Certificate of Merit

[John Upham]

I'm sure you're right, Paul, at all levels. Watching the games in the Minor section of the Richmond Rapidplays, I notice small children of about 50-75 strength playing the Colle with White and the Caro-Kann or Scandinavian with Black. These are not openings you'd come up with without tuition: they have clearly been advised by well-meaning chess tutors to play 'safe' openings to avoid losing quickly by making tactical oversights.

I advise students to play main lines and once I have explained why they are normally happy to do so.

For those showing flair at endings then the Caro is a good choice IMHO.

I am confident that this is good advise for ambitious players especially juniors.

If the player is an adult late learner then I would make an assesment based on their attitude an attempt to provide appropriate advice.

[Neill Cooper]

I know Neill Cooper manages to get his players out regularly: perhaps it’s different if you’re asked by a schoolteacher?

Though quite a few of the Castles players are not my school pupils.

[Neill Cooper]

Please correct me if I am wrong but my impression of all the juniors I play nowadays is that they play with not very much flair.

Agreed. Richard J's comments have led me to focus on emphasising tactics for the coming year. Tactics are why I enjoy playing chess!

[Stewart Reuben]

There has always been this tendency towards a quick fix. Teach the pupils to play lines which do not teem with variations. Thus 1 e4 with 12 plausible replies for Black is a no no. Play the Colle or Stonewall Dutch or 1 d4 2 Nc3 systems to avoid mainline theory. So many repertoire books exist. Chess Openings for the Attacking Player. How does somebody starting out know? Probably more constructive would be Chess Openings for the Left-Handed Player. Or How to play the White Pieces in the Sicilian. Such a title is in itself a crime against chess.
Of course good teachers or coaches by taking a long-term view do not fall into these traps.
Stewart Reuben

[Richard Bates]

To the best of my knowledge, though, only two pupils did very much chess after leaving Sheen Mount, Tom Hinks-Edwards, an FM (I thought he’d qualified as an IM but apparently not) and yourself.

My sister and brother both played a fair bit. And there were a couple of players who got a chess scholarship to Millfield so presumably played a bit. Just for the record!

For those showing flair at endings then the Caro is a good choice IMHO.

I am confident that this is good advise for ambitious players especially juniors.

Tell them to play the Sicilian. Then they can enjoy themselves AND win the ending (if required). Also the great thing about the Sicilian is that it gives players huge scope for originality and variety, because there are so many different variations, yet all founded on similar basic principles. The Caro Kann can no doubt become very formulaic.

In general I doubt there is a need for ANY junior to be encouraged to focus so narrowly. When you spend your entire junior years playing the same openings it can be very difficult to switch and broaden your game. You either have to put in an enormous amount of work off the board (which you might not have time to do) or basically accept a significant reduction in strength for a couple of years whilst you gain experience in alien types of positions.

[Alex Holowczak]

Please correct me if I am wrong but my impression of all the juniors I play nowadays is that they play with not very much flair.

I find the exact opposite; older players I played last season around here play with no flair whatsoever. I've met each of these in my last 10 games or so of league chess:
1. d4 d5 2. c3
1. d4 d5 2. e3
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Be7
1. e4 e6 2. d3

The games tend to be largely positional affairs with very little going on; perfect for adjournments, I imagine. There are a few players who go for it, or play novel openings, but they are few and far between.

The most exciting games I come across tend to be against juniors. I've forewarned them of the solid-but-uninspiring nature of league chess, but I fear it may take the life out of their games a bit.

[Richard Bates]

Please correct me if I am wrong but my impression of all the juniors I play nowadays is that they play with not very much flair.

I find the exact opposite; older players I played last season around here play with no flair whatsoever. I've met each of these in my last 10 games or so of league chess:
1. d4 d5 2. c3
1. d4 d5 2. e3
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Be7
1. e4 e6 2. d3

The games tend to be largely positional affairs with very little going on; perfect for adjournments, I imagine. There are a few players who go for it, or play novel openings, but they are few and far between.

The most exciting games I come across tend to be against juniors. I've forewarned them of the solid-but-uninspiring nature of league chess, but I fear it may take the life out of their games a bit.

What's your objection to the King's Indian attack??? If it was good enough for Fischer...

(It does seem to me that the Colle is getting a slightly unfair kicking in this thread btw)

[Alex Holowczak]

What's your objection to the King's Indian attack??? If it was good enough for Fischer...

I just find it boring compared to 2. d4. Maybe it's because I'm more familiar with what to do after 2. d4...

Most of the time I've come across it, it doesn't end up as a King's Indian Attack. It ends up as Nf3, Be2, 0-0, c3, Nbd2, and the pawn never threatened to get to f4. I played one game at a Congress that did at least enter the realm of the KIA!

[Stewart Reuben]

Richard Bates >(It does seem to me that the Colle is getting a slightly unfair kicking in this thread btw)<
There is nothing wrong with the Colle. What is wrong is if a developing player plays only that and those type of openings. The need is to become familiar at an early stage with different types of positions. Thus the Exchange Ruy is fine and probably finer if mixed with the King's Gambit.
Stewart Reuben

[Neill Cooper]

One thing has always puzzled me. Why is it that St Paul's School, with nobody on the staff much interested in chess until relatively recently ...

I thought Mark Harvey had been there for many years, but perhaps he did not used to run chess.

[Stewart Reuben]

Neill I could well be wrong. Was he there during the period Speelman to Hodgson and Watson? There was certainly a keen master there in Kumaran's time.
Stewart Reuben

[Richard Bates]

What's your objection to the King's Indian attack??? If it was good enough for Fischer...

I just find it boring compared to 2. d4. Maybe it's because I'm more familiar with what to do after 2. d4...

Most of the time I've come across it, it doesn't end up as a King's Indian Attack. It ends up as Nf3, Be2, 0-0, c3, Nbd2, and the pawn never threatened to get to f4.

Certainly not. White rarely moves their f-pawn in the KIA. Putting the Bishop on e2 however is certainly entering the realm of passivity...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

While we are on the subject of chess in schools (I pity people who read these forums thinking that the subject lines mean anything), was the City of London School quite strong in terms of chess players at one point? I very vaguely remember going there to play a chess match for my school in 1993 or something. I think we lost.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

St Paul's was partly, I think, success breeding success. Once it had a reputation, parents of boys who were good at chess wanted to send them there. And in those days it was not difficult to do a lot of chess while being academically successful. These days, though, St Paul's is not especially strong.

Richard, if you can remember, how many of those at RJCC attended schools outside the borough? I lived in the borough of Richmond (still do), and went to both primary and secondary school in Kingston. But I remember quite a few RJCC members (at the secondary school level) being from further afield (probably because people expand their horizons when looking for a secondary school). Am I remembering it right?

[Kevin Thurlow]

"I long to see the excitement of watching a young Jonathan Speelman, Julian Hodgson or John Nunn sacrifice virtually all of their pieces to defeat much older players."

Or even a young Paul Littlewood! I remember watching John Nunn in a junior event destroying somebody's King's Gambit. I think he delivered mate on a5 in an early middlegame... I wished I could play like that (and still do).