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Yes, looking at the website ,Andrew Green has pictures of Freddy but I don't see any mention of Rishi.
How many of these juniors are there? A whole team ?
I thought you said Scotland had gone backwards but it looks like the opposite.
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This is not new, this has been a feature of Scottish chess for some time, but these talented junior haven't progressed beyond a certain point. Unless something has changed then I fear that Rishi and his contemporaries will go the same way.
To my mind there are a couple of things that could have changed.
1. We've had a pandemic and serious online chess has become a thing so this might overcome the deficiency in Scottish OTB events
2. With respect to the talented juniors of the past decade, Freddie Gordon is probably a class above them and he might act as an inspiration for a group of player to move forward.
I don't think either of those things are assured to happen and make a difference.
As I have said elsewhere, I think there are small things that lot of people can do which will ultimately be assured to make a difference.
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Local rivalry may also spur some of them on as it did with Motwani and McNab.
First get better to beat the local opposition and then challenge the world.
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We need two kind of saviours in Scotland, the more the better.
A The trainer type e.g. Andrew Green , Matt Turner
B The organiser type e.g. Alex McFarlane , Andy Howie
In the 1970s type B John Glendinning , Walter Munn helped me at junior level ( I had no type A, I trained myself !)
In the 1980s type A trainers Paul Motwani & Andy Martin helped me along to IM title.
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We are wandering off topic.
Lack of affordable venues is a major problem.
Lack of publicity is another.
Publicity has always been difficult but with no chess columns in newspapers it is now almost impossible.
Possibly someone with a social media presence to promote local achievements is needed.
With media coverage comes sponsorship.
With media coverage we also have more players.
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A big thank you to everyone involved in organising this congress.
Despite my disappointing results, I really enjoyed being back at a real chessboard and seeing people again.
It looks like the platinum jubilee event is actually taking place, so I'll be checking if I can make it down again.