Olympiad Team Selection Committee results

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Hello everyone,


There is an erroneous report on the CFC newsfeed that names Mali-Jade Ouellet as the selection committee nominee to the women's olympiad team. She is on the team but she is on by rating and not by selection committee. The report lists Nava Starr as being the fourth member. Nava had declined her invitation giving an opportunity for some new faces to emerge on the international stage for Canada's Women's team.


Men’s Team Selection =
Alexandre Le Siege

Women’s Team Selection =
Lali Agbabishvili


I would like to thank the members of the committee for their deliberations and for their quick decisions.

[Rene Preotu]

Hi Vlad,

Men’s Team Selection =
Alexandre Le Siege

Women’s Team Selection =
Lali Agbabishvili


I would like to thank the members of the committee for their deliberations and for their quick decisions.

Did the selection committee send you just the names of the players without any reasoning?

From CFC handbook:
905 b) The Selection Committee shall select three players to be eligible for the National Team in a ranked order and three players to be eligible for the Women's team in a ranked order, taking into account the players' recent results, potential for improvement and such other factors as they consider relevant. These selections shall be made no later than 165 days before the start of the Olympiad. [Motion 2011L Bluvshtein/Zeromskis; amended by McDonald/von Keitz]

I'm just wondering which other relevant factors they took in consideration when they selected GM Le Siege? For me it's clear that his recent results and potential for improvement are out of the question.

Thank you.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

The selection committee gives us a ranked list of names and not their reasoning.

[Rene Preotu]

The selection committee gives us a ranked list of names and not their reasoning.

Thank you Vlad

[Alex Ferreira]

Hello everyone,


There is an erroneous report on the CFC newsfeed that names Mali-Jade Ouellet as the selection committee nominee to the women's olympiad team. She is on the team but she is on by rating and not by selection committee. The report lists Nava Starr as being the fourth member. Nava had declined her invitation giving an opportunity for some new faces to emerge on the international stage for Canada's Women's team.


Men’s Team Selection =
Alexandre Le Siege

Women’s Team Selection =
Lali Agbabishvili


I would like to thank the members of the committee for their deliberations and for their quick decisions.

Hi,


I am writing this purely as a chess player and fan who has followed the last 4 Olympiads, in particular the Canadian National Team.

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As for the women's selection, it makes sense. Lali is next in average rating and meets the activity requirements.

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I don't understand the committee's choice in picking GM Le Siege for the national team.


Some statistics purely based on results:
Total Games from January 2015 --> March 2016
FIDE Rating Change, from January 2015 --> March 2016

Games against titled players (GM, IM, FM, WGM) in the relevant time period.

Note that only losses and draws are listed as conceded results against untitled players.
In a couple of cases instead of counting them as "conceded results against untitled players", I marked them as if they were FM (2300-2400) and IM (2400-2500) since they were untitled players with established FIDE rating, games played in Europe -- There were two 2300s and one 2400+ opponents. Therefore, any game listed as "conceded result against untitled player" was against someone below 2300, who was also untitled.

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GM Bator Sambuev

Games: 111
FIDE: 2532 --> 2544

GMs: +1, -2, =1
IMs: +8, -6, =6
FMs: +15, -1, =1
Untitled: -1, =3

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IM Razvan Preotu

80 Games
FIDE: 2441 --> 2462

GMs: +4, -2, =3
IMs: +7, -1, =3
FMs: +14, -6, =3
Untitled: -1, =5

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GM Kevin Spraggett

84 Games
FIDE: 2538 --> 2522

GMs: +5, -12, =14
IMs: +8, -0, =12
FMs: +6, -1, =1
WGM: +1, -0, =1
Untitled: -0, =3

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GM Alexandre Le Siege

19 Games
FIDE: 2528 --> 2497

GMs: +0, -1, =0
IMs: +0, -0, =1
FMs: +0, -0, =4
WGM: +0, -0, =1
Untitled: -2, =0

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IM Nikolay Noritsyn

31 Games
FIDE: 2466 --> 2476

GMs: +1, -1, =0
IMs: +1, -3, =2
FMs: +8, -1, =1
Untitled: -0, =1

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IM Aman Hambleton

59 Games
FIDE: 2438 --> 2442

GMs: +2, -8, =7
IMs: +3, -0, =6
FMs: +5, -3, =0
Untitled: -2, =3

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I hope I didn't make any mistake as I didn't triple check, but I was pretty careful in my counts.


To me, a relatively ignorant amateur, I do wonder how such decisions are made. It's very strange why GM Le Siege was chosen over any other contender, especially ahead of GM Sambuev and IM Preotu. On the surface, it practically looks like the type of decision that would have been made during an office meeting on Friday at 4pm.
Or perhaps it's up to 3 people (who were appointed - by who? based on what criteria? - as the Olympiad Selection Committee) to choose who they would like to represent Canada. I imagine there were several factors, including data much deeper than the one presented above, to making this decision. It would be awesome reading the thoughts of B. Hartman, R. Berube and V. Pechenkin on the subject.

I want to stress the point that I have absolutely nothing against GM Le Siege. It just seems strange to me the decision by the Olympiad Committee, since I would have expected them to select who they felt would be most valuable and a bigger contributor to our National Team. I hope and trust that GM Le Siege will prepare and play his best to make us proud, and am looking forward to following his games, and our progress in the Olympiad in the Summer,


Alex Ferreira