Scottish Junior Chess (from their facebook page)

[Phil Thomas]

Is it possible that someone from Chess Scotland could possibly advise either myself or the parents of Marco D'Alessio that he has a confirmed place on The Primary Individual (26-28 June). Despite countless emails to the junior home director, 6 or 7 telephone calls and having posted the cheque covering the cost, the parents dont yet have any peace of mind on this matter!

For the record this is not CS/SJC politics.

Harry is a superb junior chess organiser one of the best around

His junior club is not formally affiliated to either organisation.
Games played at the weekend competitions Harry runs are graded for free by CS – thank you Dougie.

I’m sure the stronger players emerging from Harry’s junior club will go on to play weekend congresses and then donate grading fees to CS.

Grading their games now for free is an investment – a well known concept in the business world.

[Andy Howie]

Is it possible that someone from Chess Scotland could possibly advise either myself or the parents of Marco D'Alessio that he has a confirmed place on The Primary Individual (26-28 June). Despite countless emails to the junior home director, 6 or 7 telephone calls and having posted the cheque covering the cost, the parents dont yet have any peace of mind on this matter!

Harry, I am aware there is a problem with that particular email address. I believe Andrew McHarg is looking into it. I forwarded on the mails to Davids personal email address

[mclarke]

What do you think people's motivations are for getting involved in junior chess ?

Hi Hamish,
It looks like everyones ignored your question! I would think there are different reasons for wanting to get more involved with junior chess. Some people have a sense of civic duty, while others are supporting because their kids are involved, some will be ex juniors trying to give back because they gained a lot from it themselves.

BTW, thanks again for the recent training session in Edinburgh, I thought it was really well done and Aiden really enjoyed it.

Martin

[hamish olson]

Glad he enjoyed it - that's the main thing. If he ever has any chess questions that the internet can't answer feel free to drop me an email (I like discussing chess!) and I'll do my best to answer.

Had given up on getting an answer to that question lol.

[PeterReidSmith]

I promised myself I'd never post on here again ; I'll try to make this an exception.

First of all, I don't know the SC/SJC history/politics and don't really care. What I do know, from direct experience is that the SJC tournaments are an excellent incubator to attract, encourage and support young players. It horrifies (yet does not surprise) me to see that they don't get the support and recognition they deserve. As to the fact these provide gradings on the main list, I'd suggest that also encourages these young players - talk of "distorting the main list" is misplaced ; if anything (based on what I've seen) a great many are consistently under-graded.

My daughters are finished with SJC now, but personally I think they have bee simply marvellous and that SC could learn a lot from them.

And speaking of junior gradings, can we pllleeasse sort out the ridiculous +200up system - a more discouraging disincentive for juniors is hard to imagine.

[mclarke]

First of all, I don't know the SC/SJC history/politics and don't really care. What I do know, from direct experience is that the SJC tournaments are an excellent incubator to attract, encourage and support young players. It horrifies (yet does not surprise) me to see that they don't get the support and recognition they deserve. As to the fact these provide gradings on the main list, I'd suggest that also encourages these young players - talk of "distorting the main list" is misplaced ; if anything (based on what I've seen) a great many are consistently under-graded.

Really agree with this Peter - my oldest has only started playing tournaments - over the past 4 months, he's had the opportunity to play > 20 competitive games thanks to SJC - and while competitive games are only part of the mix, he's a far far better player for having played those > 20 games than not. He's also played c. 12 games in the LJC setup. So thanks to both SJC and LJC.

I also agree on your point about gradings - re: strength just look at the giant killer list on the main page! Having just recently started doing the Area Grading responsibilities for my sons school; if you've not done it I think its easy to underestimate how much work the AG actually has to do to submit the results. The grading system is an asset, but I would think that the cost to CS is marginal (Obviously Douglas would know more!) and that their is value to CS in engaging juniors is high (data point of one, but the nudge for Aiden joining CS was access to live gradings).