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May be now, few days after finish of Olympiad in Istanbul, is the best time to consider some changes in Canadian Team selection process.
1. For the last 2 Olympiads, the Selection Committee chose 60% of the Canadian Team line-up. The initial idea (1 Canadian champion, 3 by rating, 1 by Committee) looks logical to me; however, the reality of Canadian chess increases the power of this Committee. K.Spraggett doesn't want to play for Canada and J.Hebert (2010) and M.Bluvshtein (2012) decided not to participate.
For the 2014 Olympiad, the Committee will probably choose at least 2 players. K.Spraggett is still playing very strong, but his conflict with CFC isn't solved, and almost for sure he will be qualified by rating but decide not to play. BTW, I am pretty sure both Canadian eligible GMs (B.Sambuev and E.Hansen) will play for Canada in 2014.
I believe, right now Committee has huge power. I want CFC to consider some changes, so this Committee will choose only 1 player. In my opinion, this decision could make the selection process more fair and more predictable.
Taking this year as an example, we will have had these steps:
1). B.Sambuev (champion 2011) - accepted.
2). M.Bluvshtein (rating) - declined.
3). K.Spraggett (rating) - declined.
4). L.Gerzhoy (rating) - accepted.
Now instead of giving the Committee 3 spots, we continue to go to the next eleigible player by rating.
5). N.Noritsyn - accepted.
6). E.Hansen - accepted.
Only after 4 eligible players accepted the invitation, Committee chooses 5-th player.
I know that this year the Committee chose players according to their rating; however it could be different next Olympiad.
2. Now the average between the highest CFC and FIDE rating is calculated for the selection. In my opinion, the CFC rating for the top Canadian players became almost irrelevant and thus shouldn't be taken into account at all.
After a couple of years of "artificial inflation", CFC rating became much higher than FIDE, but this is not the main problem for the selection. The main problem is the difference between more inflated (Ontario, especially Toronto, and maybe Alberta) provinces and other (Quebec, BC) provinces, which is absolutely unfair for players outside of Ontario (and maybe Alberta).
Playing in BC this summer, I paid attention to very low (around 30-50 points) rating differences between CFC and FIDE ratings for most BC players. In Ontario this number is around 150-180, in Alberta more than 100. This makes it pretty difficult for players outside of these 2 provinces to qualify by rating.
As a team captain, I didn't regard CFC rating for the board order. As far as I know, in 2010 Yura Ochkoos did exactly the same. For example, in 2010 T.Russel-Roosmon was playing on board 2, although his CFC rating was the lowest in the team.
Nowadays, almost every tournament is rated in both CFC and FIDE. For the last couple of years, I played only 1 tournament that was not FIDE-rated (Hamilton Open). CFC rating is now useful mostly for kids' tournamnents and for lower-rated (below 2000) players.
3. Now about the 5th Team Canada player, which would be chosen by the Committee. I believe that the main factor for the selection (of cource, after chess level) should be age. This wild-card should be given in most cases to a young player, who can improve his chess in the future.
This proposal doesn't mean that veteran players cannot qualify. They can do it by rating or by winning Canadian Closed (like J.Hebert). But this wild-card is not for them.
Taking this year as an example, the Committee could have considered players like T.Krnan, B.Cheng, R.Panjwani, A.Samsonkin and maybe even R.Sapozhnikov. They all were lower-rated than the nominee, but the difference wasn't too big.
Again the best time for changes is now. A few months before the deadline (around March 2014) will be too late; everything will be taken personally.
1. For the last 2 Olympiads, the Selection Committee chose 60% of the Canadian Team line-up. The initial idea (1 Canadian champion, 3 by rating, 1 by Committee) looks logical to me; however, the reality of Canadian chess increases the power of this Committee. K.Spraggett doesn't want to play for Canada and J.Hebert (2010) and M.Bluvshtein (2012) decided not to participate.
For the 2014 Olympiad, the Committee will probably choose at least 2 players. K.Spraggett is still playing very strong, but his conflict with CFC isn't solved, and almost for sure he will be qualified by rating but decide not to play. BTW, I am pretty sure both Canadian eligible GMs (B.Sambuev and E.Hansen) will play for Canada in 2014.
I believe, right now Committee has huge power. I want CFC to consider some changes, so this Committee will choose only 1 player. In my opinion, this decision could make the selection process more fair and more predictable.
Taking this year as an example, we will have had these steps:
1). B.Sambuev (champion 2011) - accepted.
2). M.Bluvshtein (rating) - declined.
3). K.Spraggett (rating) - declined.
4). L.Gerzhoy (rating) - accepted.
Now instead of giving the Committee 3 spots, we continue to go to the next eleigible player by rating.
5). N.Noritsyn - accepted.
6). E.Hansen - accepted.
Only after 4 eligible players accepted the invitation, Committee chooses 5-th player.
I know that this year the Committee chose players according to their rating; however it could be different next Olympiad.
2. Now the average between the highest CFC and FIDE rating is calculated for the selection. In my opinion, the CFC rating for the top Canadian players became almost irrelevant and thus shouldn't be taken into account at all.
After a couple of years of "artificial inflation", CFC rating became much higher than FIDE, but this is not the main problem for the selection. The main problem is the difference between more inflated (Ontario, especially Toronto, and maybe Alberta) provinces and other (Quebec, BC) provinces, which is absolutely unfair for players outside of Ontario (and maybe Alberta).
Playing in BC this summer, I paid attention to very low (around 30-50 points) rating differences between CFC and FIDE ratings for most BC players. In Ontario this number is around 150-180, in Alberta more than 100. This makes it pretty difficult for players outside of these 2 provinces to qualify by rating.
As a team captain, I didn't regard CFC rating for the board order. As far as I know, in 2010 Yura Ochkoos did exactly the same. For example, in 2010 T.Russel-Roosmon was playing on board 2, although his CFC rating was the lowest in the team.
Nowadays, almost every tournament is rated in both CFC and FIDE. For the last couple of years, I played only 1 tournament that was not FIDE-rated (Hamilton Open). CFC rating is now useful mostly for kids' tournamnents and for lower-rated (below 2000) players.
3. Now about the 5th Team Canada player, which would be chosen by the Committee. I believe that the main factor for the selection (of cource, after chess level) should be age. This wild-card should be given in most cases to a young player, who can improve his chess in the future.
This proposal doesn't mean that veteran players cannot qualify. They can do it by rating or by winning Canadian Closed (like J.Hebert). But this wild-card is not for them.
Taking this year as an example, the Committee could have considered players like T.Krnan, B.Cheng, R.Panjwani, A.Samsonkin and maybe even R.Sapozhnikov. They all were lower-rated than the nominee, but the difference wasn't too big.
Again the best time for changes is now. A few months before the deadline (around March 2014) will be too late; everything will be taken personally.
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