ACO World Amateur Chess Championship Rhodes 2014

[David Deary]

Congratulations to Peter Smith of Ayr Chess Club on winning Group C of the Word Amateur Championships. I'm sure he'll be delighted at being a World Champion and with an unbeaten 8/9, well done! :ymapplause:

Results can be found here:
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr137954.a...t=4&wi=821

[David G Congalton]

Congratulations Peter, World Champion.

[Alex Gillies]

Fantastic result Peter - following Allan Minicans lead - think this is a run we should aim to keep going. :-bd

Be interested to hear what like venue and accommodation costs were like.

[Joe Parks]

Wow.....fantastic result indeed. Well done Peter

[robin moore]

First of all very many congratulations to Peter, a fantastic achievement. If you are going to buy a trophy cabinet, probably best buy a big one if your daughters Sarah and Rachel continue to improve as they are doing.

Guys like Alan at Crete, Peter at Rhodes and Elliot Frew at the Benidorm International have proved that Scottish "amateur" players can enter overseas events and be very successful. It begs the questions...

1/ Are we underrated on a European and/or World level? (no criticism whatsoever of our grading system).

2/ Do we have enthusiastic quality players that can produce results when the chips are down over and above what is expected according to their grade?

Personally,

For question 1/ Would appreciate Dougie Bryson's/graders thoughts.

For question 2/ my own opinion is definitely yes.

[AndrewGreen]

Congratulations Peter! Can we get the hat trick next year? To answer Robin's questions: yes and yes.

[Andrew McHarg]

Well done Peter!

Also to answer Robin's questions: yes and yes. Perhaps these points might be best discussed in a different topic though?

[Douglas Bryson]

>>>1/ Are we underrated on a European and/or World level? (no criticism whatsoever of our grading system).

Does the question mean - is a Scot with a FIDE elo of 1800 underrated compared to say a French player of that same FIDE grade? In the case of our junior players then many will be underrated since our players have so few FIDE rated games compared to our continental cousins. The published FIDE grade will lag the improved quality of play if there are no results to process - whereas in France everything is FIDE rated.

With established adult players then I dont see why we would be underrated.

Or are the few adult players who venture abroad a biased sample of players who are still ambitious and improving - and thereby underrated.

***

If the question means does a CS grade of 1800 make a player underrated compared to a FIDE of 1800 then it does at the moment but may not in the future. Above 2200, FIDE and CS are pretty close in value. From 1800 to 2200 then most adult players with a FIDE it will be higher than their CS. However that could just be the arithmetic of how FIDE added these players initially to the list ie the system had various minimum grades as it worked its way down to 1001. The arithmetic waited till you performed above that minimum level before listing which might explain the higher numbers. With grades at minimum 1000 this should all be worked out over time but again with so few FIDE games played here it could be many years before the transfer of points to true strength takes place.

[Patrick McGovern]

wow well done Peter ^^

[PeterReidSmith]

Thanks folks - I just saw this post

It was Alan's win last year - and the SC(Mag) coverage - that inspired me to go for it. It's a great event on many levels and I'd certainly encourage more Scottish participation. Hotel and facilities were excellent - in fact it's a great way to combine a holiday with chess, so use that excuse on the WAGs

From a pure chess point of view being able to play a focused band of graded players is ideal.