08-09-2016, 12:04 AM
Hi Robin,
As a committee member of LJC (a chess scotland affiliate); and the area grader for LJC and someone who also co-runs a primary school chess club, I would argue that they should be graded.
1. The majority of the labour intensive work is carried out by the area grader - while not-zero, I would have thought the cost to CS to doing the grading is marginal. Although Douglas Bryson I'm sure would be able to comment.
2. Those who advocate non-grading should understand that we will end up with a schism and the position of two grading systems. I do not see how that is in the interests of children playing chess - nor in the interests of other organisers! While most of the LJC events are closed, we have 1 or 2 a season that are open - it would be difficult for us to know how strong a child is - and what event to place them in and how we seed them fairly. 3. The reality is that LJC offers a child c. 30 graded games a season (possibly less this season
) - looking at Lothians top juniors who have not progressed to regular adult events; most of them are doubling the amount of graded games by playing against other juniors in tournaments run by other junior organisers. We are not going to accurately understand the progress they've made if those matches are under two systems - they take their graded games more seriously.
4. When a child shows progress in their game, they get better results, they earn trophies and some kudos that comes with an improved grade.
5. I believe that not only should junior chess be thinking about players for internationals, we need to be thinking about how we turn primary kids into club players - its important to get and keep them engaged if we're ever going to turn them into club players.
6. There will of course be edge cases, where a child dominates a 'small pond' and does not often venture outside that pond. But surely the better way to address this is to somehow recognise and adjust for that in the grading system (I'm sure DB would be able to say if its possible). If we can't, its not perfect - but I'd hope our IJD and the Junior Board don't mind the little extra work?
There are bigger problems for domestic junior chess - a shortage of volunteers, the availability of venues and price hikes in lets being the key ones LJC have been battling most of the summer.
As a committee member of LJC (a chess scotland affiliate); and the area grader for LJC and someone who also co-runs a primary school chess club, I would argue that they should be graded.
1. The majority of the labour intensive work is carried out by the area grader - while not-zero, I would have thought the cost to CS to doing the grading is marginal. Although Douglas Bryson I'm sure would be able to comment.
2. Those who advocate non-grading should understand that we will end up with a schism and the position of two grading systems. I do not see how that is in the interests of children playing chess - nor in the interests of other organisers! While most of the LJC events are closed, we have 1 or 2 a season that are open - it would be difficult for us to know how strong a child is - and what event to place them in and how we seed them fairly. 3. The reality is that LJC offers a child c. 30 graded games a season (possibly less this season
) - looking at Lothians top juniors who have not progressed to regular adult events; most of them are doubling the amount of graded games by playing against other juniors in tournaments run by other junior organisers. We are not going to accurately understand the progress they've made if those matches are under two systems - they take their graded games more seriously.4. When a child shows progress in their game, they get better results, they earn trophies and some kudos that comes with an improved grade.
5. I believe that not only should junior chess be thinking about players for internationals, we need to be thinking about how we turn primary kids into club players - its important to get and keep them engaged if we're ever going to turn them into club players.
6. There will of course be edge cases, where a child dominates a 'small pond' and does not often venture outside that pond. But surely the better way to address this is to somehow recognise and adjust for that in the grading system (I'm sure DB would be able to say if its possible). If we can't, its not perfect - but I'd hope our IJD and the Junior Board don't mind the little extra work?
There are bigger problems for domestic junior chess - a shortage of volunteers, the availability of venues and price hikes in lets being the key ones LJC have been battling most of the summer.