(1295) U. S. A. -- 2016 WORLD CHESS OLYMPIAD CHAMPION

CHAMPS AGAIN AFTER 40 YEARS
   The last time that USA won an Olympiad was in 1976 WCO in Haifa, Israel when the Soviet boycotted that Olympiad. This time, the inclusion of Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana and mainstay Hikaru Nakamura made USA having 3 players in the top 10 of FIDE's top 100 players' list.       (Photo from Azerbaijan Press/Media)


                U. S. A. -- 2016
         WORLD CHESS OLYMPIAD
                 C H A M P I O N  

 PALAU participated for the 4th time in 2016 World Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan from Sept. 01-14, 2016 without a women's team.

The members are 4th time Olympiad member Roberto Hernandez, 2nd time Delegate and PCF President Eric Ksau Surangel Whipps, Dennis Gonzales, Jeffrey Balbalosa, first timers Paquito Suringa, Jr. and Allan Alcid. The Head of Delegation is PNG's CM Joselito Marcos, a veteran of 2002 Bled, Slovenia Olympiad, 2009 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship, 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia Chess Olympiad, 2011 Oceania Zonal in Rotorua, New Zealand and 2011 Palau 3rd Invitational International Chess Championship. He missed the 2012 WCO in Istanbul, Turkey when he got sick 2 weeks prior to that Olympiad. 

During the 2014 World Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, Marcos is the Delegate of Papua New Guinea and voted for PNG for the election of FIDE President between incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and former world chess champion Gary Kasparov.

In that Olympiad, Palau's No. 1 chess player Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr. were able to make it together with Hernandez (Board 1), CM Bernardo Garcia (Board 3 again upon his insistence to try to gain an FM title), Dennis Gonzales (Board 4) and Balbalosa (Reserve).

The Team Captain for 3rd straight Olympiad was Jamie Kenmure of Australia, who is also the Delegate of Solomon Islands.

In the 2016 Baku Olympiad, it was agreed in the PCF Board Meeting that Marcos will be the Team Captain, in recognition of his invaluable support for the promotion of chess in Palau esp. his creation of PCF website http://palau-chess.blogspot.com where it has almost 140,000 views from 131 countries.

During registration of Palau Chess Team to Baku Olympiad, a team captain without a title of Senior Trainer, FIDE Trainer, FIDE Instructor, National Instructor or Developmental Instructor is not allowed now. President Whipps designated Mr. Marcos as Head of Delegation then, with Hernandez, and FI, as Team Captain and player.

This proves to be perfect as Mr. Marcos, a well-known player, team captain in school,theoretician and National Arbiter in his hometown Philippines, can now act as Team Captain whenever Hernandez is playing. In his 9 games,9 he rested in Rounds 1 and 9 so Mr. Marcos was the Team Captain in rounds 2-8 and 10-11 (the final round where USA wins and Open Section, China in the Women's Section and Palau finished where it is seeded -- 163rd). 

USA TOP 100 PLAYERS -- JUNE 2016:
 

United States of America  (June 2016 -- Active players)  

#	Name	Title	Fed	Rating	G	B-Year
1	Caruana, Fabiano	g	USA	2804	0	1992
2	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2787	0	1987
3	So, Wesley	g	USA	2770	4	1993
4	Kamsky, Gata	g	USA	2675	8	1974
5	Robson, Ray	g	USA	2674	0	1994
6	Onischuk, Alexander	g	USA	2668	0	1975
7	Shankland, Samuel L	g	USA	2646	0	1991
8	Naroditsky, Daniel	g	USA	2634	0	1995
9	Xiong, Jeffery	g	USA	2627	4	2000
10	Lenderman, Aleksandr	g	USA	2614	0	1989
11	Akobian, Varuzhan	g	USA	2612	0	1983
12	Gareyev, Timur	g	USA	2611	0	1988
13	Sevian, Samuel	g	USA	2603	9	2000
14	Zherebukh, Yaroslav	g	USA	2595	0	1993
15	Erenburg, Sergey	g	USA	2591	5	1983
16	Izoria, Zviad	g	USA	2589	0	1984
17	Burke, John M	m	USA	2584	0	2001
18	Kaidanov, Gregory S	g	USA	2572	0	1959
19	Hess, Robert L	g	USA	2569	0	1991
20	Ramirez, Alejandro	g	USA	2563	0	1988
21	Becerra Rivero, Julio	g	USA	2555	0	1973
21	Goldin, Alexander	g	USA	2555	0	1964
23	Stripunsky, Alexander	g	USA	2552	0	1970
24	Benjamin, Joel	g	USA	2544	0	1964
25	Troff, Kayden W	g	USA	2543	0	1998
26	Holt, Conrad	g	USA	2541	10	1993
27	Shabalov, Alexander	g	USA	2533	0	1967
28	Melikset, Khachiyan	g	USA	2531	0	1970
29	Li, Ruifeng	m	USA	2529	8	2001
30	Corrales Jimenez, Fidel	g	USA	2528	0	1987
31	Perelshteyn, Eugene	g	USA	2525	0	1980
32	Ehlvest, Jaan	g	USA	2524	0	1962
33	Friedel, Joshua E	g	USA	2519	0	1986
34	Dlugy, Maxim	g	USA	2518	0	1966
34	Hernandez Carmenate, Holden	g	USA	2518	0	1984
36	Kraai, Jesse	g	USA	2510	0	1972
37	De Firmian, Nick E	g	USA	2505	0	1957
38	Kudrin, Sergey	g	USA	2502	0	1959
39	Finegold, Benjamin	g	USA	2501	0	1969
40	Ivanov, Alexander	g	USA	2499	0	1956
41	Yermolinsky, Alex	g	USA	2490	0	1958
42	Zierk, Steven C	m	USA	2488	0	1993
43	Yang, Darwin	m	USA	2483	0	1996
44	Hungaski, Robert Andrew	g	USA	2482	0	1987
45	Fishbein, Alexander	g	USA	2481	5	1968
46	Gonzalez, Renier	g	USA	2477	0	1972
47	Esserman, Marc	m	USA	2474	0	1983
48	Gurevich, Dmitry	g	USA	2469	0	1956
49	McCambridge, Vincent	m	USA	2465	0	1960
49	Sevillano, Enrico	g	USA	2465	0	1968
51	Chandra, Akshat	m	USA	2464	0	1999
51	Gurevich, Daniel	m	USA	2464	0	1997
51	Molner, Mackenzie	g	USA	2464	0	1988
54	Tarjan, James E	g	USA	2455	0	1952
55	Smith, Bryan G	g	USA	2453	0	1980
56	Zatonskih, Anna	m	USA	2449	4	1978
56	Rohde, Michael A	g	USA	2449	0	1959
58	Bartholomew, John	m	USA	2448	0	1986
59	Krush, Irina	g	USA	2443	0	1983
60	Sarkar, Justin	m	USA	2439	9	1981
60	Bryant, John Daniel	m	USA	2439	0	1991
62	Lapshun, Yury	m	USA	2438	0	1972
63	Norowitz, Yaacov	m	USA	2437	0	1982
64	Sagalchik, Gennadij	g	USA	2434	0	1969
65	Lee, Michael	m	USA	2433	0	1993
66	Fedorowicz, John P	g	USA	2425	0	1958
66	Kiewra, Keaton F	m	USA	2425	0	1987
68	Fernandez, Daniel	m	USA	2422	9	1985
69	Bodek, Michael H	m	USA	2419	0	1997
69	Nagle, Sean	m	USA	2419	0	1982
71	Brown, Michael William	f	USA	2418	0	1997
72	Bora, Safal	m	USA	2417	4	1998
73	Tang, Andrew	m	USA	2416	0	1999
74	Liou, Yian	m	USA	2414	0	1997
75	Kaliksteyn, Alexander	f	USA	2412	0	1975
76	Enkhbat, Tegshsuren	m	USA	2410	4	1970
76	Brooks, Michael A	m	USA	2410	0	1961
78	Harmon-Vellotti, Luke	m	USA	2409	0	1998
79	Liang, Awonder	m	USA	2408	14	2003
80	Shen, Victor C	m	USA	2406	0	1993
81	Reznikov, Michael-Allen	f	USA	2403	0	2001
81	Wheeler, Cameron	f	USA	2403	0	2000
83	Patel, Advait		USA	2402	0	2002
84	Shen, Arthur	m	USA	2401	0	1997
85	Checa, Nicolas D	f	USA	2398	0	2001
86	Chandran, Kapil	f	USA	2397	0	1998
86	Sheng, Joshua	f	USA	2397	0	2000
88	Donaldson, John W	m	USA	2395	0	1958
89	Rosen, Eric S	m	USA	2392	0	1993
90	Ostrovskiy, Aleksandr A	m	USA	2390	0	1996
91	Mulyar, Michael A.	m	USA	2388	0	1978
91	Rensch, Daniel	m	USA	2388	0	1985
93	Colas, Joshua	f	USA	2387	0	1998
94	Hilby, Craig	f	USA	2386	0	2000
94	Young, Gregory		USA	2386	0	1995
96	Coleman, Teddy	m	USA	2385	0	1989
97	Herman, Matthew J	m	USA	2383	0	1986
98	Vigorito, David	m	USA	2382	0	1970
99	Kleiman, Jake	m	USA	2378	0	1986
100	Paschall, William M.	m	USA	2377	0	1972

Sources: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez

               Tia Belau Newspaper

               December 29, 2002 -- November 15, 2016

               Chess and Music (Perfect Combination)

               The Beginning of Chess in Palau

               By Roberto Hernandez

               Soon to be published as a book

               The History of Chess in Palau

               By Roberto Hernandez

               June 09, 2002 -- November 15, 2016