Appearance fees for our best players

[David Deary]

Support for the endgame coaching programme once you exclude the Thomas family who vote 2 to 1 against has come from the following clubs

Greenwood
Greenwood
Greenwood
Greenwood

That is rather disengenous, I hadn't realised you had actually discussed the endgame training course with every recipient as I'm sure their views would be useful. I also hadn't realised we had rolled out the training at our club - thats news to me. I'm sure thats news to Stephen Taylor as well!

I gave Daniel's opinion of the training and my view based on his opinion. As far as I am aware, Daniel is the only club member to have received the training. If you know of any other members feel free to enlighten me but please get your facts in order in future. You have very little knowledge (if any) of Greenwood Chess Club and I would suggest you retract the above statement. As it is very misleading to anyone else reading this thread

Back to the topic:

Without knocking the overall benefits of playing in something like the world junior - and such an event should certainly be the target for all up and coming juniors, most of our junior players (in purely chess terms) would gain more from playing in the Open or Major of a couple of weekend congresses with the services of a coach at the event to help with post mortems.

A bit of work between events on the errors made would provide dividends.

The cost of this would be a fraction of that of a trip abroad. Coupled with playing in the Scottish and/or an event at the British would, in my opinion, see an improved standard.

Whilst I accept that most youngsters should be playing for enjoyment the most dedicated would benefit from this treatment and be toughened up before embarking on trips abroad.

Alex, I am not sure how much I agree with your suggestion. I actually think is is good for juniors to win the odd Minor/Major before plunging into the Opens as it gives them a confidence boost and can help with motivation. However, playing in the Open and getting battered initially would be a real test of a young player's character and could actually have a negative impact on their morale and enjoyment.

That said, perhaps its something we should be doing. I don't know... :\