European Youth Team Chess Championship 2015

[Mike Truran]

I'm sorry, but endorsing it was easy. The hard yards were put in by the parents and the players. But no doubt the ECF will claim this as a major coup when in fact they did f**k all to make it happen. See Leonard Barden's recent Guardian article about Adam's fantastic one-dayer, which makes much the same point about the gap between the ECF's rhetoric and what it actually does. Writing strategy papers and the like is one thing. Actually getting things done is something else entirely.

[Brian Towers]

Out of curiosity, is there somebody in the ECF with responsibility for juniors who has a list of names, phone numbers, email addresses who makes a point several times a year (or even once a year) to email / ring round asking "What are you competition plans over the next few months? What about these competitions? We have such and such sponsorship lined up for competitions x and y, your son / daughter would be eligible for this amount of financial help."

[LawrenceCooper]

I'm sorry, but endorsing it was easy. The hard yards were put in by the parents and the players. But no doubt the ECF will claim this as a major coup when in fact they did f**k all to make it happen. See Leonard Barden's recent Guardian article about Adam's fantastic one-dayer, which makes much the same point about the gap between the ECF's rhetoric and what it actually does. Writing strategy papers and the like is one thing. Actually getting things done is something else entirely.

JIm Wadsworth is also the ECF Junior Directorate Business Manager so any concerns that the ECF may have had about endorsing the team would have evaporated knowing that he was involved.

From my all too brief involvement as Junior Director it was clear that we have some fantastic people in the Junior Directorate who spend an enormous amount of time in making things happen and will continue to do so. They don't match the description above and their sole aims are to help improve the junior chess scene. There are perhaps others in the ECF that fit Mike's description but I'm not aware of any in the junior set-up.

[LawrenceCooper]

Out of curiosity, is there somebody in the ECF with responsibility for juniors who has a list of names, phone numbers, email addresses who makes a point several times a year (or even once a year) to email / ring round asking "What are you competition plans over the next few months? What about these competitions? We have such and such sponsorship lined up for competitions x and y, your son / daughter would be eligible for this amount of financial help."

Yes, this did/does happen.

[Mike Truran]

Lawrence, that's good to hear and I stand corrected on the junior front. I clearly misunderstood Roger's earlier email as meaning that ECF officials had had nothing to do with the organisation of the event.

[Jim Wadsworth]

Lawrence, that's good to hear and I stand corrected on the junior front. I clearly misunderstood Roger's earlier email as meaning that ECF officials had had nothing to do with the organisation of the event.

To be clear, the majority of organisation of this (i.e. putting the team together, sorting out transport etc.) has been done by parents (including me in my 'parent hat' as distinct from my 'ECF hat'...).

ECF was as I have said elsewhere more than happy to support as soon as we (parents) asked it so to do. For example, as required by the event regulations the registration paperwork was submitted by the ECF; and relevant fees and other payments were made by the ECF (with parents reimbursing the ECF). That support from the Federation is much appreciated by the team.

[Jim Wadsworth]

If we can get back to the chess now, final round has England white vs Estonia. Estonia have paid the boys the compliment of putting out their strongest line-up.

1 ENG Horton, Andrew P - Ladva, Ottomar EST 1
2 ENG Haria, Ravi - Sirosh, Ilja EST 2
3 ENG Wadsworth, Matthew J - Petrov, Dmitri EST 3
4 ENG Claridge-Hansen, William - Chukavin, Kirill EST 4

As usual the games start at 3pm local / 2pm UK.

[Jim Wadsworth]

I am assuming on the live boards (http://eytcc2015.eu/en/live-open-match-6/) that the games are correct and it is just the names that are incorrect (given that the names are duplicates of those in the Poland 1 v Austria match (match 5))....since I am in the UK not on the ground in Poland not much I can do about it (I have alerted the parents who are travelling with the team).

[Jim Wadsworth]

I am assuming on the live boards (http://eytcc2015.eu/en/live-open-match-6/) that the games are correct and it is just the names that are incorrect (given that the names are duplicates of those in the Poland 1 v Austria match (match 5))....since I am in the UK not on the ground in Poland not much I can do about it (I have alerted the parents who are travelling with the team).

Seems to be sorted out now - well done Mrs Haria for letting the organisers know!

[Carl Hibbard]

Nice coverage by Jim too many thanks.

[Jim Wadsworth]

Newsflash from Poland:

Andy drew
Matthew and Ravi won
Will lost

So the final match is won 2.5 - 1.5. Many congrats team!

[Mike Truran]

An excellent overall result by the team, with every player contributing. Well done to the players, parents and organisers (and the ECF )

[Jim Wadsworth]

Still waiting for the organisers to post the final results onto the website; the closing ceremony is due to have just started as I type this.

Meantime the team asked me to post the following: "thanks all for the great support and well wishers back home, the boys have had the most fantastic experience and more than anything have enjoyed playing as a team".

[LawrenceCooper]

An excellent overall result by the team, with every player contributing. Well done to the players, parents and organisers (and the ECF )

I'll second that, I'm always very impressed with a player/team who bounces back from a disappointment in the previous round and so it's very satisfying for them to finish with a win.

[Jim Wadsworth]

Round 7 results: England 2,5 - 1,5 Estonia

1 ENG Horton, Andrew P ½ - ½ Ladva, Ottomar (2434)
2 EST Sirosh, Ilja (2314) 0 - 1 Haria, Ravi
3 ENG Wadsworth, Matthew J 1 - 0 Petrov, Dmitri (2162)
4 EST Chukavin, Kirill (2096) 1 - 0 Claridge-Hansen, William