FIDE has just announced the tentative rosters for the upcoming Olympiad in Turin, Italy. It seems that many countries are not bringing their Women’s A teams. There will be no Xie Jun, Xu Yuhua, Chiburdanidze, Sebag, etc. Zhu Chen will be playing for Qatar and I expect her to win the individual Gold medal on board 1.
The Russians are the heavy favorite in both Overall and Women’s Olympiad. It would be a huge disappointment and failure if the Russians do not come home with double Gold medals and the Gaprindashvili Trophy for best combined score.
After Russia, there are a number of other women’s teams with chances for Silver and Bronze. On the men’s side, Silver and Bronze are also wide open.
For the U.S. Teams to have a chance, the captains (Donaldson and Shulman) MUST make very tough decisions and create the right board order. This is a team competition. Ratings mean very little. All personal ego must be checked at the door. It should only be about what is best for the team and which board order would give the team the best chance to win.
Both US teams are ranked 6th.
Here are the top 12 Women’s Team:
1 Russia 2500 (Average 59 points ahead of the #2 team)
2 Ukraine 2441
3 Poland 2431
4 Georgia 2430
5 Hungary 2426
6 USA 2414
7 China 2408
8 Armenia 2402
9 Germany 2399
10 India 2389
11 Bulgaria 2378
12 Romania 2375
Here are the top 12 overal teams:
1 Russia 2730 (Average 48 points ahead of the #2 team)
2 Armenia 2682
3 Ukraine 2680
4 France 2665
5 Israel 2663
6 USA 2656
7 Netherlands 2646
8 Spain 2628
9 England 2626
10 China 2625
11 India 2624
12 Germany 2621
The US women’s team could capture the Gold medal if the Kasparov Chess Foundation and the USCF did not screw this up. It seems that everything Garry has done outside of playing chess has had problems:
– Intel
– Microsoft
– Kasparov server blowing 40-50 million dollars and went bankrupt
Olympic teams as posted: Topalov, Anand, Ponomariev, and others missing. Are they not participating? That would be a pity.
Why stop at 12? Who’s #13?
Anand is playing. He has confirmed it himself. From the top 10 only Topalov, Leko and Pono are not playing.
Even though the teams this year were controversial I’ll still be cheering my country on. GO USA!!!
Board 1: Kaidanov
Board 2: Kamsky
Board 3: Nakamura
Board 4: Onischuk
Even with Susan playing, how could the US have a serious shot at gold?
Is Nakamura the only non-Russian-speaking member of either of the two US teams?
Naka no speak russian? He must know something.
My reasoning:
Kaidanov will draw or lose against any player, so put him on board 1.
Kamsky will draw or win, but leans towards being a draw machine, so put him on 2nd board.
Nakamura will lose or win, but hopefully he has a greater chance of winning against a board 3.
Onischuk , the US champion, should be counted on to win on board 4.
It doesn’t look good for the US team anyways.
Perhaps this is something that you don’t want to talk about Susan, but why are you not playing?
All the best,
RP