Phony Benoni: Well, if you're looking for first causes, Black committed several inaccuracies. The first big mistake was probably 12...0-0-0, since White is winning at least a pawn after 13.Ng5.Then 13...Ne5 is a blunder, since the knight can't escape the pin after 14.Bc3. If say, 14...Bh6 15.f4 Bxg5 16.Qf5+ followed by 17.Qxg5 and the knight is now pinned against Rh8.
No, it was simply a bad day for Eliskases. This was, after all, his first game at an Olympiad, and he was surely nervous.
Now, as for the quality of the game. You're correct that, objectively, it's a lousy game. I doubt Vaitonis was very proud of winning it. If, say, you and I had played it at a local weekend quad, there's no way it would make it into the database. Especially if you had won.
But games from international tournaments are usually accepted without worrying about the quality criteria. It's assumed their quality is going to be good, because usually only masters play in international events. Plus, there's always the point of historial interest and importance. It's a goal of most online database to preserve complete records of major events, without worrying about the quality of individual games.
This does lead to anomalies. Take a look at some of the recent Olympiad games, which are bulk loaded. Ecch. But are you going to go through each one of thousands of games to make a quality judgment, or accept them just because they're from the Olympiad?
Kibitzing
