Win games, but drop points

[Jacqui Thomas]

A few years ago SJC ran a Microfinal specifically to do as you say & try & capture, oops encourage these seasonal one event a year players. But it didnt work. I like your idea of enter & get a prize as a knock on from the Megafinals but its having the volunteers & them the energy to take ideas like this forward.

Something is needed & needed soon as the junior scene is not looking healthy, with more & more drop outs over the last year across all age groups. There is no new blood coming through from the lower age groups so the International scene will suffer as we wont have the players to send.

Chess for Kicks already has the format of events which give qualification to a final.

[Gerald Lobley]

Dear All,
Just for clarification, games from the North MegaFinal (run by Paula Eagles) were graded this year (and have been for the past few years). The difference is that games were played with clocks throughout.
There are some differences, first the attendance is smaller (so number of clocks was not an issue)and probably with a higher percentage of players already graded (40%). In addition a number of the other ungraded entrants had already played in other events and were looking to increase their number of graded games. Another important issue is that several competitors come from outlying regions (Orkney is a classic example) and there are few opportunities for them to achieve a grading and so we try to ensure we make full use of every event they enter to achieve this purpose.
As for the pros and cons, well most have been highlighted in the earlier part of this thread. The children do rapidly learn to use clocks and in recent NEJCA event some children told me they did not have clocks at their school but knew they would use them at our tournament and so they put boxes at the sides of the boards at their school chess club and practised 'bashing' (their word) these after every move. This made me smile. We find that playing with clocks makes the children feel they are playing in a 'proper' event (of course the event is proper with or without clocks) and, coupled with the talk of being able to make this part of obtaining a grade, opens up a fascinating world. Of course the issue is whether this encourages more to attend future events. Many do not but a number do. For example, this year we gained a 'whole' school to another NEJCA event as a result of them competing in the MegaFinal and this has also happened in the past.
So from our point of view it is worth grading the events but in order to ensure uniformity across the grading system only in combination with clock use. I agree totally with Jacqui that we need to find ways to encourage children to enter events and continue to play. We all know that if you walk into any Primary School in Scotland (or anywhere for that matter) and set up a chess club you will be overwhelmed by youngsters wishing to play. So the problem is how do we encourage more volunteers to take on this role. We also know that when the chess volunteer leaves then chess enthusiasm will rapidly diminish in that school. So perhaps the key issue is not the children but finding and retaining organisers.
All this blindingly obvious and well known to the contributors to this blog but we still need to find answers.
Gerald