Olympiad Goals

[Adam Bremner]

You have a point Adam, but if you can't play 15 game in 6 months, how are you going to be in condition to play 9 games in 11 days at a high level?

So John didn't play at a high level this Olympiad? Luke McShane can't play at a high level? Very tongue in cheek; I agree playing is important, but also there just isn't a practical environment in Scotland to allow them to rack up FIDE games against other "good players". 15 games against people much lower is pointless, it is partly about quality over quantity, and not shackling any selectors to a rigid number imho. You also have a tough decision on what the Olympiad is to CS, do we want our best players, or do we want our potentially best players further down the line, or do we want active players? Is it a reward for being the highest rated, or an opportunity to develop players? Is there a separate plan for Euros compared to Olympiads?

I gained my FM title by playing 100 games in 5 months financed by a combination of my club sponsoring me for 1 tournament, Friends of Chess for another, working a *not very nice* job and saving to pay for 3 or 4 more...

I have huge respect for you doing this, seriously. It is also essentially proof that access to games is hugely important, and disappointing that you had to travel to Eastern Europe to manage this because the environment just isn't there in Scotland. However, it is not a situation that everyone can manage. I'd like to think I have the ability to get FM, but also accepted I am extremely unlikely to due to the combination of a lack of time and money to do similar. There are people better than me/with much more potential in similar spots. It's no coincidence people get stuck around 2100/2200 in Scotland, which is why I think Andy Howie is onto something...

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.

Bingo. The Scottish is great, unless you can't make it for whatever reason (i.e. internship, not getting the holidays from work, other commitments). Winter Chess festival was fantastic, although unfortunately just a one off. I don't even think norm tournaments are that important, it is just getting games against other high rated players. Give the opportunity for players to get their ratings up. Is it better for Scotland to have a 2450 untitled player or an FM with norms? That is in no way meant as a dig, I just mean norms aren't something we should be obsessed by, we should be more concerned with being able to add +100/200/300 points on to people's strength and ratings. A possible solution, maybe a closed FIDE league over several weekends?