The problems with junior chess

[Neill Cooper]

Also Team Maths Challenge takes part during the day so teachers do not have to give up their own time. As Alex indicated above, school chess teams can have a problem finding a member of staff willing to give up their early evening for a school chess match. With Team Maths Challenge pupils and teacher have most of a day off school. That is acceptable for something like maths, or Spelling bee, but might not be for chess.

So chess is often caught between staff not willing to give up time after school, and schools not willing to have pupils miss lessons. Successful chess teams predominantly come from the independent sector where staff are expect to contribute to the extra-curricula activities at the school.

[Alex Holowczak]

With Team Maths Challenge pupils and teacher have most of a day off school. That is acceptable for something like maths, or Spelling bee, but might not be for chess.

This actually outraged me.

Whenever our school put on a drama production, or something like that, the cast would have a week or more off timetable to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to.

I once asked to hold the UKCC on a school day, held in the hall, starting at 0900ish and ending at 1630ish. It was not permitted. Think what holding the UKCC during the day would do for entries - children would be queueing up to play...

[Neill Cooper]

I once asked to hold the UKCC on a school day, held in the hall, starting at 0900ish and ending at 1630ish. It was not permitted. Think what holding the UKCC during the day would do for entries - children would be queueing up to play...

I don't think even as a teacher that I'd get permission for that ! I did have them queuing up anyway to play UKCC at lunchtime (95 played this year).

Our next National school match is 3 1/2 hours away in Norwich. I expect to get permission to take pupils out of school for it, but it is not definite as there are GCSEs and A levels around the corner. I know we are not the only ones with such long journeys, and it is similar to other inter-school sporting competitions, but it is a contrast to Team Maths Challenge.

So perhaps for chess we could consider an equivalent of the TMC: A one day regional jamboree. It could be done in an afternoon (2 to 5pm) with four rapid play games (15 mins each) and even a team quiz (solving chess problems and positions). Next step would be to try to run one. Actually, there is something like it in our area run by CCF and called Champions League. It is run on weekend afternoons and is popular with the primary schools where they train.

[Neill Cooper]

But only about 100 secondary schools enter the national schools chess tournament

Well, my old school were thinking of entering it. The problem we found was that staff weren't prepared to give up the time to take us everywhere - even though the first rounds were local. This was the major reason we didn't enter, a minor one was that we didn't like the age handicap rule. Without that rule, we'd have been much more inclined to pester. So it was an organisational issue for the staff, and the students weren't overly keen on it - even though our team was quite young for a secondary school, and the rule would have benefited us compared to our Birmingham rivals.

Age handicap has been significant this year in the national stages of the tournament:
Homefield Prep School won the National plate despite losing both the semi-final and final 2 - 4 (Thereby keeping the trophy in Sutton.)
I am pretty sure that Homefield are the youngest team to win the trophy.
Wilson's School and Manchester Grammar both got to the finals despite losing their quarter-finals 3½ to 2½
Wellington College retained the championship (with no age handicap involvement)
[Results can be found at http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/schoolsres.htm]

[Matthew Turner]

The age handicap did indeed have a huge influence this year. In the plate, Homefield won 4 out of their 12 games and emerged victorious. My team (Millfield) finished second despite winning 9/12. I guess we shouldn't complain because the team that finished third (King Edwards' Camp Hill) actually scored 10/12!
Over the last 3 or 4 years the age handicap has had a bigger and bigger role as the older teams have got weaker relative to the U11 teams. It is very difficult for an older team to beat a strong U11 outfit when they have to win 5-1.
I was concerned at the final that teams played dubious looking board orders, manipulated the age handicap and some just plain cheated. I would add that Homefield did none of these things and were deserved champions in the Plate. I think maybe we should look at age handicap in future years, but really the main thing is that teachers need to try a bit harder to play within the spirit of the rules and not just do whatever they can get away with in order to win.

[Alex Holowczak]

I guess we shouldn't complain because the team that finished third (King Edwards' Camp Hill) actually scored 10/12!

This annoyed the Camp Hillians I've spoken to. Their comments about the age handicap were not favourable.

I don't see the point of the handicap? So your team is a bit older than another school... so...?

[Neill Cooper]

I think the age handicap was introduced when the event was formed to encourage younger players, but by now the reverse is needed - ways of encouraging older school chess players. However, I would not expect this long standing rule to change in the near future.
At least there has been a change on the second team rule (if the second team are knocked-out team members can now play for the first team in the national rounds).

[Alex Holowczak]

I think the age handicap was introduced when the event was formed to encourage younger players, but by now the reverse is needed - ways of encouraging older school chess players. However, I would not expect this long standing rule to change in the near future.

This is the problem with rules, "We've had them for ages, so why change it now?" Even when there's evidence that it would be better to change, the rules never change until it's too late. This is true of age handicaps, adjournments...

[Neill Cooper]

I don't think the age handicap rule will be removed whilst the event is sponsored by a prep school.

[andrew martin]

Yateley Manor has no fixed views on the age handicap either way; we just leave it to the organizers. Speaking for myself I do have views about very dubious board orders in national schools finals just to manipulate the result. Teams should be asked to play in grading order, otherwise what is the point of having ECF grades in the first place?

[Alex Holowczak]

Teams should be asked to play in grading order, otherwise what is the point of having ECF grades in the first place?

Many of them don't have grades - at least from the aforementioned Camp Hill team. As far as I know, only two of them have grades. Another player had a rapidplay grade, but lost it in January.

Most of the teams around here aren't run by staff, they're run by students. The staff are there just to arrange transport and rooms, and often have little or no knowledge of chess. So, the students pick the board order. So rather than go by grade/strength, you just put the older players at the top, and the new(er) players, who might be just as good, go on boards lower down. The younger players are often more keen to just play, so stay out of board order negotiations. Given very few of them have grades, there isn't really a lot you can do about it...

[Alexander Hardwick]

Yateley Manor has no fixed views on the age handicap either way; we just leave it to the organizers. Speaking for myself I do have views about very dubious board orders in national schools finals just to manipulate the result. Teams should be asked to play in grading order, otherwise what is the point of having ECF grades in the first place?

I think "to manipulate the result" is a bit harsh here, and is based on the assumption that the higher ECF-graded player is always stronger than his lower-graded team-mates. If the school team thinks that one or more of their players are under-graded, and a truer reflection of playing strength could be achieved by moving these players to higher boards than their grades would suggest, then why stop them?

[Neill Cooper]

Yateley Manor has no fixed views on the age handicap either way; we just leave it to the organizers. Speaking for myself I do have views about very dubious board orders in national schools finals just to manipulate the result. Teams should be asked to play in grading order, otherwise what is the point of having ECF grades in the first place?

Thank you for that clarification, Andrew.
Last week there was an objection to one team's board order which looked perverse, but the arbiter, having consulted the player's new grades, allowed the submitted board order.
It is much more difficult with teams where players do not have grades, though I did not hear of any objections to Camp Hill's board order (who anyway were much weakened by having two team members representing England in the International Maths Olympiad).

[Ian Thompson]

Speaking for myself I do have views about very dubious board orders in national schools finals just to manipulate the result. Teams should be asked to play in grading order, otherwise what is the point of having ECF grades in the first place?

I think its generally accepted that juniors often plateau for a year or two, and then jump 20 - 30 points in a year. Any board order rule needs to allow for this.