English Chess Forum

It seems rather bleak to have just one coming through who is likely to make it to GM level.

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Sun May 23, 2021 10:51 am

It seems rather bleak to have just one coming through who is likely to make it to GM level.

What do you intend to do about that?

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Sun May 23, 2021 10:51 am

It seems rather bleak to have just one coming through who is likely to make it to GM level.

Don't worry, I'm still hopeful I will make it.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Sun May 23, 2021 11:01 am

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Sun May 23, 2021 10:51 am

It seems rather bleak to have just one coming through who is likely to make it to GM level.

What do you intend to do about that?

The chess in schools program (if it still exists) needs to be pushed through.

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Sun May 23, 2021 12:52 pm

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Sun May 23, 2021 11:01 am

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Sun May 23, 2021 10:51 am

It seems rather bleak to have just one coming through who is likely to make it to GM level.

What do you intend to do about that?

The chess in schools program (if it still exists) needs to be pushed through.

I don't think the issue is at entry and mid-level for juniors. Most tournaments under 11 are full of players, and clubs/coaches seem to be doing decently till the old grade of 120-140 I would say.

The issue as I see it it:

• 11+ prep which takes many junior off chess for 6-12 months
• Competing priorities from secondary age (including "coolness" of chess)
• Since professional chess is not a viable career, homework take precedence over chess for secondary children
• Lack of money in the system
• Lack of Barden style events to stretch the juniors
• More generally, it is difficult to get juniors to play 200+ stronger opponent which I believe is the sweet spot for growth. Online tends to match you against players of your own level, online tournaments are full of juniors (current 4NCL online congress open has 59% juniors). In a good 5 game congress, a junior will likely play only 1, or 2 if lucky, significantly stronger opponent.
• Lack of clubs geared at strong juniors (150-220+), with weekly classes and games. France's club allows for the likes of Maurizzi and Materia, give regular face to face and online coaching/games, all for a rather modest sum, if not subsidised. The Academy covers part of it, but is not as recurring as French clubs. The accelerator is limited to 10 players, and I am not familiar with the frequency of classes.
• Lack of club culture (at least where I live). French club operate on a season basis: you can't move clubs during the season (summer is a transfer window), and clubs go as a group to both team and individual events. This create a lot of team spirit and positive reinforcement when you are supported by your team. I rarely see club coaches supporting their teams at the British, UKCC or LJCC: in France and other countries, you'd have a group of 20-50 players and coaches per club, all giving each others advice and helping each others.

All of this still points towards a rather bleak future for chess in England.

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Sun May 23, 2021 1:21 pm

All of this still points towards a rather bleak future for chess in England.

I’d imagine to break out of the system they’d probably have to do something quite radical. In Tennis, Andy Murray at 15 moved to live and train at the Sánchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona. You’d probably have to do the equivalent of that in chess, if it exists somewhere in Europe. Apparently even at somewhere as hi-tec and professional as the Sánchez-Casal Academy, only 1% make it professionally afterwards.

"In Tennis, Andy Murray at 15 moved to live and train at the Sánchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona. You’d probably have to do the equivalent of that in chess, if it exists somewhere in Europe. "

It probably helped that his mum was a tennis coach as well!

I think Wadih's assessment is accurate, as well as bleak. I'm not sure that we should worry about online chess - it's been a necessary evil in lockdown, but I doubt it has much benefit for proper chess. Interestingly, when I did a it of coaching a few years ago, by far the most interested and hard-working player was the French lad, although there was a very determined girl from somewhere in Africa who would probably succeed at whatever she took on.

Do we still have a national schools league and cups?

As I've posted before, on my view it is sad that the BCF Junior Squad structure that used to exist is no longer present. There was a time when English junior development would have been among the strongest in the world, and then there seems to have been a 10-15 year period where something went wrong.

However, lockdown has resulted in cases of supercharged junior development; with extended school closures some juniors have played literally thousands of games at rapid or slower time controls (in some cases almost ten thousand), and so their level of praxis has developed far beyond what would have used to counted as normal for that age (I seem to recall Richard Bates speculating here at the beginning of lockdown that this would happen). Maybe this isn't outwardly evident yet, unless one is following online junior chess, but it has happened and is beginning to leak back into OTB chess (e.g I know of a 5-year old playing at over 100 ECF).

Briefly returning to the subject of world's youngest GM, it does look like Abhimanyu Mishra may break Karjakin's record:

https://en.chessbase.com/post/second-gm ... bhimanyu-2

Apparently, he has until 5 September to achieve a third GM norm and the necessary rating (the latter looks likely to be relatively easy, as he is currently close to that level):

https://en.chessbase.com/post/abhimanyu ... -the-title

See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhimanyu_Mishra

Some of those touting records are being a bit inconsistent in distinguishing between when final norms and rating levels achieved and when the title was officially awarded (bearing in mind that rating provisional titles are possible, but need to have actually been applied for!).

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