Budapest Olympiad, 10-23 September 2024
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).