The future - 2011 and beyond.

[Alex Holowczak]

I agree with above comments that there are too many different junior organisations running different junior chess events. Perhaps that is the answer to the junior directorship. Is a way forward to have some sort of junior chess committee which merges all of these events/schemes. The Junior Director would perhaps Chair this Committee. It might be a good way of delegating the tasks of the Directorship out.

I have a question about the coaches. Most current English coaches make their money in schools by coaching up to 10 schools per week. They might send out fliers to schools, advertising their strength of play and/or their ECF Accredited Coach status. Why should ECF Accredited Coaches be motivated to become FIDE Trainers? The schools at which they teach most likely wouldn't know the difference between a national accreditation and an international one; indeed their ECF accreditation might not be that important, either. The schools would just be happy they have someone who is running chess for them. Obviously having FIDE Trainers is a good thing, but I'm wondering how you sell that point to the coaches.

[andrew martin]

I read an interesting interview with Michael Adams where he said that we didn't have a real 'chess culture' in England anymore. Chess is not recognised as a sport and the government doesn't really support us.

This struck an immediate chord with me and I think it's the primary reason we are lagging at junior international level. There is very little inspiration for anyone,let alone kids,to prioritize chess over other activities.

We have to make an effort to regain this chess culture. Obtaining international coaching titles is just one positive way. Moreover we are not just talking about coaching in schools. Of course one could say" why do I need these titles" , but to me that is a negative and insular way of looking at the overall situation.


To academies now. Adam states this is happening all over the country already. Well all this activity is not reflecting itself in the creation of outstanding young players nor the attraction of sponsors to chess.

[Neill Cooper]

I will have to think about it more carefully if people see it as a good idea. My initial feeling is that these academies would have to be self-financing right from the off, but a cash injection of something like £5,000 per location would get them going. Obviously, each academy would have a well-qualified committee who would decide how best to spend this money, which would in effect be a sponsored start.

The priorities would be:

1) To encourage and develop junior chess throughout the region. To give support to schools where necessary.

2) To run regular tournaments and coaching at a central location. Properly done, this should raise a lot of money.

3) To play against each other in a national academy league.

4) To give support to the Junior Director and his or her assistants wherever needed.

5) To actively seek sponsorship within the region concerned.


OK, this is a start off the top of my head.

Andrew
Thanks for all the ideas. The list above is what the academies would do, and their general aims but what would be their specific aims and objectives? For instance, would you be focusing on the top U11s in the area, the top players of all ages, or any enthusiastic player of any age (even adults?)? What sort of range of abilites and ages would you hope would attend? If you just advertised a coaching day I'd expect mainly U11s whose parent's would think it a good thing, and very few over 11s who are more likely to decide for themselves.

I've looked at the FIDE syllabus which seems relevant to the top juniors in the country but perhaps not the majority who don't get far past ECF 100 grade. They also talk about academies being FIDE accredited and you mentioned international coaching titles - would you hope that the UK would have more than one FIDE registered academies and many coaches? How many do other countries have?

As others have mentioned, an important aspect would be to work with existing organisations in the area. It would also be worthwhile to look at where the academy approach is already working in this country (for instance Kent JCA) to see what could be learnt from these existing UK initiatives.

[Alex McFarlane]

Many years ago I looked at introducing a chess Coaches title in Scotland similar to that in operation for arbiters.

I found that it was going to be very difficult to implement due to the wide variety of qualifications that I considered to be necessary.
Whilst every Coach needs basic teaching skills the target audience will require to be handled in different ways depending on age and ability.
I envisaged a coach and senior coach title but with an indication of the coaches 'speciality'. The target areas I saw were:
Teaching Teachers to teach chess (possibly also coaches)
Teaching young beginners
Teaching adult beginners
Teaching 1200-1500 juniors
Teaching 1200-1500 adults
Teaching promising juniors
Teaching promising adults
Teaching international class players.

The last 3 might be covered by the FIDE qualification but I strongly feel that all of the others should be a national qualification.

I also felt that part of the qualification process, probably at senior coach level, should involve a 1-3 day course in sport motivation. Unfortunately I was unable to find such a course anywhere in Britain. (Anyone know of such a course?)

I'm not sure that Andrew's idea of running a course aimed at trainers in general will satisfy the need as the material which would need to be covered is vast. I do think that one aimed at teaching beginners would be very useful. Another thing which would be useful is for current coaches to suggest methods that they have used which were successful and those that weren't, with a veiw to disseminating good practice.

[andrew martin]

Alex is completely correct; this is a huge topic and therefore has to be broken down into manageable chunks.

Firstly , the coaching of total beginners is covered by COM. It is set up and designed precisely for that purpose.

Regarding FIDE titles the lowest level of Development Instructor could be achieved by literally hundreds of people all over the UK.

I mentioned the idea of Academies a couple of years back but with £0 in the coaching budget haven't had the motivation to give it a try.

So I am willing to experiment with it and see if it works. How about someone from the NE ( Northumberland,Durham,Yorkshire) getting in touch and we can talk about whether the project can be done? We could run a pilot in that region.

[Krishna Shiatis]

I have an idea with regards to the training. It is a starting point which may well help the majority of kids.

What you could possibly do is to set up a central academy in a central location with good rail and travel links. It could have two possible venues – Birmingham and London. The venues which Sean uses for his e2e4 competitions are very good and have excellent accommodation (Uxbridge and Amersham) .

You could then invite the top 20 (per ECF grade - as many juniors do not yet have FIDE grades) in each age group (I am talking FIDE age groups as per sections in International tournaments).

For example, you could invite 20 Under 8s and 20 Under 10s and 20 U12 etc etc all the way to U18s. That is 6 groups in total.

The price per day could be £15 (Just as a starter) – this would fit most people’s budgets. You would ask for payment quarterly in advance. If they do not pay by a certain time, they can not come. This saves on chasing time.

This is a total of 120 kids. If a child turns down the invitation, you go to the next child in the list. The total revenues from this would be (120 x £15 = £1800). You would need to cover the cost of venue and the cost of trainers for 6 classes.

The training could be once a month – for example the first Saturday of every month.

The parents would be responsible for organising travel, accommodation and food.

It would require the e-mail addresses of the top juniors and somebody to organise venue and trainers. Once the venue is a regular booking, the admin would reduce.

The advantages of having a central location are:
1) All the best players would train together regularly.
2) There would be 12 days of regular chess training per year with decent coaches for the children who are keen.
3) Everybody would improve together and you would have strong national squads.
4) It would encourage more participation.
5) It would raise the profile of chess for juniors.

Once this basic model is set up then you can expand it where there is demand. For example in the U12 group, if you have 40 or 60 or even 80 children who would like to have regular quality chess training, you could then set up extra classes each time you have enough to make it cost effective and you have the appropriately qualified trainers. Put all the keen children on a list and keep it updated.

The aim is not to exclude, but to start somewhere and then to gradually expand and include as many as possible.

The entire operation could be self financing from the get-go and the John Robinson funds could then be used to get some of the top GMs to make guest appearances to coach.

There are disadvantages for children who live far away. However, it is just one day a month and could be fun and for those who are keen, they would attend.

There are possible holes in this scenario (I can think of a few myself already) – however it would be something which could start the ball rolling

[Rob Thompson]

What you could possibly do is to set up a central academy in a central location with good rail and travel links. It could have two possible venues – Birmingham and London.

London as central? Central to what?

Birmingham and Manchester would be a better split that this. To suggest Birmingham as servicing the North is, quite frankly, geographically ridiculous.

[andrew martin]

Krishna's vision is an excellent one and it was something like this I had envisaged for ALL the regions mentioned.

I thought starting with the NE was a perfect pilot project. It would please me greatly to see a solid stream of excellent young players coming from that area. Heard nothing from any potential organisers yet though.....

Give it a few years and standards should rise dramatically across the board. We will then be able to go to the major championships with strong expanded squads.

it should give coaches across the length and breadth of England more work opportunities too.

[Krishna Shiatis]

Krishna's vision is an excellent one and it was something like this I had envisaged for ALL the regions mentioned.

I thought starting with the NE was a perfect pilot project. It would please me greatly to see a solid stream of excellent young players coming from that area. Heard nothing from any potential organisers yet though.....

Give it a few years and standards should rise dramatically across the board. We will then be able to go to the major championships with strong expanded squads.

it should give coaches across the length and breadth of England more work opportunities too.

Looking at it from a national perspective, the problem with making it regional is that all the top children are not together. This means that the standards will vary much more significantly within a class. If the project is national with one academy in one location, all the top juniors would be together. It is important to have them all in one place, as the improvement will be more rapid and there is more co-ordination at the top.

It is interesting that we had exactly this discussion in Kent at the beginning of the summer (obviously on a much smaller scale). We wanted to set up an academy but where to have it? Kent is such a vast county, how could we accommodate everybody?

In the end, we looked at where the demand was and where the majority of the children were based and how to get the best coach/coaches. We did find that for those children who lived further away and were keen, that they did come anyway. I know it is untimately not fair on those that are further away, but if the project is to be financially viable, then you do need to cater for the needs of the many.

I can not help but notice that the majority of the top junior chess players (and therefore perhaps the most likely to sign up?) live in and around London (Barnet, Middlesex, Essex etc), in the southern counties (Surrey/CCF, Kent, Sussex etc) and in middle England (Berkshire, Bucks, Notts, Herts, in and around Birmingham etc). I do not know why that is, but it does appear to be the case. Therefore it makes business sense to have the centre somewhere around there.

Obviously, the concern would be that the children from the north/elsewhere might be disadvantaged. Once again, I would say that it would only be for one day per month and that if they were keen, it would be fun and worthwhile. The business end has to make sense, otherwise you can not start anything.

[andrew martin]

It is precisely the stimulation of junior chess in areas away from the south-eastern area that I think is so important. But if there are no takers or interest in the idea, then we will have to revert to the south..

[Angus McDonald]

An important factor for parents of junior chess players and their children are the opportunities which can be aspired to in chess.

This means opening up opportunties for more juniors to play at higher levels.

The progress of junior chess players should not just be about coaches and their aspirations. The parents are funding nearly everything and their hope and aspirations should be one of the primary considerations also.

Some seem to doubt that parents have their children's best interests at heart but I can assure you that nearly all do.

If you are going to create a vibrant grass roots system it has to have something to grow towards and aspire to.

This year a child who is currently ranked 57th in the WORLD in his agegroup wasn't selected to play for his country at either the European Youth or World Youth. What message does that send out to the parents of the juniors who do all the funding of their children playing in junior Chess tournaments? If your child doesn't jump through the right hoop at the right weekend they are out!?

Please think about this. The more opportunities to play at the highest levels the best for everyone.

A pluralistic approach will lead to more participation, more interest and more opportuntities for organisers,coaches and players alike.
Involve as many people as possible and invite participation in all processes not as subordinates but as stakeholders.

The parents and juniors are already making a massive contribution towards chess because it is a very worthwhile pastime and still the best game in the world.

Two of my children play for Scotland and here opportunities are being opened up for more to play. This will be healthy for the future of chess in Scotland.

regards,
Angus McDonald

[Roger de Coverly]

If your child doesn't jump through the right hoop at the right weekend they are out!?

If I were asked, as an adult player, what I believed was the ECF's policy towards international junior selection, it is as you state it.

[andrew martin]

I'm not going to discuss selection on this thread under any circumstances. That can wait for a bit.

[Mike Truran]

Well done Andrew - you spotted the cunning attempt to take the thread off piste!

[Angus McDonald]

Hey!

Andrew, I don't blame you for not wanting to discuss it