22-12-2011, 03:38 PM
There is some great input from all here that I am following with great interest. I want to put forward a current example of the danger of simply blindly picking the player at the top of the grading list. I know their parents well and I am sure they won't mind me doing this. Anna Milton and Monica Espinosa were terrific for us at the Euroyouth at Bulgaria. Anna has since done very well at the World Youth at Brazil. A couple of weeks ago Monica was ahead on the grading list (by 2 points!). Now Anna is ahead again via her Liverpool results. Monica played in the Benidorm International and Spanish U12 championship but didn't score well. A big problem Monica will have gradewise this year is that her family have formed a new club at Girvan in the Ayrshire 3rd division. I realised that Monica would probably have to score about 90% in this division playing board 4 just to "break even" gradewise. Monica is not the fastest of players. I travelled down to Girvan to watch their first match, which she lost to a guy graded 400 odd simply because she never adapted to the much faster time control. We know both of these girls are capable of playing at Euro and World level with it's longer time contols. Past experience and performance at this level will be one of the things foremost in selectors minds. I want both of these girls to play as many of the "majors" they can this year. Grade will not influence me a lot.
Robin.
Robin.