Ayr Congress

[amuir]

Yes, looking at the website ,Andrew Green has pictures of Freddy but I don't see any mention of Rishi.
How many of these juniors are there? A whole team ?
I thought you said Scotland had gone backwards but it looks like the opposite.

[Matthew Turner]

This is not new, this has been a feature of Scottish chess for some time, but these talented junior haven't progressed beyond a certain point. Unless something has changed then I fear that Rishi and his contemporaries will go the same way.

To my mind there are a couple of things that could have changed.
1. We've had a pandemic and serious online chess has become a thing so this might overcome the deficiency in Scottish OTB events

2. With respect to the talented juniors of the past decade, Freddie Gordon is probably a class above them and he might act as an inspiration for a group of player to move forward.

I don't think either of those things are assured to happen and make a difference.

As I have said elsewhere, I think there are small things that lot of people can do which will ultimately be assured to make a difference.

[Alex McFarlane]

Local rivalry may also spur some of them on as it did with Motwani and McNab.

First get better to beat the local opposition and then challenge the world.

[amuir]

We need two kind of saviours in Scotland, the more the better.
A The trainer type e.g. Andrew Green , Matt Turner
B The organiser type e.g. Alex McFarlane , Andy Howie

In the 1970s type B John Glendinning , Walter Munn helped me at junior level ( I had no type A, I trained myself !)
In the 1980s type A trainers Paul Motwani & Andy Martin helped me along to IM title.

[Matthew Turner]

We need two kind of saviours in Scotland, the more the better.
A The trainer type e.g. Andrew Green , Matt Turner
B The organiser type e.g. Alex McFarlane , Andy Howie

In the 1970s type B John Glendinning , Walter Munn helped me at junior level ( I had no type A, I trained myself !)
In the 1980s type A trainers Paul Motwani & Andy Martin helped me along to IM title.

I am neither a saviour or a trainer (I have done two hours of coaching in the last year).

Andrew Green is an accomplished trainer and an important asset for Scottish Chess.

In my opinion, any amount of brilliant training will have a limited impact unless there are tournaments to go alongside it.  The bottom line is that we need more events in Scotland.  How will that happen?  I think the key is more people getting involved and then serendipity.

[Alex McFarlane]

We are wandering off topic.

Lack of affordable venues is a major problem.

Lack of publicity is another.
Publicity has always been difficult but with no chess columns in newspapers it is now almost impossible.
Possibly someone with a social media presence to promote local achievements is needed.

With media coverage comes sponsorship.

With media coverage we also have more players.

[Robert Lothian]

A big thank you to everyone involved in organising this congress.
Despite my disappointing results, I really enjoyed being back at a real chessboard and seeing people again.

It looks like the platinum jubilee event is actually taking place, so I'll be checking if I can make it down again.