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46 played today at Airdrie in three sections.
Thanks to the rest of the team for giving up their time to make this happen.
Michael Hanley will add results to this thread once he has done grading - probably by midnight tonight.
Anyone desperate to know their tournament grading performance before Dougie does the Wednesday update - Send me a mail or private message and I'll let you know asap.
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Results from today available from above link.
Michael.
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Hi, the Hamilton Junior Congress Grand Prix for the £50 first prize is now updated on the news section of <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hamiltonjuniorchessclub.co.uk">www.hamiltonjuniorchessclub.co.uk</a><!-- w -->
Michael.
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Michael,
Congratulations on running this series. I wanted to ask what U300 means; if I translate this to an ECF grade it is 12 and there are basically no players of this grade. I don't really understand the nuances of the ELO system at the lower reaches, so at U300 do we get sensible games, are there a lot of scholars mates. How long does 7 games last, are the players using clocks. Is there some coaching element that is built into the day.
I appreciate there are quite a lot of question there and I don't expect you to answer them all, I am just trying to get a handle on the ability of the players and how the tournament adapts to that ability. The reason I ask is that I am in the process of changing the format of the junior events I organise. So, I am moving to having a half day tournament like yourself and half a day coaching/challenges.
All the best,
Matt
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Matt, CS grades start at 100, so the u300s are total beginners. Looking at Michael's last u300, there were 16 kids with 10 without any grades, meaning that they had previously not played 7 graded games before the start of this season.
They do use clocks and have 25 minutes each. There tends to be no coaching at these events. There isn't time due to fitting in the 6 or 7 games. Michael organises separate coaching days where the kids are put into groups based on ability.
As there are u600 and u900/u1000 (or over 600) running beside each other, it gives the kids an incentive to try and move up to higher sections and to give them better chances of improving their grades.
There can be some scholars' mates but sometimes someone be on hand would show them how not to fall into these traps in future games (done on an ad-hoc basis).
Everyone who gets 50% or above at these tournaments gets some sort of prize (medal) with the top 3 getting trophies. The kids love it.
Derek,
OK, so that confirms some of thinking. U300 really isn't equivalent of U12 ECF, it is more like ungraded. It is just that Scotland has a more encompassing grading system. I like the idea that there is a clear progression from the U300 to U600 and so on rather than basing the sections on age as would normally happen in England.
It is good that there is some informal coaching.
I like medals too, I think that is much better than certificates for partipation.
One question I have is you've said about using clocks with 25 minutes each, presumably there is some time between rounds (for pairings etc.). If there is 7 rounds then you could be finishing at 7.30pm - that sounds a bit late. Are you relying on games finishing early, or do you aim to finish at say 5.30 and get as many games in as you can, or do you actually finish at 7.30pm
That was me again - not Peter.
Matt
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Matt,
U300 sections are used at both Hamilton club and SJC organised events plus the other feeder events for the nationwide CFK finals
Generally speaking the players know how all the pieces move - it is rare to have to explain en passant or castled rules. Quite often though white starts the game by playing 1 h4 2Rh3 3 gxh3
In the lower half of the section mate with R +Q tends to be difficult for the players but tends to happen reasonably quickly for those with grade around 200- 300.
In addition to the points made by Derek of the reasons for success of this format is that the gap between rounds is kept down to 5 to 10 minutes. This leaves enough time to eat (No meal breaks scheduled) and not enough time to wander out of the venue to play football unsupervised - or other activites . Sometimes that policy results in playing 8 rounds in the day - players sometimes get a published grade on the Wednesday after their very first tournament.
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CS minimum grades were intially set at 600. This was reduced to 300 and then 100. More and more low level primary events were being submitted for grading. The idea was to set an easier target by which players could enter the system. The logic is the same as why FIDE reduced their minimum level from 2200 all the way down to 1000.
Juniors would then be encouraged to continue by getting feedback from their grading progress. Junior additions and natural strength increase means the vast majority of junior players go up in grade.
Despite the minimum level of 100 there are still over 1400 juniors in last few years have been unable to get a grade. Often this will be if they live in an area which does not have regular junior graded competition. You need 8 games and half a point.
Currently there are over 500 players with a grade below 600 - that's over one in five of whole CS G-list. There is quick turnover and dropout - we delete players under 600 immediately if they are inactive for a year. However these low initial grades are no impediment to progress for players who stick with the game. One of the Under_16 internationals at Liverpool had a 339 start grade.
CS processes all these thousands of games from exclusive junior events at no charge. The players can become fee payers once they graduate to weekenders and adult leagues.
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prtchess Wrote:One question I have is you've said about using clocks with 25 minutes each, presumably there is some time between rounds (for pairings etc.). If there is 7 rounds then you could be finishing at 7.30pm - that sounds a bit late. Are you relying on games finishing early, or do you aim to finish at say 5.30 and get as many games in as you can, or do you actually finish at 7.30pm
The number of rounds is flexible. Sometimes it will be reduced to 6 if time is running on. Sometimes we may start the rounds for the different grading groups at different times, so the u300 get 7 games and the the u1000 get 5 or 6 games. We would generally aim to get finished at 5.00/5.30 and have a prize giving.
