Paolo Casaschi wrote:
Would you mind explaining why a foreigner with a good knowledge of the English language would be less engaging to English juniors?
For example, I know plenty of English players that would not speak a word after a loss (or even a draw) to a lower rated player (junior or otherwise). It's a matter of nationality or just personal attitude?
I probably sounded more nationalistic than I intended to! Of course, there are some well-intentioned players originally from abroad (there's a great Spaniard on my 4NCL team), just as there are some English players that are just rude, to say the least.
I suppose I am only saying it based on personal experience, where it is a lot more relaxing in terms of communication with English/British players than compared to someone from abroad. Partly this is probably due to the fact that I am more likely to know my opponent in some way! It is a bit of a mixed bag really, depends on the person and how much stronger they are even if they won. I tend to find that 2100+ are far more likely to analyse games with you.
For example, in the recent World Deaf Team Championships in Opatija, I played 8 games (not counting the 5 move draw!) and probably only really analysed one game properly with my opponent without me having to ask.
One game was where a Board 2 player on the opposing team wanted to analyse my Board 1 game compared to my opponent!
Another game was where I had to really encourage my opponent to go through it with me! One final game was when we only really looked at the later stages of the game,(for about 5 minutes) which was perhaps fair enough since he simply blundered into a sneaky trap.
That's (very generously) 4 games analysed, and 4 games went unnoticed.
Depending on time constraints of course in terms of a weekend congress, a local league match in the evening and the 4NCL, but I would say that 90% of my games were analysed with the opponent.
A small sample admittedly, but it is just so much easier with 'home' players.