2010 Chess Olympiad

If you would recall, I conducted a suvey on who should compose the RP Men's Team to represent the Philippines in the 2010 Chess Olympiad. Let me give you again the results:

Let me give you the names of the Top 7 players (NCFP-active) who received the most votes (total number of respondents - 476):

1. GM Wesley So (441 votes)
2. GM Joey Antonio (387)
3. GM Mark Paragua (336)
4. GM John Paul Gomez (319)
5. GM Eugene Torre (276)
6. GM Darwin Laylo (255)
7. IM Richard Bitoon (79 votes)

Here's the complete result (click on image for enlarged view):


Actually, US-based Rogelio Barcenilla was the 7th choice of Chesswindows readers,but since he's in the US, I don't know if he's in the radar of the NCFP (or is he qualified in the first place to play for the Philippines?).

As we all already knew, the official RP Team for the 2010 Chess Olympiad is composed of GMs So, Gomez, Torre, Laylo and IM Bitoon. It means that the 2nd and 3rd choices - Antonio and Paragua, respectively - of Chesswindows readers are out of the team.

The dream team of Chesswindows readers should have been this:

1. GM Wesley So
2. GM Joey Antonio
3. GM Mark Paragua
4. GM John Paul Gomez
5. GM Eugene Torre

Of course it was just a survey, but at least we got to know the pulse of the chess community as to who they think should compose the team.

Which leads us to an avoidable question: Is the readers' dream team better than this year's official team? Objectively, yes, at least based on Elo ratings. In the first place, isn't the players' Elo rating the most - if not the only - measurable gauge of their strength? How can you measure the player's true strength anyway? Through a one-shot qualifying ordeal? Of course not! Elo rating is in itself a function of time aside from performance- that is, there should be an element of consistency. That is the reason why FIDE publishes the ratings of FIDE-accredited players every two months. Please don't give me the factor of the players' being active in tournaments. All of our top 10 players are active.

It is my view that the Chess Olympiad is all about sending in the best. Olympiad is the acme, the zenith, the ultimate ground for the battle of elite minds. This event serves as the final judgement, the no-tomorrow event, the culmination of the human stride for reaching the human mind's highest potential. This is where the greatest thinkers of the whole world collide, where no room is left for the mediocre and the better. It's all about the best.

Chess Olympiad is more important than the personalistic, self-centered world championship. Chess Olympiad is about a national identity, a national pride, a national ego, a national symbol, a collectively of souls.

For any participating chess nation not to send its best to the Olympiad is a shame, a betrayal to the pure spirit of the competition. When the best of the best collide, it's an exultation of the human spirit for it is a continuous push for transcending the human limits.

I am saddened that the goal of the 2010 RP Olympiad Team is misdirected and misplaced. It is not only because we did not send the best team possible. It's because the main goal does not live up to the spirit of the Olympiad.

Recently, National Chess Federation of the Philippines president Prospero Butch Pichay was proud to announce that the inclusion of IM Richard Bitoon in the team for the Olympiad might earn him his final GM norm and therefore add up to the number of Filipino GMs. What??? The announcement was like cymbals pounding my ears.

Pichay should have announced instead that Bitoon's inclusion in the team is based on a judgement that he is among the country's best. But to say that he's there to possibly earn his final GM norm is totally misdirected and misplaced - a blunder, a booboo.

Please don't get me wrong though. Bitoon as a player is not the problem. He could even be the dark horse that could pull off surprises in the Olympiad. What was wrong was the reason for his inclusion. But wait, what is the probability for a reserved player to gain a norm? Unless Bitoon is always fielded in every round, his chances - frankly - is not that big. If Pichay really wants Bitoon to gain a GM norm, then Bitoon must not be relagated to the reserved seat.

The exclusion of Antonio and Paragua from the team is only one of the so many symptoms of the sickness that bewail Philippine chess system. When I say system, all of the stakeholders have a hand on it, from chess officials to players down to the chess community itself.

Unless the system is healed, all we could afford is to dream for our dream team.

Let's all be one in praying for the safety, health and performance of the Philippine contingent (Men's and Women's teams) in the 2010 Chess Olympiad. Go PHILIPPINES!!