02-03-2014, 10:09 PM
This is Andy M's 2014 method of avoiding getting himself in trouble 
Perhaps part of the 'problem' lies with Scotland being a small nation, with very few strong players, and almost no investment in chess which might provide opportunities/incentives for the new generations coming through to view GM-level chess as a realistic goal/career.
Other nations (off the top of my head USA, for example) have already seen national teams consisting largely of 'incomers' - Kamsky/Gulko/Kaidanov etc.
It is not unreasonable to imagine the Scottish Olympiad team in a couple of years time being something like Keti Arakhamia-Grant, Matthew Turner, Andrew Greet and (let's say for the sake of argument) Jacob Aagaard (having switched allegiance once more).
So we would have Scottish through marriage, residency, single-grandparency and perhaps temporary residency again. A decent team which we would struggle to match with Scottish-born players, but would this team be 'Scottish' in any real sense of the word? Perhaps it would - I'm merely asking
Perhaps part of the 'problem' lies with Scotland being a small nation, with very few strong players, and almost no investment in chess which might provide opportunities/incentives for the new generations coming through to view GM-level chess as a realistic goal/career.
Other nations (off the top of my head USA, for example) have already seen national teams consisting largely of 'incomers' - Kamsky/Gulko/Kaidanov etc.
It is not unreasonable to imagine the Scottish Olympiad team in a couple of years time being something like Keti Arakhamia-Grant, Matthew Turner, Andrew Greet and (let's say for the sake of argument) Jacob Aagaard (having switched allegiance once more).
So we would have Scottish through marriage, residency, single-grandparency and perhaps temporary residency again. A decent team which we would struggle to match with Scottish-born players, but would this team be 'Scottish' in any real sense of the word? Perhaps it would - I'm merely asking