Olympiad 2024

Budapest Olympiad, 10-23 September 2024

Olympiad 2024 Appeal

Greetings Fellow Chessplayers!

I am delighted to announce the opening of Olympiad Budapest 2024 Appeal with an initial grant of $1000 from NZCF and $200 from me. This is your chance to help our top players, young and older, to achieve international results on behalf of us all.

Donations should be made directly to NZCF bank account with notation ‘Olympiad’:

Account Name: New Zealand Chess Federation Inc.
Account Number: 01 0535 0073257 00
SWIFT: ANZBNZ22

Please also notify NZCF Treasurer (treasurer@newzealandchess.co.nz) or the NZCF Admin (admin@newzealandchess.co.nz) who will promptly acknowledge receipt and issue a formal receipt.

NZCF is a Registered Charity and donations to NZCF are tax deductible – see the following link to IRD. Any concerns or special donations you wish to discuss, please contact me directly.

Current Olympiad Appeal

  • NZCF $1,000
  • Nigel Metge $200
  • Gawain Jones Simul $500 (HPCC)
  • Quentin Johnson $100
  • Tony Dowden $100
  • Ewen Green $200

Total $2,100

Budapest Olympiad, 10-23 September 2024

New Zealand Olympiad Teams Announcement

NZCF Council is delighted to announce the New Zealand Olympiad teams for the 45th Olympiad to be hosted by Budapest, Hungary, 10-23 September 2024. The teams:

Open Team

  • FM Nicolas Croad (automatic selection as NZ champion)
  • FM Daniel Gong
  • IM Tom Middelburg
  • IM Sravan Renjith
  • FM Felix Xie
  • Non-travelling reserve: IM Anthony Ker

The Open Team is not in board order – this will be confirmed closer to the closing date of registration (order here is alphabetical by surname).

Coach/Captain is GM FST Dejan Bojkov.

Women’s Team

  • WIM Layla Timergazi
  • CM Isabelle Ning
  • WIM Jasmine Zhang
  • Yolanda Chang
  • WCM Nadia Braganza
  • Non-travelling reserve: Anya Thurner

The Women’s Team is in board order.

Coach/captain is IM FT Herman van Riemsdijk.

Head of Delegation is FI Craig Hall.

Council also thanks the selectors, Michael Freeman (chairperson of selectors), Quentin Johnson, Helen Milligan (Open Team) and Russell Dive (Women’s Team) for their time and expertise. It was a very strong pool, and the selectors have done a sterling job working through it. On that note, thanks are also due to the applicants for taking the time to put forward their cases for selection.

Finally, to help our top players achieve international success, NZCF previously launched the Olympiad Appeal with $1,000 from the federation. We invite chess supporters to contribute directly to the cause. All donations will go to supporting players as they represent New Zealand on the global stage. Donors and donations will be listed here unless requested otherwise.

Donations can be made to the NZCF bank account with the notation ‘Olympiad’:

  • Account Name: New Zealand Chess Federation Inc.
  • Account Number: 01 0535 0073257 00
  • SWIFT: ANZBNZ22

Donations to NZCF are generally eligible for a donation tax credit – please notify the NZCF Treasurer or Admin upon making a donation to receive a formal receipt (email treasurer@newzealandchess.co.nz or admin@newzealandchess.co.nz).

On behalf of NZCF Council,
Craig Hall
NZCF Secretary
NZCFSecretary@newzealandchess.co.nz

2024 Olympiad Selections Open From 14-28 January 2024

Update: Applications have closed.

Applications for the Olympiad Teams were open on 14 January 2024 and closed at 23:59, 28 January 2024. Applicants must use the online form – please note the form will not accept entries outside the stated times and dates.

Selections will be made of the Open Team and Women’s Team. Both teams will comprise 5 travelling players and 1 non-travelling reserve. Council has directed that selections should include 1 junior in each team. NZ Champion, FM Nicolas Croad, will be selected automatically if he applies. Other than those directions, the selectors will make their selection based on the Selection Guidelines.

Selections are likely to take a few weeks after applications close. Once the selectors have selected the teams, Council and the applicants will be advised. Unsuccessful applicants will have 7 calendar days to appeal.

Appeals, including the reasons for the appeal and any supporting information, should be emailed to the NZCF Secretary, Craig Hall. A Council subcommittee chaired by NZCF Vice-President Paul Spiller will hear any appeals.

The teams will be publicly announced once any appeals have been heard.

If there are any queries or issues with the form, please email Craig Hall.

A reminder that the Olympiad Appeal is open (see below for NZCF’s bank a/c details and how to request a receipt), and Council encourages and welcomes donations.

On behalf of NZCF Council,
Craig Hall
NZCF Secretary
NZCFSecretary@newzealandchess.co.nz

Olympiad 2024 Training Squads

We learned several lessons from the last Olympiad Chennai, India in 2022.

  1. It is important to select players and reserves early so all necessary travel preparations can be made in good time and at the lowest cost.
  2. We should select a larger number of ‘candidate’ players well in advance of final selection so that training by the Team Captains can occur. This creates a pool of qualified and committed players for selection and spreads chess education among a wide group of promising players.

The following players were selected for the training squads and have already had training sessions with their respective Captains:

Open Olympiad Squad

  • IM Tom Middelburg
  • FM Ben Hague
  • FM Daniel Gong
  • FM Felix Xie
  • IM Anthony Ker
  • IM Russell Dive
  • FM Robert Smith
  • CM Edward Rains
  • Daqi Mao
  • Ollie Archer
  • Michael Sole
  • Joshua Langford
  • Cohen Young
  • William Rui Liu
  • CM Kendrick Zhang

Women’s Olympiad Squad

  • WFM Vyanla Punsalan
  • WIM Layla Timergazi
  • CM Helen Milligan
  • WIM Jasmine Haomo Zhang
  • WCM Yixuan (Isabelle) Ning
  • Anya Thurner
  • Yolanda Chang
  • Sarah Sun
  • Luna Xu
  • Emily Gan
  • Weiyang Yu
  • Luna (Xiahan) Lu
  • Charlotte Ray
  • Annie Yue
  • Joy Ulm

Nigel Metge
President NZCF
Nigel.Metge@gmail.com
021 0925 08869

Applications for the New Zealand Olympiad squads are now invited.

This initiative is one of the recommendations from the 2022 Chennai Olympiad NZ team captains and Head of Delegation (HOD) in order to be as well-prepared as possible for the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary 10-23 September 2024. Two Olympiad squads, Open and Women’s, will be selected as follows:

  • Open – 12-15 players. Applicants should have a minimum standard elo rating of 2100 in either the most recent FIDE rating list as at 1 May 2023 or NZCF rating list as at 1 April 2023.
  • Women – 12-15 players. Applicants should have a minimum standard elo rating of 1600 FIDE in either the most recent FIDE rating list as at 1 May 2023 or NZCF rating list as at 1 April 2023.
  • Each squad should have a minimum of 40% juniors (born on or after 1/1/2003). Minimum rating requirements above do not apply to juniors although selectors will still consider ratings.
  • All players must be eligible to play for New Zealand (registered with FIDE as NZL or if not registered with FIDE as NZL, meet the criteria i.e. NZ citizen or holder of a residence class visa as defined by NZ’s immigration legislation).

If applying for either squad, please note there are expectations that squad members will:

  • Apply for the 2024 Olympiad team (applications will open shortly after Congress), and go if selected
  • Play in at least 1 NZCF standard tournament (strong preference that this is the 2024 NZ Championship), and 1 other open standard tournament, and maintain regular other activity e.g. club chess, regular other opens etc. Equivalent or better overseas events would also be acceptable.
  • Attend squad meetings and arranged training and put in suggested work between those

Squad members will be given preference for 2024 Olympiad selection over non-squad members (note that this is not an absolute preference). Players do not need to be based in New Zealand as long as they meet the criteria and expectations above. Meetings and training will generally be held electronically e.g. with Zoom or other equivalent software.

The application and selection process will be as follows:

  • Applications are now open and will close on 27 May (3 weeks) at 23:59pm NZ standard time.
  • Selectors will select squads after that based on the above and standard Olympiad criteria (see “International Competition” – section 2.1).
  • Appeals, if any, will be heard by Council.

Once selected, the HOD will arrange a Zoom/VC for the squads and captains in a weekend in late June/early July. Ongoing squad activities, training etc. after that will be arranged by HOD and Captains. Council have reappointed the 2022 Captains and HOD for 2024:

  • Open Captain will be FIDE Senior Trainer, GM Dejan Bojkov
  • Women’s Captain will be FIDE Trainer, IM Herman van Riemsdijk
  • HOD will be Craig Hall

To apply, please use this Google form – https://forms.gle/oqxcGe4eckF9Kq2t8. Any queries, please contact NZCF President Nigel Metge (nigel.metge@gmail.com), Vice-President Paul Spiller (PaulSSpiller@outlook.com) or HOD Craig Hall (chess@fastmail.com).