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To summarize my impressions from Olympiad-2018: it was a very unusual tournament for the Canadian Team. Many things happened for our team for the first time at least since 2012. Unfortunately, most of them were rather negative.
1. I want to start with the positive one: for the first time since 2012 we won our last match. As you know, in Swiss tournaments, last round is extremely important for the final standing. In 3 previous Olympiads, we drew twice against lower-rated teams (Albania in 2012 and Philippines in 2104) and lost 1.5-2.5 against USA in 2016. This time, we got a very friendly pairings and beat Finland 2.5-1.5.
2. For the first time a player didn't play more than 2 games in a row. Aman didn't play 4 rounds, from round 4 to 7. My initial plan was to give him just 2 days-off (round 4 and 5). However, Aman felt like he needed more time to regain his confidence. This approach worked very well for him, as Aman won last 4 games; his wins against Macedonia and Finland were critical for us.
Unfortunately, the number of negative things was much bigger.
1. For the first time since 2012 two eligible players decided not to accept the invitation: A.Kovalyov and B.Sambuev. Then I say "for the first time", I don't count K.Spraggett, who doesn't play for us for more than 10 years and nobody expects that this situation would change.
Each of them had his own reasons. Immediately after Anton withdrew from the World Cup-2017 in Georgia, I realize that we probably lost our best player. Unfortunately, it was the right prediction.
As many of you remember, Bator was very unhappy with the decision of the Selection Committee in 2016 and told that he will not pay for Canadian Team in the future. Probably, his conflict with N.Noritsyn on Canadian Closed-2017 also has an impact for his decision not to play for us.
Selection Committee doesn't exist anymore, but even a dead Selection Committee still has an impact on our line-up. Very sad.
2. For the first time since 2012, a player withdrew from the team just 10 days before the start of the Olympiad. As far as I know, Alex got a very interesting opportunity to teach wealthy Asian juniors. Sure, each one has his own priorities. Somebody is very reliable, somebody is not reliable.
3. For the first time since 2012 we didn't win 4-0 in the fist round. While loss to 1900+ player is pretty unpleasant, it has a limited impact on our tournament. The score against the lowest team (in final standing) doesn't count for the tie-break.
4. Many our players had a health (stomach) problem in Georgia. I was forced to change our line-up in a very last moment in round 3 against India (Nikolay didn't feel well; Aman played instead of him) and in round 10 against disable team IBCA (Razvan could not play and Nikolay played instead of him).
Eric had some health issues, but played thru. Some of our ladies also had problems. I know that other teams complained about food problems as well.
I don't take it as an excuse, but obviously it was a negative experience. We never had a serious health problem on my previous Olympiads.
4. As we didn't played well most of the tournament, we got just 3 higher-ranked opponents, usually we get at least 5, last Olympiad we got 6.
5. For the first time we lost 0-4. Actually, the average rating was very close, Vietnam had 27th initial ranking and Canada had 28th.
6. We never lost to a lower-ranked team since 2012 and somehow we managed to do this in 2018. Every Olympiad we drew once with the lower-ranked team (Albania in 2012, Philippines in 2014, Vietnam (!!) in 2016). This time, we drew twice with lower-ranked teams (Montenegro and Macedonia).
Conclusion: we didn't play well. Very lucky pairings in last 3 rounds (I believe that I do understand well the pairing system, but pairings in round 10 were beyond my understanding) and a narrow win against Finland allowed us to avoid a much lower finishing position. It's not bad to finish 23rd, but the final position is not everything. We played just 2 good matches as a team (against Colombia 3.5-0.5 and against Georgia 2-2) and lost 28 rating points combined.
C+.
1. I want to start with the positive one: for the first time since 2012 we won our last match. As you know, in Swiss tournaments, last round is extremely important for the final standing. In 3 previous Olympiads, we drew twice against lower-rated teams (Albania in 2012 and Philippines in 2104) and lost 1.5-2.5 against USA in 2016. This time, we got a very friendly pairings and beat Finland 2.5-1.5.
2. For the first time a player didn't play more than 2 games in a row. Aman didn't play 4 rounds, from round 4 to 7. My initial plan was to give him just 2 days-off (round 4 and 5). However, Aman felt like he needed more time to regain his confidence. This approach worked very well for him, as Aman won last 4 games; his wins against Macedonia and Finland were critical for us.
Unfortunately, the number of negative things was much bigger.
1. For the first time since 2012 two eligible players decided not to accept the invitation: A.Kovalyov and B.Sambuev. Then I say "for the first time", I don't count K.Spraggett, who doesn't play for us for more than 10 years and nobody expects that this situation would change.
Each of them had his own reasons. Immediately after Anton withdrew from the World Cup-2017 in Georgia, I realize that we probably lost our best player. Unfortunately, it was the right prediction.
As many of you remember, Bator was very unhappy with the decision of the Selection Committee in 2016 and told that he will not pay for Canadian Team in the future. Probably, his conflict with N.Noritsyn on Canadian Closed-2017 also has an impact for his decision not to play for us.
Selection Committee doesn't exist anymore, but even a dead Selection Committee still has an impact on our line-up. Very sad.
2. For the first time since 2012, a player withdrew from the team just 10 days before the start of the Olympiad. As far as I know, Alex got a very interesting opportunity to teach wealthy Asian juniors. Sure, each one has his own priorities. Somebody is very reliable, somebody is not reliable.
3. For the first time since 2012 we didn't win 4-0 in the fist round. While loss to 1900+ player is pretty unpleasant, it has a limited impact on our tournament. The score against the lowest team (in final standing) doesn't count for the tie-break.
4. Many our players had a health (stomach) problem in Georgia. I was forced to change our line-up in a very last moment in round 3 against India (Nikolay didn't feel well; Aman played instead of him) and in round 10 against disable team IBCA (Razvan could not play and Nikolay played instead of him).
Eric had some health issues, but played thru. Some of our ladies also had problems. I know that other teams complained about food problems as well.
I don't take it as an excuse, but obviously it was a negative experience. We never had a serious health problem on my previous Olympiads.
4. As we didn't played well most of the tournament, we got just 3 higher-ranked opponents, usually we get at least 5, last Olympiad we got 6.
5. For the first time we lost 0-4. Actually, the average rating was very close, Vietnam had 27th initial ranking and Canada had 28th.
6. We never lost to a lower-ranked team since 2012 and somehow we managed to do this in 2018. Every Olympiad we drew once with the lower-ranked team (Albania in 2012, Philippines in 2014, Vietnam (!!) in 2016). This time, we drew twice with lower-ranked teams (Montenegro and Macedonia).
Conclusion: we didn't play well. Very lucky pairings in last 3 rounds (I believe that I do understand well the pairing system, but pairings in round 10 were beyond my understanding) and a narrow win against Finland allowed us to avoid a much lower finishing position. It's not bad to finish 23rd, but the final position is not everything. We played just 2 good matches as a team (against Colombia 3.5-0.5 and against Georgia 2-2) and lost 28 rating points combined.
C+.