Paignton Congress 2011

[Brendan O'Gorman]

England's best annual congress ended yesterday with its second highest level of entries. Results here: http://www.chessdevon.co.uk/HTML/congre ... n/base.htm. Photos here: http://tinyurl.com/Paignton-pics Many thanks to the organiser, Alan Crickmore, and the team of arbiters led by Ewart Smith.

[John Upham]

Brendan,

These are excellent photographs but I was curious about one thing. Do the photographs represent the age profile of the competitors?

I notice very few juniors in the photographs but have yet to scan the entry list.

It might be interesting to compare the age profile of say the wonderful e24e4 events with events such as the Paignton Congress.

Can anyone shed light on my queries?

[Alex Holowczak]

I notice very few juniors in the photographs but have yet to scan the entry list.

Is it really surprising that a one-game-a-day congress in the first week of the new school year doesn't attract many junior players?

I know of one 18-year old who lives in the area and is about to go to University, who played. University doesn't start until the end of the month, though!

I think there would be more junior players at London than Paignton because the timing is better (end of the school term, rather than the start), and the location; more juniors are based in and around London than Paignton, so won't require accommodation.

[John Hickman]

Brendan,

These are excellent photographs but I was curious about one thing. Do the photographs represent the age profile of the competitors?

I notice very few juniors in the photographs but have yet to scan the entry list.

At Paignton, I'm one of the Juniors

[Brendan O'Gorman]

There were three juniors (if Rob Thompson still counts as one) as far as I could see. As Alex says, Paignton coincides with the start of the new school term and is a week long congress, so it's hardly surprising that no juniors apart from a few boys from a local secondary school are able to play there. This in no way detracts from the congress's appeal; indeed, some would say it adds to it.

[Rob Thompson]

There were 4 juniors, if I still count: Me, Alex Billings, Freddy Sugden and Nathan Mills. Given that it's clashing with the first week of school it is perhaps unsurprising that there weren't more.