22-12-2011, 03:31 PM
As Hugh pointed out, we are not saying that if a player is not ready to play for the World/Euros they would not get a chance to play for Scotland at all! All we are saying is that other tournaments might be more appropriate, and would include all the same benefits, such as 1 round a day, preperation, coaching etc.
An interesting stat: At the recent World Youth in Brazil, overall we scored 32/81. However, by looking at the games only against Brazilian and Argentinian players, who both had huge squads made up mostly of what are presumably weaker filler players, we scored 15 points! That's almost half of our total points, and is probably casting a veil over our performance. Of course there are exceptions, but in general we always do pretty poorly in these events.
While it's true that juniors that have gone to these events have improved, the point is that this is because they are spending 2 whole weeks in a chess environment, with strong chess coaches and their fellow juniors!! Not because of the actual games themselves, which often have a demoralising effect!
Some other options:
For younger juniors the British Championships are a great tournament. There are age-group championship, which are mostly 1 round a day, and these would be a very good level, since we can compete at that level, and even winning it from time to time! I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to send sizeable squads to these. In addition we can have strong coaches helping to prepare and analyse, while playing in a tournament themselves.
For older juniors the British is also fantastic, with the Major Open and Championship, but also Robin's idea of sending a squad to the Czech Open for example would be good. The same concept can be used with the coaches helping the juniors.
An interesting stat: At the recent World Youth in Brazil, overall we scored 32/81. However, by looking at the games only against Brazilian and Argentinian players, who both had huge squads made up mostly of what are presumably weaker filler players, we scored 15 points! That's almost half of our total points, and is probably casting a veil over our performance. Of course there are exceptions, but in general we always do pretty poorly in these events.
While it's true that juniors that have gone to these events have improved, the point is that this is because they are spending 2 whole weeks in a chess environment, with strong chess coaches and their fellow juniors!! Not because of the actual games themselves, which often have a demoralising effect!
Some other options:
For younger juniors the British Championships are a great tournament. There are age-group championship, which are mostly 1 round a day, and these would be a very good level, since we can compete at that level, and even winning it from time to time! I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to send sizeable squads to these. In addition we can have strong coaches helping to prepare and analyse, while playing in a tournament themselves.
For older juniors the British is also fantastic, with the Major Open and Championship, but also Robin's idea of sending a squad to the Czech Open for example would be good. The same concept can be used with the coaches helping the juniors.