19-11-2012, 07:08 PM
What a strange thing to happen.
With regard to the player in question, Steve Mannion is one of the easiest to prepare for players (openings-wise) I have encountered in Scotland. As someone who routinely prepares for every game I have 1000+ games of his in my database and he rarely varies from his (very-well constructed) repertoire - the idea that a live game or 2 from Oban would be of additional help to his opponents (who most likely would be sitting close enough to him to see the games as they are played) doesn't really make sense. As mentioned also, the pgn of games is often available quite quickly, as are those posted on forums and in other media.
With the other 3 top boards going out live, the whole scenario would be much more likely to favour Steve. Seeing what Hamish Olsen, K.Maack or some of the others play would be very useful as they don't have many games available from other sources.
On a personal level (not being able to attend Oban because of work) I was looking forward to watching the top games play out. Technical issues with the sensory boards aside, the idea that I could see all but the top board seems ridiculous.
As others have pointed out, not only have the sensory boards been donated for just such events, it seems likely that titled players would have free entry and should therefore do everything within reason to ensure the event is a success, particularly with Oban Congress having lots of sponsors (lots of small local ones which always impresses me and is a great recipe for others to follow).
Anyway, perhaps there is more to this than we are hearing about, but as it stands I'm not very impressed.
With regard to the player in question, Steve Mannion is one of the easiest to prepare for players (openings-wise) I have encountered in Scotland. As someone who routinely prepares for every game I have 1000+ games of his in my database and he rarely varies from his (very-well constructed) repertoire - the idea that a live game or 2 from Oban would be of additional help to his opponents (who most likely would be sitting close enough to him to see the games as they are played) doesn't really make sense. As mentioned also, the pgn of games is often available quite quickly, as are those posted on forums and in other media.
With the other 3 top boards going out live, the whole scenario would be much more likely to favour Steve. Seeing what Hamish Olsen, K.Maack or some of the others play would be very useful as they don't have many games available from other sources.
On a personal level (not being able to attend Oban because of work) I was looking forward to watching the top games play out. Technical issues with the sensory boards aside, the idea that I could see all but the top board seems ridiculous.
As others have pointed out, not only have the sensory boards been donated for just such events, it seems likely that titled players would have free entry and should therefore do everything within reason to ensure the event is a success, particularly with Oban Congress having lots of sponsors (lots of small local ones which always impresses me and is a great recipe for others to follow).
Anyway, perhaps there is more to this than we are hearing about, but as it stands I'm not very impressed.