British Junior Age Championships

[Jacqui Thomas]

I have just been having a look at the entries for the British & in particular the Junior Age Championships.

Scotland have 3 entries (so far). One from the North, one from the East & one from the West.

Which has lead me to post & say - : I still find it amazing that parents are willing to pay £100's & some cases £1000's of pounds for their children to go abroad to play & challenge against new opponents but so few ever play at the British. I am thinking more so of the U14's down as there are so few age group tournaments apart from this event & the Internationals. This years event in Whitley Bay is almost local as next year its back to Torquay & the swine flu zone!

[robin moore]

Jacqui raises a very good point here that deserves serious discussion. Parents of candidates for this event would be best to give some welcome input here. I don't fall into that category but I would like to share some of my thoughts. International chess is not cheap, whether it be somewhere else in the British Isles or in Europe or even farther afield. If a junior is selected to play for Scotland at say the EU youth, the Euroyouth or the World youth, their parents often make this event the family holiday for the year. This can be a serious drain on finances which limits appearances at the top events. I am now voicing a purely personal view and that is that the British championships does not generate the same excitement or possibly prestige as playing in one of the "majors" overseas. The time of year of the British may have a bearing too, coming, as it does in a logjam of important events like the Scottish, Glorney, EU and Euroyouth. If parents have a commitment to one or two of these events, it can often be virtually impossible to commit to the British also,

Robin.

[Jacqui Thomas]

Robin,
I agree with your timings point BUT i was actually thinking more of the children that just lose out to selection for the top events so therefore don't have the jam packed calendar. Perhaps Whitley Bay or Torquay Riviera don't quite compete with Prague or Slovenia but can still be a great summer holiday as unless they are in the U9 or U8 events at the British which are a 2 day & 1 day event the others tend to be one game a day (the same as Internationals)so you have lots of free time for holiday activities.

The key is to combine it as the family summer holiday.

I just don't think we push the British or Scottish events enough to encourage participation. But then same can be said about the Scottish Girls Championships as that has a very poor turn out & rarely anyone above Primary age.

PS: we haven't been since Torquay 2009 - neither Liverpool or Sheffield had any appeal

[Adam Bremner]

I think the problem here is the same problem that is always the case for Scots at the British- cost.

I have been looking at these events, and they last 6 days. It would be reasonable to assume that you would have to go down the day before, and return the day after, making it 8 days. This requires 7 nights accommodation. Due to the fact that the whole family will need to go down, this is somewhere in the region of £60 x 7 for a decent family room making £420. Return travel is conservatively in the region of £80. The entry fee is £45. This is taking the total up to £545 roughly, without even considering food, for 7 games. Think of the number of junior events and congresses you could play for that!

The other issue is the entire family needs to go down, and as much fun as the event will be for the child, it is not going to be great for the parents, nor potentially any other children in the family not really into chess. You also can't really blame any parent who would rather spend their Summer holidays in Spain than North-East England.

I wonder if a potential way round this would be to make these events residential for the kids, much like the Primary individual, or at least have the option? Obviously I have no idea of logistics, or even how practical it would be. I would assume this would cut accommodation costs right down, and make it much more appealing to parents. It would also perhaps allow a family holiday somewhere warm, as the parents would not have to use up their holidays for this.

[Jacqui Thomas]

Adam,
Cost is an issue no matter where you play an event. Family holidays tend to happen for a lot of families & therefore combining the two makes it feasible. Food - well you need to eat where ever you are

Your idea about making it a residential - do you mean treat it as an International event with Head of delegation, coach & chaperones to the same accommodation ie: hotel, hostel or caravan park ?

[robin moore]

Good points by Jacqui and Adam. I want to throw a suggestion into the mix. I am a huge fan of the Primary Individual event and from the great feedback it received recently so is everyone else. I don't want to mess about with a very successful event by changing it too much but is there any possibility of keeping it as a residential tournament, adding a "few" more days in, lengthening the time control and inviting some players (not too many) from the other home nations plus Ireland ? This is a very popular tournament which I am sure would appeal to some of the best primary school players from the British Isles and would be a seriously good alternative for all to the British Championships without the costs entailed by an entire family staying for seven nights or so. The dates are of interest too, with fairly clear water between the usual June spot and the logjam in the future month or so,

Robin.

[Adam Bremner]

Adam,
Cost is an issue no matter where you play an event. Family holidays tend to happen for a lot of families & therefore combining the two makes it feasible. Food - well you need to eat where ever you are

Your idea about making it a residential - do you mean treat it as an International event with Head of delegation, coach & chaperones to the same accommodation ie: hotel, hostel or caravan park ?

Cost is an issue yes, and normally families will accept chess is expensive, but with these sorts of figures, especially with the financial climate like it is, I just don't find it accessible to most families. As for food, yes I get your point, but there is a difference between a cheap family shop, and living out of a hotel room where you have to rely on eating out all the time.

For the residential idea, my idea would be to suggest the reduction of the number of days from 7 to 4, and play 2 games a day, at long FIDE time controls. I have never been, so am only guessing, but I would assume that while playing 1 game a day is great in theory, a lot of games at u12 and that type of level will be over in 30mins or so, especially in early rounds. So, play 2 rounds a day over 4 days, making it an 8 rounder, or 1 on the final day to allow time for getting home. If it was to attract more entries surely the organisers would listen?

I wouldn't treat it exactly as an International event, ie the goal is an individual tournament, so there is no need for a coach. What would be required is organisers and chaperones to make it residential, almost mirroring the format of the Primary Individual (which incidentally I think provides a very good model due to how smoothly it is run). The whole point of this, would be that only the child would need accommodation for 3 or 4 days, at what I would assume was a very reasonable price considering they would be sharing, and the parents would not be required to take time off for this. From what I can see, that would combat the 2 main reasons I can see why people are not entering at the moment.

Obviously it is just an idea for the event, but it could work in one of two ways. Either Scotland could look at a way of doing this, granted it is a lot of effort, but as you pointed out it would be good for fringe players; or even more ideally, the event itself could look at making this an option for the kids that I am sure this effects from southern England/Wales too.

OK, radical I know, so don't shoot me down for the idea! Just a thought for a way round the two major barriers.