Report on Online Olympiad Trainer Support Program

INTRODUCTION

It was decided to provide trainer support to up to 30 teams participating in the Online Olympiad 2021,  the main objective being to expose these developing countries to professional preparation of national teams.

Our criteria was to identify the worst placed teams at the Batumi Olympiad 2018 and combining the results of their men and women teams which qualified the teams below:

Combined Open & Women Teams
No	Team	Pts	No	Team	Pts
1	Gabon	96	16	Mauritius	54
2	Djibouti	93	17	Ghana	54
3	Central African Republic	93	18	Bermuda	50
4	Gambia	84	19	Cameroon	49
5	Seychelles	83	20	Bahamas	41
6	Burundi	80	21	Ethiopia	39
7	Tanzania	78	22	Netherlands Antilles	39
8	Rwanda	75	23	Guyana	37
9	Togo	74	24	Maldives	29
10	Palau	74	25	Kenya	24
11	Ivory Coast	73	26	Swaziland/Eswantini	21
12	Senegal	72	27	Thailand	17
13	Lesotho	66	28	Cyprus	15
14	Sierra Leone	65	29	Surinam	9
15	Sao Tome & Principe	55	30	Jordan	2

We made a request for funding on 10^th February 2021, and once the dates of the Online Olympiad was announced for 20^th August to 15^th September 2021, invitations were issued to these Federations on 18^th July.

FEDERATION AND TRAINER MATCH MAKING

Unfortunately, only 13 teams accepted the invitation despite our further extending the deadline, and from these, Kenya later decided to opt out.

No	Team
1	Gabon
2	Djibouti
3	Burundi
4	Rwanda
5	Senegal
6	Lesotho
No	Team
7	Sierra Leone
8	Sao Tome & Principe
9	Ghana
10	Bermuda
11	Cameroon
12	Cyprus

At the same time 10 more teams not in the list also requested for trainer support, and because of the poor acceptance rate, with the agreement of FIDE Management, it was decided to reward their enthusiasm and include them and there are as follows:

13	Zambia
14	Uganda
15	Laos
16	Jamaica
17	Mauritania
18	Costa Rica
19	Libya
20	Eswatini
21	Zimbabwe
22	Gambia

Together with the invitations to Federations, we also invited all licenced trainers via our website with at least the FT or FI title and the IM or WGM title to apply.

After the deadline we then provided the Federations with a list of all applicants and asked them to make a three choices, with their preferences ranked 1, 2 and 3, to be assigned on a first come first serve basis:

No	Federation	Trainer Choice/Assigned
1	Gabon	IM Jaroslaw Krassowizkij
2	Lesotho	IM Watu Kobese
3	Sao Tome and Príncipe	GM Alonso Zapata
4	Bermuda	WGM Aleksandra Dimitrijevic
5	Djibouti	WGM Amina Mezioud
6	Ghana	GM Reinaldo Vera Gonzalez-Quevedo
7	Senegal	GM Slim Bouaziz
8	Cameroon	IM Daniel Cawdery
9	Sierra Leone	GM Dimitri Komarov
10	Rawanda	GM Alojzije Jankovic
11	Cyprus	IM Tadej Sakelsek
12	Burundi	WGM Mitra Hejazipour
13	Zambia	IM Rodwell Makoto
14	Uganda	IM Sequera Paolini, Jose Rafael
15	Laos	WGM Enkhtuul Altan-Ulzii
16	Jamaica	IM Juan Armando Rohl Montes
17	Mauritania	GM Amirreza Pourramezanali
18	Costa Rica	GM Bernal Gonzalez Acosta
19	Libya	IM Mokliss El Adnani
20	Eswatini	GM Valeri Gaprindashvili
21	Zimbabwe	IM Robert Kreisl
22	Gambia	IM Vishal Sareen

A few requested trainers in specific languages.

THE TRAINER SUPPORT PROGRAM

The training was for 10 hours, five hours pre-event preparation and five hours post event review, but in many cases, the trainers did more.

CONCLUSION

Reports provided by the trainers together with their recommendations have both confirmed and provided fresh insights to the challenges of these Federations and will be reviewed together with management.

Feedback from all the Federations has also been unanimously positive and the program was very much appreciated.

We are of the opinion that the program was a great success for the following reasons:

1. It is very important to assist less developed Federations when they are participating on a world stage and to expose them to professional trainers
2. We were able to get a better understanding of their aspirations and also their needs
3. For the first time we were able to have trainers of various levels successfully show their qualities and to make a difference to the teams they worked with
4. In many ways we are better prepared for trainer support at the coming Moscow Olympiad

Mikhail Kobalia

TRG Chairman