life story is amazing and I can't wait for you to kick the bucket so I can tell it!

[Hans Jung]

Re: The first Olympic selection controversy

Tell us more. This is chesstalk afterall.:D