15-09-2016, 02:30 PM
Recovering today from the journey back...
Checking through my bundle of minutes from the commission meetings, my eyes were drawn to the facts and figures from the Development Commission. I don't have them to hand at the moment so I am doing this from memory.
Europe has 75% of the Active FIDE players in the world and 77% of the tournaments.
Scotland is a Category 2 country in the table of countries, there are 5 Categories. Worldwide we are ranked about 77th (it was between 75 and 80 from memory). We have a relatively low number of active FIDE rated players and tournaments. I have requested the full European figures but in comparison with the rest of Europe, we are down at the bottom (I will publish the results when I have them).
Looking at the Gaprindashvili cup (Combined scores of Open + Womens Tournament) we finished 73rd, above our WW seeding.
With most of our GMs and IMs being the "Older Generation" we are going to slide down the rankings as they stop playing.
Where are the titled players coming through at the moment???
They are there, they just don't get the chances in Scotland to get norms. We have a single norm tournament every year, the Scottish Championship and depending on the numbers, it takes one bad result to kill your chances of a norm.
The reality is we need norm tournaments in Scotland to bring these players through. Alan and Andy B should not have to go to tournaments abroad to try to get their IM titles. We should have tournaments here that they can play in along with Calum, Clement, Murad etc etc etc.
The simplest way to do this is to have a RR tournament with the correct composition to provide opportunity for norms. FIDE have made this hellishly expensive, however there is an idea going though at the moment that I am hoping to get involved with testing that will reduce the costs significantly. All going well we will approve at the GA next year (when they work out where is it going to be!)
Get the basics right, have a tournament structure to bring the players through and you then have the basis to improve our Olympiad performance as you have a greater pool of players to choose from.
As for this years Olympiad. I am satisfied with our performance. The players gave their all and have performed to our WW seeding. Some excellent performances in the mix and Andrew Greet was very unlucky not to come away with a GM norm. Andy B has some excellent ideas for the future and now has an Olympiad under his belt. I am looking forward to seeing his recommendations for the future
Checking through my bundle of minutes from the commission meetings, my eyes were drawn to the facts and figures from the Development Commission. I don't have them to hand at the moment so I am doing this from memory.
Europe has 75% of the Active FIDE players in the world and 77% of the tournaments.
Scotland is a Category 2 country in the table of countries, there are 5 Categories. Worldwide we are ranked about 77th (it was between 75 and 80 from memory). We have a relatively low number of active FIDE rated players and tournaments. I have requested the full European figures but in comparison with the rest of Europe, we are down at the bottom (I will publish the results when I have them).
Looking at the Gaprindashvili cup (Combined scores of Open + Womens Tournament) we finished 73rd, above our WW seeding.
With most of our GMs and IMs being the "Older Generation" we are going to slide down the rankings as they stop playing.
Where are the titled players coming through at the moment???
They are there, they just don't get the chances in Scotland to get norms. We have a single norm tournament every year, the Scottish Championship and depending on the numbers, it takes one bad result to kill your chances of a norm.
The reality is we need norm tournaments in Scotland to bring these players through. Alan and Andy B should not have to go to tournaments abroad to try to get their IM titles. We should have tournaments here that they can play in along with Calum, Clement, Murad etc etc etc.
The simplest way to do this is to have a RR tournament with the correct composition to provide opportunity for norms. FIDE have made this hellishly expensive, however there is an idea going though at the moment that I am hoping to get involved with testing that will reduce the costs significantly. All going well we will approve at the GA next year (when they work out where is it going to be!)
Get the basics right, have a tournament structure to bring the players through and you then have the basis to improve our Olympiad performance as you have a greater pool of players to choose from.
As for this years Olympiad. I am satisfied with our performance. The players gave their all and have performed to our WW seeding. Some excellent performances in the mix and Andrew Greet was very unlucky not to come away with a GM norm. Andy B has some excellent ideas for the future and now has an Olympiad under his belt. I am looking forward to seeing his recommendations for the future
"How sad to see, what used to be, a model of decorum and tranquility become like any other sport, a battleground for rival ideologies to slug it out with glee"