Who Will Represent the U.S. Olympic Teams?

The chess Olympiad is the world wide major team tournament in chess. This year’s event will be held in the city of Dresden, Germany, from November 12 – 25, 2008.

Germany is organizing the chess Olympiad for the fifth time and for a country with great chess traditions and organization, this event promises to be a memorable occasion.

This brings to mind this question:  Who Are the Players That Will Represent the USA’s Teams?

The selection process includes residency and activity requirements, plus the following:

FIDE Olympiad and FIDE Women’s Olympiad (Each team is composed by five players each)

Average of the:

1) current published USCF rating at time of invitation

2) current published FIDE rating at time of invitation;

3) average of peak published USCF rating and peak published FIDE rating, both going back 24 months from time of invitation.

There are other factors to take into consideration, such as the rules that were used to allow the current U.S. Champions to qualify directly to the Olympic team.

Additionally, there are bonus points based on age which the players get as an aim to allow younger players into the team.

Based on the current information (not necessarily the information which will be used for the invitation) the following players have a chance to become members of the U.S. Olympic Teams.

ELO FIDE  April 2008 (overall)

1 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2726
2 Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2686
3 Onischuk, Alexander g USA 2664
4 Shabalov, Alexander g USA 2633
5 Seirawan, Yasser g USA 2630
6 Shulman, Yuri g USA 2606
7 Ehlvest, Jaan g USA 2603
8 Akobian, Varuzhan g USA 2601
9 Ibragimov, Ildar g USA 2597
10 Kaidanov, Gregory S g USA 2596

U.S. Chess Federation’s Rating List April 2008 (overall)

1 Kamsky, Gata NY USA 2757
2 Nakamura, Hikaru NY USA 2740
3 Onischuk, Alexander VA USA 2728
4 Shabalov, Alexander PA USA 2711
5 Kaidanov, Gregory KY USA 2697
6 Ehlvest, Jaan NY USA 2687
7 Christiansen, Larry M MA USA 2670
8 Akobian, Varuzhan CA USA 2666
9 Shulman, Yury IL USA 2664
10 Ibragimov, Ildar CT USA 2656

The top four players are the same in the FIDE and USCF list. The fifth spot is still open, which makes it more interesting.

ELO FIDE April 2008 (Top USA Women’s players)

1 Krush, Irina m USA 2479
2 Zatonskih, Anna m USA 2458
3 Goletiani, Rusudan wg USA 2383
4 Baginskaite, Camilla wg wg USA 2309
6 Rohonyan, Katerina wg wg USA 2309
7 Abrahamyan, Tatev wf wf USA 2239
8 Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg wm wm USA 2278
9 Melekhina, Alisa wf wf USA 2208
10 Ross, Laura R wf wf USA 2179

U.S. Chess Federation Rating List April 2008 (Top Women’s Players)

1 Krush, Irina NY USA 2515
2 Zatonskih, Anna NY USA 2490
3 Goletiani, Rusudan NY USA 2384
4 Baginskaite, Camilla CA USA 2342
5 Rohonyan, Katerine MD USA 2318
6 Abrahamyan, Tatev CA USA 2296
7 Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg CA USA 2295
8 Battsetseg, Tsagaan MD USA 2251
9 Melekhina, Alisa PA USA 2246
10 Ross, Laura R NY USA 2216

WHAT IS YOUR PREDICTION?