Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Istanbul Olympiad registration

The Istanbul Olympiad will run from 27th of August to the 10th of September. To date, 127 countries have registered for the 2012 Istanbul Olympiad. However, Malaysia is not one of them.

You can see the full list here. The closing date for registration is June 10th 2012 which is just two weeks away. MCF have not even started the selection process yet though it is possible to register without submitting a team list.

However it will be nice for once that the selected players are NOT informed at the last minute (like in 2010). Those who are working need time to process their leave and even for those selected who are still studying, they need to arrange for leave from their school/college/university.

My guess is that MCF will hold a round-robin tournament as in the last SEA Games selection. This is already difficult to arrange given the remaining time frame. It is entirely possible that MCF will follow the 2010 selection process whereby the National Champion plus those who are the highest rated on the FIDE ELO list will be offered the remaining places.

My suggestion is that MCF allow everyone to register their interest to represent the country. These players should submit their past tournament performances within the last (say) two years for consideration. The selection should then be based on FIDE rating plus these performances. This way, players not within the top of the rating list still have a chance for consideration if they have done well in their recent tournaments. This is the method that Australia used to form their current olympiad team.



8 comments:

Peter Long said...

While I have some sympathy in that the people in MCF are all volunteers, I am also a believer in taking responsibility should you desire to serve and there is also a committee to share roles and do the work. Even with limitations of time and money professionalism must prevail and there needs to be transparency. The local chess community is much to small and struggles to remain relevant in the larger context.

Anonymous said...

That sounds scarily like what he shouldnot be named is harping on and on. However his version makes people want to role their eyes and banged their heads against the wall or jump into a river. Anyway it makes sense. mCF should have done all the prepatory work earlier!

Anonymous said...

Across the causeway our neighbors have a selection committee but all subject to the president's final decision. Peter's favorite little man controls!

Anonymous said...

Lucky they got no Raymond Siew there. LOL

Anonymous said...

Doubt FGM can stand up to the little man.

Anonymous said...

So another blogger hairulov finally delinked the fgm from his blog list. I suppose fgm has nothing to contribute to chess. However hav difficulty to search this fgm blog, wikipedia lists fgm as 'female genital mutilation', so apt? hahaha

Anonymous said...

Fgm RIP!

Peter Long said...

In my opinion there are no agendas with MCF except that the job is too much for its committee and beyond their limitations. Nowadays all national bodies have a paid staff and if chess is to become more professional that might just be the way to go.
In response to one of the comments posted by yet another Anonymous, another of my beliefs (for what it is worth) is that you should try and check your facts or give it the benefit of doubt and another is when saying something to always propose solutions and/or be sure you are able to do.

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