Chess Scotland
Juniors
designed by kids,
for kids!
Youth Squad Training Day
By Amy Officer
On the 19th
of November, I attended a Youth Squad Training Day. It was held in the Prudential building in Stirling. The
coaches were Jacob Aagaard, Tom Donohue. Stephen Mannion and Phil Thomas.
There was a great turnout, over 30 players attended for a fun day of
coaching, socialising and playing chess.
First thing we had a
meeting to discuss what we were going to be doing that day and to hand out
certificates to players who competed internationally. We were then split up into four groups –
one group per coach. I was in group A
which worked with Jacob.
Jacob introduced the
lesson by going over a game. We were
then given puzzles to do for 45 minutes, the
problems were interesting because they were all about thinking “outside the
box”. I got just over half way before
we had to stop for lunch. After lunch,
we went over the puzzles and then Jacob showed us a position that we would be
playing in blitz games against each other.
It was kind of a knockout tournament, we played two games against the
same person (one game with each colour and a different position) and at the
end of the second round if it was a tie there was a 1-minute blitz
playoff.
At the end of the
activities we had a doubles tournament, I was paired with Barnaby Leach and
we got an – amazing- score of 3 out of 5.
The winners were super-pair, Jacob Aagaard and……Donna Officer, they
dominated with a 100% success rate (there was a LOT
of fighting between this pair! Usually cries from Donna of “Don’t tell me
what to do!! And “Stop laughing at me!....hehe)
Winners : Jacob Aagaard and Donna Officer
Then came
the end of a funfilled day. Thanks to the coaches and to Donna for
organising the day. Thanks must also
go to Prudential and John Glendinning (no John we didn’t wreck the place!
;-P)
   
Jacob in action Phil and his group Steve’s group Tom at work
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