09-09-2014, 12:22 PM
I was going to say that going via Prague would be a much cheaper route than London but Robin beat me to it! Austrian Airlines and Turkish Airlines are pretty decent.
We still have to consider whether it's a good way to spend a very limited budget. We have about a year anyway in which we ought to look for sponsorship of some kind for our national adult teams.
Somebody sponsoring the flights would enable us to field a stronger team if that's what we wanted.
A benefactor willing to put up money if we offered an Olympiad place to our top u-21 player for example, and/or the reigning Scottish champion might be an idea also but would require discussion and an AGM motion i imagine. Personally speaking, if I reached a level (say 2350) to be in contention for a spot automatically and it was 'given to a junior' I'd be incredibly p-d off!
To question one of Andy's other points, although Murad and Kai have performed fantastically well recently, to speak of them as being the best bets for IM titles is way off the mark at this point. It doesn't mean of course that we shouldn't put them first inline for any funding we have available, but neither should it be a given on the back of possibly unrealistic expectations (notwithstanding what the boys themselves are hoping to do in and out of chess!)
We still have to consider whether it's a good way to spend a very limited budget. We have about a year anyway in which we ought to look for sponsorship of some kind for our national adult teams.
Somebody sponsoring the flights would enable us to field a stronger team if that's what we wanted.
A benefactor willing to put up money if we offered an Olympiad place to our top u-21 player for example, and/or the reigning Scottish champion might be an idea also but would require discussion and an AGM motion i imagine. Personally speaking, if I reached a level (say 2350) to be in contention for a spot automatically and it was 'given to a junior' I'd be incredibly p-d off!
To question one of Andy's other points, although Murad and Kai have performed fantastically well recently, to speak of them as being the best bets for IM titles is way off the mark at this point. It doesn't mean of course that we shouldn't put them first inline for any funding we have available, but neither should it be a given on the back of possibly unrealistic expectations (notwithstanding what the boys themselves are hoping to do in and out of chess!)