30-07-2013, 07:57 AM
Reality check needed here.
Girls Chess in Scotland is at its strongest for at least 10 years = as far back as my memory reaches.
Winning the Faber/Gilbert Cup 3 times in 7 years is a special achievement.
In 2012 For the first time ever a girl won the Primary Individual.
In 2013 Board one in the Glorney team for Scotland was a girl. It has been so long since this happened – perhaps never- that the rules accidentally stated this year that the Glorney is a team of 5 boys.
There have been occasions at CFK events where the girls averaged above 50% score. Which means the boys averaged below 50%. Number of girls playing CFK have risen compared with a few years ago.
Reality is that none of the 5 girls rated 1400 and above were available for the Faber.
That is the reason for the team finishing fourth.
There is not little point listing what the strongest boys and girls were doing instead of going to Wales. These are busy active people with demands on their time from outside the world of chess– did we really think they will sit around at home doing nothing during the tournament?
I read on another thread a reference to why Hamilton’s top junior did not go to the Glorney. Hamilton’s top junior (based upon current grade) is Daniel Thomas. Last year Daniel played at Daventry, this year Daniel declined to play and Daniel declined to give a reason to either of his parents for not playing. If he is the junior referred to on the other thread then comments about why he did not play are meaningless.
Failure to get the strongest players to turn up is an issue. This needs to be tackled. I will let others investigate but I am sure that David C was right to say that there are multiple reasons.
If in doubt ask the players and their parents. Write a questionnaire. Multiple declines appears to be a growing problem that hardly affected the Glorney teams of 2009 to 2011. I was not a selector for the 2012 event and I make no comment on that year’s teams.
The three girls that did play in the Faber team of 2013 were not highly rated in advance. Yet they gained much respect during the tournament. If I make one small assumption here (that one girl shares her brother’s coach) then I can state that those girls all have an established coach delivering coaching over the board at local chess club. Actually 3 different coaches at three different chess clubs. All three coaches I have no doubt were happy that their pupils had assistance in Wales from coaches of the calibre of Matthew and Heather.
Which makes it somewhat disrespectful to those 3 coaches to create and feed a thread based upon the concept that we must start coaching those girls around the country as they play a subset of the countries juniors.
Looks like there is going to be some real competition for the Faber places at next year’s event. Perhaps the solution will be to put 2 girls in the mixed Glorney team ?
In the run up to the 2013 Glorney one of those 3 girls achieved a draw with an 1800 plus player. Another one is now listed by FIDE at 1813 – it is a blitz grade but it came from 13 games and deserves respect.
Girls Chess in Scotland is at its strongest for at least 10 years = as far back as my memory reaches.
Winning the Faber/Gilbert Cup 3 times in 7 years is a special achievement.
In 2012 For the first time ever a girl won the Primary Individual.
In 2013 Board one in the Glorney team for Scotland was a girl. It has been so long since this happened – perhaps never- that the rules accidentally stated this year that the Glorney is a team of 5 boys.
There have been occasions at CFK events where the girls averaged above 50% score. Which means the boys averaged below 50%. Number of girls playing CFK have risen compared with a few years ago.
Reality is that none of the 5 girls rated 1400 and above were available for the Faber.
That is the reason for the team finishing fourth.
There is not little point listing what the strongest boys and girls were doing instead of going to Wales. These are busy active people with demands on their time from outside the world of chess– did we really think they will sit around at home doing nothing during the tournament?
I read on another thread a reference to why Hamilton’s top junior did not go to the Glorney. Hamilton’s top junior (based upon current grade) is Daniel Thomas. Last year Daniel played at Daventry, this year Daniel declined to play and Daniel declined to give a reason to either of his parents for not playing. If he is the junior referred to on the other thread then comments about why he did not play are meaningless.
Failure to get the strongest players to turn up is an issue. This needs to be tackled. I will let others investigate but I am sure that David C was right to say that there are multiple reasons.
If in doubt ask the players and their parents. Write a questionnaire. Multiple declines appears to be a growing problem that hardly affected the Glorney teams of 2009 to 2011. I was not a selector for the 2012 event and I make no comment on that year’s teams.
The three girls that did play in the Faber team of 2013 were not highly rated in advance. Yet they gained much respect during the tournament. If I make one small assumption here (that one girl shares her brother’s coach) then I can state that those girls all have an established coach delivering coaching over the board at local chess club. Actually 3 different coaches at three different chess clubs. All three coaches I have no doubt were happy that their pupils had assistance in Wales from coaches of the calibre of Matthew and Heather.
Which makes it somewhat disrespectful to those 3 coaches to create and feed a thread based upon the concept that we must start coaching those girls around the country as they play a subset of the countries juniors.
Looks like there is going to be some real competition for the Faber places at next year’s event. Perhaps the solution will be to put 2 girls in the mixed Glorney team ?
In the run up to the 2013 Glorney one of those 3 girls achieved a draw with an 1800 plus player. Another one is now listed by FIDE at 1813 – it is a blitz grade but it came from 13 games and deserves respect.