12-03-2012, 08:00 AM
robin moore Wrote:Andrew,
They are not lies, they are conservative. Oops, wonder if I am allowed to say conservative and lies in the same sentence? The present Scottish junior squad is an extremely exciting one and Phil Thomas correctly pointed out recently the individual strength at so many agegroups. I am not sure if I have mentioned this before on the noticeboard but I am very keen on the "no draw" strategy being encouraged by a number of coaches. If they don't get to endgames and develop their skills in this area, we will continue to be consistently outplayed by eastern europeans at major championships,
Robin.
When a game is drawn prematurely it usually means that one of the two players was incorrect to accept the draw at that point. This is my excuse for my recent 15 move draw.
Before my time Scotland's juniors accepted far too many draws in clearly winning positions, sometimes offering the draw and sometimes accepting the draw. The strongest drive for change has been the younger coaches who remember the days of " a draw is a good result" which led to far too few individual wins
At the Glorney event of 2011 summer there were occasions when Scotland players were in losing positions and found that their draw offer was readily accepted. Most notably in the last match of the U12 event. For once England had not won the tournament with a round to go. The England U12 team played Scotland in the last round and needed to avoid a 6-0 defeat in order to win the tournament. The first game to finish was a win for England. The second result was a few seconds later when England board one took a draw in a clearly winning position.
The point here is that confidence in your own ability is infectious - it spreads rapidly to the opponent(s), they start believing in you too.