Olympiad - 2024

[Victor Plotkin]

Actually, now Olympiads are more competitive and without clear favorite. As you probably know, USSR absolutely dominated chess Olympiads and lost gold medal only once - in 1978, without 2 their best players that time (Karpov and Tal).

About long term rivalries - I expect it between USA and India, while China also has some chances. But the gap is much smaller compare to Cold War period.

[Fred Henderson]

Olympiads don't interest me much any more, I thought they were very interesting when it was East vs West. The fall of the Soviet Union , which more or less coincided with the onset of the information age, changed everything. The talent is spread out among many countries, so you don't really have the big rivalries against the Sovietskis, which made things much more interesting for me.

[Victor Plotkin]

Top-10 as of Feb 1, 2024

1. GM E.Bareev - 2611 (9 games)
2. GM E.Hansen - 2610 (6 games)
3. GM P.Charbonneau - 2507 (1 game)
4. IM (GM elect) S.Rodrigue-Lemieux - 2503 (2493+10)
5. GM B.Sambuev - 2474
6. IM N.Noritsyn - 2468 (2448+20)
7. IM R.Panjwani - 2468
8. GM R.Preotu - 2462
9. GM T.Roussel-Roozmon - 2457 (9 games)
10. GM K.Spragett - 2447

[Victor Plotkin]

Hugh, to your questions.

1. As you can see, I added 20 points for the winner and 10 points for the runner-up of Canadian Closed - 2023 (Nikolay and Shawn). The same for Women section.

2. I didn't include inactive (by FIDE rules) players as I see their participation as "highly unlikely". Also, if I include all of them, the top-10 list becomes slightly irrelevant. Obviously, if one of them plays 20 games in the next 6 months, he is fully eligible and very welcome to Team Canada.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: the "top 10" list.

Is this the current top 10 (active) Canadians by FIDE rating - with adjustments made for events which have already taken place? Some have not played the required 20 games - but maybe they will by May 1.

What about inactive players - e.g. Kovalyov, Charbonneau, Lesiege? Would they still be eligible (assuming their ratings are high enough) if they play 20 games by May 1?

[Vlad Drkulec]

Who is V. ?

Veronica Guo. She played on the Canadian women's Olympiad team in Chennai in 2022 and played well.

[Victor Plotkin]

WIM Yunshan Li was finally transferred from Chinese to Canadian Federation a few weeks ago. UofT student.

[Hans Jung]

Interesting points - GM Bareev is one rating point ahead of GM Hansen. GM Spraggett is still on the list.

Who is Y. Li? (Im usually knowledgeable on players but I dont recognise her)

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Veronica (Yu Han) Guo. She was playing for Team Canada at Chennai Olympiad-2022 and finished with tiny rating gain of 165 points..

thnx for refreshing the memory :)

[Victor Plotkin]

Veronica (Yu Han) Guo. She was playing for Team Canada at Chennai Olympiad-2022 and finished with tiny rating gain of 165 points.

Anni Guo has slightly lower average rating of 1922.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

10. V.Guo - 1935

Who is V. ?

[Victor Plotkin]

Ladies: (FIDE+CFC)/2

1. WIM Y.Li - 2344
2. WGM M.-J.Ouellet - 2270
3. WIM B.Pham - 2260
4. WIM S.Demchenko - 2246 (2226+20)
5. WFM O.Golubeva - 2221
6. WFM A.Botez - 2108
7. WFM M.Mills - 2051
8. WFM R.Chen - 2003
9. V.Ruchinskaya - 1939
10. V.Guo - 1935

[Victor Plotkin]

Top-10 as of Dec 1, 2023.

1. GM E.Bareev - 2611
2. GM E.Hansen - 2610
3. IM (GM elect) S.Rodrigue-Lemieux - 2512 (2502 + 10)
4. GM B.Sambuev - 2484
5. IM R.Panjwani - 2468
6. IM N.Noritsyn - 2467 (2447 + 20)
7. GM R.Preotu - 2459
8. GM T.Roussel-Roozmon -2457
9. GM K.Spraggett - 2447
10. IM T.Krnan - 2434

[Victor Plotkin]

Budapest, Sep 10 - 23, 2024.

Major points about qualification for Team Canada.

1. FIDE rating for Open, average CFC-FIDE rating for Women.

2, Bonus 20 points for 1st place, 10 points for 2nd place in Canadian Closed - 2023.

3. Olympic spot for winner of Canadian Zonal - 2024 (Mar-Apr 2024, Hart House).

4. Bonus 20 points for 2nd place, 10 points for 3rd place in Zonal.

5. Penalty 10 points for player who doesn't play / withdraws from both Closed - 2023 AND Zonal - 2024.

6. Final rating for consideration - May 1, 2024.

7. At least 20 rated games (CFC or FIDE) from May 1, 2023 to May 1, 2024 (12-months period before the deadline).

I will post current standing for both Open and Women team later.