21-09-2012, 07:12 PM
Joe,
You are of course correct in that other (particularly Eastern European ) teams are generally better than us. I have my U16 Olympiad hat on now and it was striking as you looked down our four boards together how "comfier" our opponents were compared to us in the incremental time control phase of the game. I had felt this was a real problem at my Euroyouth travels last year but it really brought it home when I was able to look at it in a team situation where our opponents clearly had an edge (sometimes a considerable one) on board after board playing beside each other. I am not for one second suggesting this is the route cause of any difference in standard. I am suggesting however, that there is a clear difference in ours and our opponents ability to deal with that particular phase of the game. I think there is enough support to suggest we explore this situation further. Phil mentioned earlier about the introduction of a small increment at the Primary Individual which seemed to cause no issues. I would be really interested to see some "experimenting" taking place at junior events along these lines.
Robin.
You are of course correct in that other (particularly Eastern European ) teams are generally better than us. I have my U16 Olympiad hat on now and it was striking as you looked down our four boards together how "comfier" our opponents were compared to us in the incremental time control phase of the game. I had felt this was a real problem at my Euroyouth travels last year but it really brought it home when I was able to look at it in a team situation where our opponents clearly had an edge (sometimes a considerable one) on board after board playing beside each other. I am not for one second suggesting this is the route cause of any difference in standard. I am suggesting however, that there is a clear difference in ours and our opponents ability to deal with that particular phase of the game. I think there is enough support to suggest we explore this situation further. Phil mentioned earlier about the introduction of a small increment at the Primary Individual which seemed to cause no issues. I would be really interested to see some "experimenting" taking place at junior events along these lines.
Robin.