Attitudes

National developments, strategies and ideas.
Martyn Harris
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Joined: Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:15 am
Location: Kendal
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Re: Attitudes

Post by Martyn Harris » Fri May 09, 2014 12:06 am

I'm findng it difficult to find any views expressed by Sean's correspondent. He (though it could be she) did not enjoy the event as much as anticipated, with the large number of juniors being a significant contributory factor. Nowhere is the behaviour of the juniors mentioned, nor a suggestion that junior entries should be limited, nor that the event as a whole is second rate. He simply implies that events with large numbers of juniors are not what he is looking for. He could be wrong in assuming that the junior presence at the Easter Congress is indicative of the field at other e2e4 events, but any chessplayer who has ever lost a game knows they get things wrong sometimes.

We can only speculate at why the large number of juniors came as a disappointment. Maybe in his local league he plays lots of juniors and was looking for variety when all he got was more of the same.

Maybe he feels awkward around juniors. Some people do. Or feel intimidated by large numbers of them. Again not unknown.

Maybe he's the sort of player who enjoys a debrief and maybe the odd risque joke over a pint after every game. Not particularly possible with juniors.

Or he's hoping to form new friendships with people he can then have leisurely Saturday evening meals with at other events. Again large numbers of juniors may limit his opportunities.

Maybe he's a junior himself and was hoping to get a crack at more adults than turned out to be the case.

Of course we could say he should do this, or should do that, but he paid the entry fee, and possibly had transport and/or accommodation charges on top. I think he is entitled to decide where he spends his money. If the correspondent is reading this forum he might decide that in future he'll just send a terse "I won't be playing in any future xxxx events, so don't send me any details".

Meanwhile perhaps we should denigrate those who choose to play in senior events, thereby limiting options for juniors. And those who organise senior events for encouraging such separation on age grounds.

Can't help feeling that "Some players don't like events with lots of juniors" has as much shock horror impact as "Rain in the Lakes, Fellwalkers get wet".

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