22-12-2011, 05:17 PM
Clement,
I don't accept your interpretation of The World Youth results.
I was head of delegation there. You have belittled the result in an attempt to support your view. That's unhelpful. The result is not worse than other Euroyouth or World Youth results imho. The juniors tried incredibly hard and Derek Howie gave excellent technical support downloading games and going over games
on fritz with a lot of the squad. I was moved to see players up at 5am to do prep so they could get internet connection. I know this because I was also up doing the same =) You think they shouldn't have been there whilst they all wanted to be there. Why shouldn't they have the opportunity if that's what parents and juniors want? It's a fairly basic human right imho. If not the best at their age groups they were near the best at their age groups in Scotland. That should be enough.
Brazil is a country of 200 million people with as many young people living there as within the whole of Western Europe. When you talk about filler players you are underestimating those players and also our players who scored well against them. Sao Paulo city is 4 times the population of Scotland and has 100s of Chess Clubs. Chess is thriving within Brazil.
Argentina has a population 8 times the size of Scotland again with a big young population.
An interesting stat is that 3 out of 9 Scotland players were 2nd highest fide risers within their section.
Told you this stat would be handy :-) I guess we could lament the fact that they weren't 1st highest fide grading risers.
One could highlight say Ian's performance. He scored 3.5 points out of 9 with 3.5 scored against players from Brazil and Argentina. Do you think Ian isn't good enough to go to these events?
With your approach Hamish wouldn't even have been there.
Finally, Clement, I suggest you look at your own grading graph to see what can be achieved. I think many of the players who went to Brazil compare favourably against your historical grading graph.
I'd tip some of them to emulate your excellent performance.
I don't accept your interpretation of The World Youth results.
I was head of delegation there. You have belittled the result in an attempt to support your view. That's unhelpful. The result is not worse than other Euroyouth or World Youth results imho. The juniors tried incredibly hard and Derek Howie gave excellent technical support downloading games and going over games
on fritz with a lot of the squad. I was moved to see players up at 5am to do prep so they could get internet connection. I know this because I was also up doing the same =) You think they shouldn't have been there whilst they all wanted to be there. Why shouldn't they have the opportunity if that's what parents and juniors want? It's a fairly basic human right imho. If not the best at their age groups they were near the best at their age groups in Scotland. That should be enough.
Brazil is a country of 200 million people with as many young people living there as within the whole of Western Europe. When you talk about filler players you are underestimating those players and also our players who scored well against them. Sao Paulo city is 4 times the population of Scotland and has 100s of Chess Clubs. Chess is thriving within Brazil.
Argentina has a population 8 times the size of Scotland again with a big young population.
An interesting stat is that 3 out of 9 Scotland players were 2nd highest fide risers within their section.
Told you this stat would be handy :-) I guess we could lament the fact that they weren't 1st highest fide grading risers.
One could highlight say Ian's performance. He scored 3.5 points out of 9 with 3.5 scored against players from Brazil and Argentina. Do you think Ian isn't good enough to go to these events?
With your approach Hamish wouldn't even have been there.
Finally, Clement, I suggest you look at your own grading graph to see what can be achieved. I think many of the players who went to Brazil compare favourably against your historical grading graph.
I'd tip some of them to emulate your excellent performance.