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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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After 6 consecutive Olympiads (2012-2024), I think it's time for our national team to find a new captain. The Olympiad is generally, and especially in recent years, an event primarily targeted to young people; I would think that the average player age is less than 30 and that the average captain age is less than 50.
In chess, and in many other disciplines, particularly politics, people struggle to realize when their time to take a step back presents itself, and they lose the sense of authority and legitimacy they've built up, and, at a certain point, this harms the team as well.
Later, I'll send out a statistical analysis of the 6 Olympiads that I've captained, but it is blatantly clear that over this time, the team has exceeded all expectations and certainly outperformed its initial rankings. We have never lost to a lower rated team, and have accomplished the very difficult task of beating higher rated teams a total of 7 times. The Olympiad of 2016 deserves a separate mention, when, in the last round, we played the United States on Board 1, and Alex Lesiege had a superior position to Wesley So, putting us one move away from fourth place.
Over these 6 Olympiads, I have changed Canada's traditional approach -- that every player should play roughly the same number of games and as many games with black as with white. I have intentionally assigned colour to player since the very beginning, with the extreme being the 'Eric plays white' strategy during the 2016 Olympiad, when he played 9/11 games as white.
I am grateful to the players of Canada's Olympic teams for the wonderful times we spent together. In total, I spent around 3 months with these great players. This year's lineup was especially pleasant.
Likely, I will continue to be involved in questions regarding the National Team, as the CFC's Master Representative and FIDE Representative.
There's a lot to criticize about chess organization in Canada, but even the most cynical would have trouble finding fault in how our Olympiad teams have performed, and some credit for that must go to the captain. Great work over the years and I suspect we will struggle to find someone to do the job as well as you've done it.
Thank you Victor for an extraordinary effort to refine and improve Canada's efforts at the Chess Olympiad. You have set the bar very high for future Team Captains...
Thanks so much to FM Victor Plotkin for his exceptional dedication, diplomatic management, and chess skills, in the role of Canadian Men's Team captain for the past six Olympiads!!!
Having known Victor for some time now, I am 100% certain there is nobody better for the Olympiad Captain job. The leader doesn’t have to be the same age as the team. In addition to chess skills, the leader needs to be LIKABLE, and wise. You are very likable, Victor. And wise. Please don’t quit.
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