19-08-2014, 10:23 AM
Hi Kevin and any other budding ageists!?
It's perhaps fortunate that you didn't air some of these views to a certain Viktor Korchnoi, who was still playing at a level higher than any Scots player has ever reached on the rating list (quite apart from the reputational list that really counts for these things) well into his mid-70s. Believe me you wouldn't have escaped alive!!
Seriously the only criterion that should really count is straightforward merit. Moreover the CS selectors also apply wider judgements on that score than mere "ratings", which are much 'over-rated' themselves these days, and they sometimes do so. So what's the beef? Are you seriously suggesting that if Scotland had a 75 year-old Korchnoi available, he shouldn't play in the Olympiad team?
Chess culture, or at least its differences between Scotland and much of the continent, is indeed part of the problem. My old Berlin Bundesliga club has recently asked me to turn out once or twice next season in Bundesliga 2 North. I've warned them I'm a dinosaur but they insisted!!
Norm-seekers - put in some hours and go play chess mainly abroad where you will find that you play many stronger opponents, will learn more and gain rating points. That's how most Scottish title seekers got somewhere, going back very many decades. Enjoy chess.
It's perhaps fortunate that you didn't air some of these views to a certain Viktor Korchnoi, who was still playing at a level higher than any Scots player has ever reached on the rating list (quite apart from the reputational list that really counts for these things) well into his mid-70s. Believe me you wouldn't have escaped alive!!
Seriously the only criterion that should really count is straightforward merit. Moreover the CS selectors also apply wider judgements on that score than mere "ratings", which are much 'over-rated' themselves these days, and they sometimes do so. So what's the beef? Are you seriously suggesting that if Scotland had a 75 year-old Korchnoi available, he shouldn't play in the Olympiad team?
Chess culture, or at least its differences between Scotland and much of the continent, is indeed part of the problem. My old Berlin Bundesliga club has recently asked me to turn out once or twice next season in Bundesliga 2 North. I've warned them I'm a dinosaur but they insisted!!
Norm-seekers - put in some hours and go play chess mainly abroad where you will find that you play many stronger opponents, will learn more and gain rating points. That's how most Scottish title seekers got somewhere, going back very many decades. Enjoy chess.