24-08-2014, 04:14 PM
Quote:Money is always going to be an issue so let's combine wishful thinking with a bit of realism and limit you to spending £1,000 per person
Not a lot of money, but still a lot of money to CS
Let's say CS give £1000 for a year to 2 ambitious players, on the proviso that they match that with £1000 of their own (personal/sponsorship/whatever). What can we do with 2 x £2000?
-Most of our promising (and leading) players do not have a coach. It is very rare for players nowadays to make any headway without a coach, so we enlist (paid) someone like Jacob Aagaard (whose coaching credentials are superb) to hold a 'training' weekend with the players to assess their abilities/goals/strengths/weaknesses and then devise a playing/training schedule for the year, with regular bi-monthly meetings/sessions to build upon this. Let's say we can keep this cost for the year to £1000 total.
That leaves £3000 for the 2 players.
If the goal is to improve to say FM - IM level, events are available everywhere in the world where our 2 players can play for rating points/norms.
Czech Republic is both cheap, cheerful and full of events aimed at our (2200+) players.
For about £600 each our players could play 2 closed IM events in a row in the summer (as an example, this IM event was held alongside the Open I played recently in Olomouc <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://chess-results.com/tnr141384.aspx?art=1&lan=5&flag=30">http://chess-results.com/tnr141384.aspx ... =5&flag=30</a><!-- m --> and also this GM event for stronger ambitious players (say Alan Tate for example) <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://chess-results.com/tnr141383.aspx?art=1&lan=5&flag=30">http://chess-results.com/tnr141383.aspx ... =5&flag=30</a><!-- m -->.
Combine this with local/national events for practice, then repeat again in January. (or whenever suitable; I mention these times only because I know the Czech Tour calendar works this way. Other place/events may be suitable also but Czech Rep. is hard to beat for this on a number of levels!)
Critical self-assessment, personal analysis, coaching and playing as often as possible against strong/stronger opposition. I imagine this could all be done within the budget I mentioned. CS could try to throw in a wee Scottish Champs. inducement also (free entry/accommodation etc.)
The players of course would have a responsibility to do their best, and perhaps having them write about/pass on their methods and results through e.g.junior coaching sessions would help instil a sense that it's for the common good of Scottish Chess as well as the individuals concerned.
Anyway, just a few thoughts - others will hopefully expand on this.