My concerns over junior grades were based on individual perverse grades not means. It will be interesting to see which juniors have had their grades fall by more than 10 points. In the January rapidplay grade list various improving juniors I know fell by over 15 points. Also, I know lots of juniors who play between 5 and 15 games a season, only against other juniors, who might well have unusual changes as they are being treated as new players each year. They are the ones where I am concerned about, not the top juniors who play in leading adult tournaments. My suggestion was that only those who play over 20 or 30 games a season should have their grade reset.Sean Hewitt wrote: There are 697 junior players who had a standard play grade in 2009 and 2010 (I was staggered by how few players in this category there were). The changes in those players grades ranged from a drop of 30 points to a gain of 65 points. This is almost the same as the adults The mean average change was an increase of 7.8, and the median change was an increase of 6. 35 players lost more than 10 grading points, playing an average of 16 games (5.0%). 263 players gained more than 10 grading points (37.7%), playing an average of 34 games.
Junior grades are sufficiently unreliable that the ECF Chief Arbiter thought it acceptable for a team in the Final of the National School tournament to play a 138 on board 3 and a 169 on board 6. http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/schoolsres.htm
