27-01-2014, 01:20 PM
It appears to me sometimes that despite the wide disagreement we often see, that everyone more or less agrees on the same thing, which is we need to improve Chess in Scotland in general. Be it youth chess, tournament circuits, national events, international performance, membership numbers, inclusion and involvement of all, and many more aspects. These things are all the ultimate measuremunt of a successful chess nation.
Looking to the future, maybe we need to be going back to the beginning. Perhaps we should be looking to other small countries in Europe of similar size to Scotland which have a successful model with their home chess structure. I don't know which countries that would be, but if one or two are identified, it could be a good long term investment to fund someone suitable to go off on a fact finding trip and link up with the right country. The aim would be to learn from and perhaps replicate the right chess model where appropriate. Or perhaps even better would be to get someone in from a small but successful chess country (headhunt that right person if you like), then either use them as a consultant, or employ them to restructure everything in our game from bottom up and take Chess in Scotland to the next level.
Grassroots are unquestionably crucial and needs investment of resources, but so is everything that follows the grassroots. Maybe it is complete overhaul that is needed, 1 step back, but 2 steps forward (eventually).
Not really wishing to distract from our topic of chess and go into politics, however this is exactly what the SNP wishes to do with Scotland as a nation. Should we reach independance, they have made it clear they will be looking to copy a Scandanavian country type of model with Scotland's future development. That is a bit of an "if" and "but" scenario right now, but a quite possible one and with the national environment changing we should perhaps be looking to keep up with it, and fit into it at the same time, or we could get left behind and see our chess status worsen.
Looking to the future, maybe we need to be going back to the beginning. Perhaps we should be looking to other small countries in Europe of similar size to Scotland which have a successful model with their home chess structure. I don't know which countries that would be, but if one or two are identified, it could be a good long term investment to fund someone suitable to go off on a fact finding trip and link up with the right country. The aim would be to learn from and perhaps replicate the right chess model where appropriate. Or perhaps even better would be to get someone in from a small but successful chess country (headhunt that right person if you like), then either use them as a consultant, or employ them to restructure everything in our game from bottom up and take Chess in Scotland to the next level.
Grassroots are unquestionably crucial and needs investment of resources, but so is everything that follows the grassroots. Maybe it is complete overhaul that is needed, 1 step back, but 2 steps forward (eventually).
Not really wishing to distract from our topic of chess and go into politics, however this is exactly what the SNP wishes to do with Scotland as a nation. Should we reach independance, they have made it clear they will be looking to copy a Scandanavian country type of model with Scotland's future development. That is a bit of an "if" and "but" scenario right now, but a quite possible one and with the national environment changing we should perhaps be looking to keep up with it, and fit into it at the same time, or we could get left behind and see our chess status worsen.