06-05-2014, 02:30 PM
seanmilton Wrote:Hugh Brechin has eloquently expressed the issue with age based awards. The selection committee are committed to selecting our strongest players and rewarding players for chess ability and endeavor.So when you said "no" to my earlier question about taking funded places from one age group and giving them to another, you actually meant "yes"?
To further emphasis the point about age based awards:
If we were conducting selections and had Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlson as our two contenders for an U12 place and an U18 with a grading of 100, who seldom plays matches and does not see the point in coaching as he is the only U18 contender and therefore an automatic pick. Using the old selection method we would have taken Magnus Calson and the U18 player and left Bobby Fischer at home. The new method invites more players of the correct standard and rewards players who have worked harder, and demonstrated their playing strength over a sustained period.
The method used has been well thought through having been deliberated by the selection committee for over a year. The impact of the change on FIDE, the tournament organiser, the players and the parents have all been considered.
FIDE don't award places based on ability, they award places based on age. If FIDE had wanted the CS selectors to pick based on ability they would turn round and give 18 free places, but they don't. They give one a boy and one for a girl for each age group.
Like Phil, I would like to know what FIDE's policy on this is.
Was it clearly explained to each parent who was getting their free place taken away from them that their money was being used to give a free place to a child in another age group?
Do you end up just inviting kids along who will pay their way so that their free place can be given to someone else as that's how it will appear? The free place can only be given if you can get someone else to cough up for it.
As for your Fischer and Carlsen example, the only way that they could both get a free place is if you managed to find a parent from another age group willing to fund it, and presumably if it was hidden from FIDE. Nobody is saying that you have to pick the under 18 graded 100, but if they are the only 3 people mentioned in your example, you would need to pick the under 18 anyway and hope that they go and agree to pay up or else you can't give both under 12s a free place.
This policy was on the CS website last year briefly and it was then removed in December when I questioned the IJD about it. It appears that the policy has remained and it's disappointing that it's been hidden from CS members in this way.