Residential Chess Camp in UK – August

[Jiri Hollan]

Can anybody recommend good residential chess camp held in UK in August
for kids of age 15 with ELO FIDE around 2000 points? Thank you for your advice.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Would that we had enough 15-year-olds with 2000 Elo for this to be worth creating.

[Richard James]

Would that we had enough 15-year-olds with 2000 Elo for this to be worth creating.

Indeed.

As it happens, the other day I compiled some figures on precisely this for a possible future blog post.

In the UK there are 31 players born between 1995 and 2001 with a FIDE rating of 2000 or higher.

Some figures from other Western European countries: Germany 147, Spain 122, France 86, Italy 51, Netherlands 36.

A couple of weeks ago John Foley and I, wearing our CSC hats, had a meeting with junior chess experts from France and Germany. They were concerned about how to break the news to all their talented teenagers that they probably weren't going to be able to make a living from chess. Our problem was that we had very few talented teenagers to whom to break that news.

This, to my mind, is the biggest scandal in English chess. Forget about allegations of plagiarism among chess columnists. Forget about the ECF's serial appointment of inappropriate Presidents. I've spent the past 20 years telling anyone who would listen to me that the main problem with chess in this country is the lack of strength in depth among teenagers.

If anyone with any influence in the ECF or elsewhere wants to know why this has happened and what can be done about it, I'd be delighted to talk to them.

[LawrenceCooper]

If anyone with any influence in the ECF or elsewhere wants to know why this has happened and what can be done about it, I'd be delighted to talk to them.

I can be contacted at [email protected]

[Paul Sanders]

As it happens, the other day I compiled some figures on precisely this for a possible future blog post.

In the UK there are 31 players born between 1995 and 2001 with a FIDE rating of 2000 or higher.

Some figures from other Western European countries: Germany 147, Spain 122, France 86, Italy 51, Netherlands 36.

Out of interest, what happens if you set the bar at 2100 or 2200?

And how does ENG compare for lower 100 point bands to some of our European neighbours?

There's an important piece of work about women and chess that suggests strongly that excellence emerges out of broad participation, but it could be that other factors are working against achievement, or simply that ENG players are either not interested or not able to play FIDE rated tournaments.

The women & chess reference is here:

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ ... /1659/1161

[Peter D Williams]

If anyone with any influence in the ECF or elsewhere wants to know why this has happened and what can be done about it, I'd be delighted to talk to them.

I can be contacted at [email protected]

Let's have this in the open.
Richard James has so much knowledge and understanding and it is time someone listened to him and took real action - if the ECFcan't or won't then who will?

[Richard James]

If anyone with any influence in the ECF or elsewhere wants to know why this has happened and what can be done about it, I'd be delighted to talk to them.

I can be contacted at [email protected]

Many thanks, Lawrence.

I'll send you my thoughts on junior chess and would be happy to meet you at any mutually convenient time and place.

[Roger de Coverly]

I've spent the past 20 years telling anyone who would listen to me that the main problem with chess in this country is the lack of strength in depth among teenagers.

Yet there's been a twenty year, probably longer, focus on Primary Schools chess. There doesn't seem much correlation between teaching chess at Primary School and bulk emergence of 2000+ or 175+ players at the age of 18. But with a few exceptions, there is little encouragement of chess at Secondary schools. That's not to say it's only chess, but hasn't there been a general decline in inter-school competitive activity?

[Andrew Martin]

What are you going to suggest Richard? That the talented kids and families move to Georgia, Armenia, Russia, India and the like?

To state that we do not have talented players is ridiculous. What we do not have is an education system that allows strong players to develop after the age of eleven, thirteen tops. The talented players are invariably very bright and get waylaid by many other activities, not to mention the exam system.

What we need is to develop some sort of training set-up, preferably administered by the ECF, which helps the children through the secondary school years. That takes money, we have little money. Parents pockets are only so deep.

I could go on at length, but this topic has been discussed many,many times and hits the wall at the education system every single time.

[Richard James]

There's been a focus on Primary Schools chess for the last 30-35 years. There is indeed little correlation between primary school chess and bulk emergence of 2000+ players at 18. The kids who are potentially 2000+ are those who are receiving appropriate support and encouragement at home.

It all has a knock-on effect. Because there are so few strong teenagers, there are few opportunities for them compete and socialise with their peers not just at tournaments, but at, for example, residential chess camps. This must be one reason why some very strong players such as Peter Williams stop playing.

You might want to promote chess as a learning tool in primary schools, as CSC are doing, and this is of course excellent and worthwhile for many reasons. But if you want to encourage young children to take a long-term interest in chess you need to promote chess in secondary schools along with a national network of junior chess clubs as centres of excellence.

If you want to use chess in primary schools as a means of finding and developing talent you need a national chess course with awards at various levels which will encourage young children to take the game seriously and provide parents and teachers with the resources to help their children.

[Andrew Martin]

http://englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/coun ... xcellence/


Maybe you were unaware of the scheme above. It is one of the ECF's best-kept secrets.

[Paul McKeown]

Speak with Sarah and Tim Kett. They run residential camps near Cardiff. See http://www.TSKChess.com/

[Richard James]

Andrew: your definition of 'Centre of Excellence' is not the same as mine. I'm talking about clubs (NOT schools as CoEs must be open to all) which take chess seriously, give children the chance to attend for several hours a week, provide world class group and private tuition, run tournaments to the highest professional standards, provide regular homework, provide advice and encouragement for parents, provide outreach services for schools in their area etc.. I'm not convinced that the ECF Centre of Excellence scheme is very much more than "Please Sir, can I be a Centre of Excellence?".

At present I suspect only 3Cs and Barnet Knights approach this, although there may be others I'm not aware of. Richmond Juniors used to approach this, but I don't think we do at the moment. I'm hoping we'll do so again in future, though.

Paul: Sarah and Tim Kett are very impressive and I'm sure their chess camps are brilliant. But I wonder how many 15 year olds, and how many 2000+ rated players attend. My data shows a grand total of zero Welsh players born between 1995 and 2001 with a rating of 2000+.

I'm currently in touch with a couple of expatriate families, both with fathers in the oil industry. The contrast between their children's experiences (in Azerbaijan and Bahrain) and what is on offer to children here in the UK is startling.

[Paul McKeown]

@Richard - you may be right, but maybe it's worth asking? I know for certain that they get many children coming from England to their residential courses.

[Andrew Martin]

Well, instead of talking about it Richard, criticizing others, why don't you set it all up?