World Olympics: It rained on wet

In 2012, the men’s team that participated in the Istanbul World Olympics took first place. 69 And the feminine in it 77; At the recently concluded Olympics in Chennai, India, the Dominican teams finished in 88 s 110 Straight, setback 19 s 33 Places; Gardel said 20 years is nothing, but Caissa, The chess godsHe believes that 10 years is enough to be able to improve situations.

According to Chennai’s initial classification, the number of men (open) was the number 74 and stay 14 places below. And in the case of the women’s team that was a number 75 At first, it ended up in place 110; noticeable difference from 35 Places.

Anyone with minimal knowledge of the sport knows that there is a pre-competition cycle of training and warm-ups that must be met before attending an event. Violation of this principle is to jeopardize the performance of the athlete or team. The results in Chennai confirm that the players were not properly prepared to compete in a global event.

I noted in the same column that the responsibility for the end result would be shared between the team members and the Dominican Chess Federation (FDA) and that the chess prestige of the country would not depend solely on the five players, who, although good chess players, could apply magic in front of the board. Part of the Olympic result corresponds to poor FDA management in group preparation.

Let’s go back to the statistics to give a better assessment of the results. In the Americas (excluding the US and Canada), in the Open match, we finished 17th and in the women’s 22nd. We were not only beaten by most of the teams in the region, but also by teams from African and Asian continents without chess traditions such as Uganda, Zambia, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Kosovo and others. More data: Teams from Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, El Salvador and Costa Rica were in a better position than us; In the last round, the Thai women’s team defeated the Dominican team, which is amazing, as was the men’s defeat to Jamaica.

At the Dominican Open, the absence of the national runner-up, FM Carlos Paul Abreu, with experience and good results at the Olympics, was noted. Likewise, it is inconceivable that the 12-member Dominican delegation, traveling 15,200 kilometers from Santo Domingo, with several layovers at airports, did not include a competent leader who had the authority to monitor his pupils during the long journey and stay in Chennai. ..

This Olympic setback isn’t new, it’s raining more on the wet patch. In this regard there were alerts, recommendations and logs. In addition, the group, which has been leading the national chess game since 2010, although it does not accept the accusations, has previous results in the previous Olympic Games. An expensive trip of more than two and a half million pesos deserves effective player preparation and that should have been a major priority for the FDA. A previous stay in Spain (as many Latin chess players did) would have been a good blank before the competition.

For the 2024 Olympics, it is necessary above all to strengthen the national championship by adding the best numbers in the country, selecting a team with technical standards, preparing it completely on time and with recognized coaches. But if the same absolutist policy continues, sometimes based on additional provisions in chess, rather than on actions with a vision of qualitative development, then the Olympic results will not be better than in Chennai 2022.