National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Discuss anything you like about women's chess at home and abroad.
Nick Thomas
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Nick Thomas » Sat Jul 09, 2011 7:58 am

Sabrina Chevannes wrote:Few things: Nick, it was Harriet doing the coaching (and that's Harriet Hunt, WGM/IM, our top female player, in case anyone else was wondering who this Harriet is). I did actually pay her, as I do with all my coaches as they are indeed professionals and deserve to be treated properly, but it was a modest amount and she deserves more as she did give up her day to travel to London to coach and enthuse all the girls. However, finances did not permit me to do this.

Gareth, the answer is indeed: "No, don't be silly!" Has no-one looked at the photo of Harriet coaching, with a dad and sibling present? This just shows she did cater for all. She only created a friendly tournament when there were many men and boys in there overwhelming the young girls. She didn't ban them, just kept them occupied whilst the girls were in there and during the rounds she would still help everyone.

There were no complaints on the day and everyone (men included) were very pleased with it, so I don't see any discrimination.

It did state, since it was a girls event that there was free coaching for all the girls, so there shouldn't be any problems with this. Yes, I do also arrange coaching for both sexes so I don't see myself discriminating against anyone. I just ran this event to encourage more girls to play and enjoy the game and I think we have all achieved this.

The event wouldn't have been so successful without the presence of great female role models such as Jovanka and Harriet so I thank them both for coming. So Gareth, feel free to bring Izzie along and I promise you won't get "kicked out" :)
Yes I put a note at the end of both posts just after 10.00pm last night when Alex H :!: sent me a PM to say I had got the person wrong. I don't think it changes the gist of what I was trying to say.
I'm glad Harriet was paid something for her work. If all coaches, organisers and arbiters insisted on being paid reasonably for their work it would focus the minds of players & parents of players. Good luck with the next event :D

Sabrina Chevannes
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Sabrina Chevannes » Sat Jul 09, 2011 9:14 am

Yes Nick, I agree - I feel that chess needs to be seen more professionally for a better approach and therefore all tournament directors, coaches, arbiters etc should be paid properly for the work they do. Those who don't run chess tournaments don't quite realise how much work is involved in order for things to run smoothly. The more manpower in a big event, the better. I could not have done things so well without my staff

David Sedgwick
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by David Sedgwick » Sat Jul 09, 2011 10:00 am

In what I hope is a constructive criticism, I'd like to return to a point I made when the event was first announced. I would urge that next year's event does not clash with the Finals of the Counties Championships. For many years it's been an objective of successive ECF Managers of Women's Chess to increase the number of women and girls playing county chess and it conflicts with that objective if a major women's and girls' competition is scheduled to take place on Finals Day.

I appreciate that this year's event had to be arranged at fairly short notice and was therefore more or less bound to clash with something.

Sabrina Chevannes
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Sabrina Chevannes » Sat Jul 09, 2011 10:19 am

David Sedgwick wrote:In what I hope is a constructive criticism, I'd like to return to a point I made when the event was first announced. I would urge that next year's event does not clash with the Finals of the Counties Championships. For many years it's been an objective of successive ECF Managers of Women's Chess to increase the number of women and girls playing county chess and it conflicts with that objective if a major women's and girls' competition is scheduled to take place on Finals Day.

I appreciate that this year's event had to be arranged at fairly short notice and was therefore more or less bound to clash with something.

David,

Since this was a junior event and not that many juniors played at the County finals and those who were, chose that over the girls' event, I chose not to clash with the Gigafinals and the EPSCA semi finals. They were all around this time and it was almost impossible to find a weekend. I thought it was a lot more sensible not to clash with these major junior events rather than the mainly adult Counties final.

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David Grobler
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by David Grobler » Sat Jul 09, 2011 3:37 pm

Sabrina Chevannes wrote:Yes Nick, I agree - I feel that chess needs to be seen more professionally for a better approach and therefore all tournament directors, coaches, arbiters etc should be paid properly for the work they do.
I couldn't agree more....but ...there's so little money available . It must be so difficult for almost anyone to make a living from Chess.... :(

Alex Holowczak
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Alex Holowczak » Sat Jul 09, 2011 3:42 pm

Sabrina Chevannes wrote:Since this was a junior event and not that many juniors played at the County finals and those who were, chose that over the girls' event, I chose not to clash with the Gigafinals and the EPSCA semi finals. They were all around this time and it was almost impossible to find a weekend. I thought it was a lot more sensible not to clash with these major junior events rather than the mainly adult Counties final.
I think this was a correct decision. Even if you lost one or two players to the festivities in Leicester, then OK it's not ideal. What makes the event financially viable is the mass participation element, and if everyone is playing in UK Chess Challenge Gigafinals or EPSCA events, then suddenly you don't have an event at all.

If anything, the clash with the English Women's Rapidplay was of more concern to the Counties Final, but its impact seems to have been minimal.

Sabrina Chevannes
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Sabrina Chevannes » Sat Jul 09, 2011 4:03 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote:
Sabrina Chevannes wrote:Since this was a junior event and not that many juniors played at the County finals and those who were, chose that over the girls' event, I chose not to clash with the Gigafinals and the EPSCA semi finals. They were all around this time and it was almost impossible to find a weekend. I thought it was a lot more sensible not to clash with these major junior events rather than the mainly adult Counties final.
I think this was a correct decision. Even if you lost one or two players to the festivities in Leicester, then OK it's not ideal. What makes the event financially viable is the mass participation element, and if everyone is playing in UK Chess Challenge Gigafinals or EPSCA events, then suddenly you don't have an event at all.

If anything, the clash with the English Women's Rapidplay was of more concern to the Counties Final, but its impact seems to have been minimal.
Yes that's right and I think those who I invited to play in the EWR (e.g. Susan Lalic) said that she couldn't due to prior commitments of the County final, so I think it was me that missed out on the players and not the county final.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Geoff Chandler » Sun Jul 10, 2011 10:45 am

Hi Sabrina.

You appear to be doing an excellent job in organising and coaching.

Any chance you could turn your talents to football before the women
end up with an even poorer record than the men at penalty shoot outs.

FIFA Women's World Cup (Semi-Final)

France 1-1 England (France won 4-3 on penalties) :(

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sun Jul 10, 2011 10:49 am

Geoff Chandler wrote:FIFA Women's World Cup (Semi-Final)
It was the quarter-finals.

Mike Truran
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Mike Truran » Sun Jul 10, 2011 10:56 am

They might have done a bit better if the England goalie hadn't made a habit of ambling to one side or the other of the goal around two seconds before the penalty taker actually made contact with the ball. Still, by all accounts she pretty much single handedly kept them in the game during normal time.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Geoff Chandler » Sun Jul 10, 2011 11:11 am

"It was the quarter-finals."

Nit Picker.

It was the Semi-Final to see who would get into the Semi-Final.

(only saw the two results so assumed (yes I know - an ass of u and me) it was the semi's.)

The good news:

Germany 0-1 Japan :)

Sabrina Chevannes
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Sabrina Chevannes » Sun Jul 10, 2011 12:26 pm

I saw!! So painful for the captain, but that was always going to happen! The captain had all the pressure on her, leading the team and then having to score to keep them into the game. I felt her pain and I can understand that pain in chess.

The similar sort of pressure is felt in team competitions

Simon Dixon
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Simon Dixon » Sun Jul 10, 2011 12:50 pm

Brendan O'Gorman wrote:
Simon,

Have a look here http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/schedule/27

As a general rule, I'd be inclined towards caution whenever tempted to make categoric statements about the law, even when provoked by a slightly impolite Mr H

Brendan, I take your point mate, the SDA can only be tested in court and may or may not set a precedent. As a male I will toe the party line and say no more on the subject.

Just make sure you do not tell any women to leave a room at a public event because they are the wrong gender. :wink:

Simon Dixon
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Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by Simon Dixon » Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:05 pm

If anyone reading this would like to sponsor chess, especially women's chess,
Not for me thank you, my niece is more than happy to play chess against men and women, in the same room as well. :lol:

LozCooper

Re: National Girls' Chess Championships - Success.

Post by LozCooper » Sun Jul 10, 2011 1:12 pm

Simon Dixon wrote:
If anyone reading this would like to sponsor chess, especially women's chess,
Not for me thank you, my niece is more than happy to play chess against men and women, in the same room as well. :lol:
Anyone happy to be in the same room as you clearly has a high level of tolerance :roll:

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