Thanks, JosephJoseph Conlon wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 10:30 amI am a great admirer of the wonderful work Richmond has done over the decades - and the Complete Chess Addict was my absolute favourite book as a child. However I felt, then and now, that clubs like Richmond are very good at developing a large pool of juniors who are competitive at the national level, but that further development to being internationally competitive requires national structures. So eg if in one age group Richmond has the nos. 5, 11, 14,17,18 out of the top 20, that is fantastic for one junior club but that no.5 player needs national groups for their full progression.Richard James wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2020 11:56 pmRichmond Juniors?Joseph Conlon wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2020 11:09 pm
I'm a bit sceptical of the idea that stronger local junior clubs are what are missing; I certainly don't remember them as a feature of the 1980s/1990s.
In a similar vein, I felt that Richmond's historic strength in EPSCA events doesn't necessarily lie in their top few boards, but the fact that there is very little drop off in quality below that.
Exactly that: we were aiming to build a chess culture by providing a place where children could go to play fairly serious chess, not to produce champions.