Adrian Ociepka wrote:Welcome everyone,
I have read other topic "Open letter ..." and as I see that some of you would like to know what kind of selection policy is in diffrent countries, for example in France or Germany. I dont know how they are doing that , but I'm able to give example how it works in one of the central european countries – Poland .
Before that I should explain some details about juniors chess there in general.
The main juniors event in that part of Europe are National Finals - Polish Juniors Chess Championships. Playing there means prestige, respect the local community from which derives the player and best opportunity to play demanding tournament. All age groups are playing separetly, boys and girs separetly as well (same way in qualify competitions).
All the examples including number of players from carrent 2010 events.
UNDER 8
Open to all players, April/May, 60 minutes per game per player, 9 rounds - 4 days
This year participants: boys – 60 players, girls - 22 players
UNDER 10 & 12
Qalification necessary, March, 90 minutes + 30 seconds, 11 rounds – 9 days
B10 – 58, G10 – 54, B12 - 48, G12 – 49
UNDER 14
Qalification necessary, restricted up to 46 players, April/May, 90 minutes + 30 seconds, 10 rounds – 8 days
B14 – 46, G14 – 46
This is very a special event, because is a part of National Junior Olympics (other sport disciplines as well) and because all the bills pays Polish Goverment, and exactly Ministry of Sport and Tourism via Polish Federation of Youth Sports. That means all players have free food and accommodation in good standard hotel as well as 1 coach per county (in Poland is 16 counties). The drawback is that this event is 1 round shortest then U10 & 12 or U16 & 18 championships.
UNDER 16 & 18
Qalification necessary, March, 90'/40 + 30' + 30 sec., 11 rounds - 9 days
B16 – 50, G16 – 41, B18 - 43, G18 – 41
To play in the Under 10, 12, 14, 16 or 18 Finals players must qualify via a qualifying event.
Each player have several opportunities to qualify to the finals:
From current Final to the next
5 best players each age each group qualify to next finals, (for example from G14 - 5 best girls born 97 and 5 best born 96).
‘First Chance Tournement’
June, 90 minutes + 30 seconds, 7 or 9 rounds or round robin (depends on number of entries) – 7 days
Number of qualification places: U10,12,16 – 3 per group; U14 – 1 per group
There is no U18 groups.
Total participants this year: 153
This tournement starts immediately after schools year and is first “holiday†opportunity to get qualification. School year starts 1st of September and ends late June. But there is no so many breaks like in Uk during the year.
Junior Leagues
July, 90'/40 + 30' + 30 sec, 9 rounds – 9 days,
Each team consist: 2 boys U18, 2 boys U14, 1 girl U18, 1 girl U14 + substitutions
There is 3 national leagues:
EXTRALEAGUE – 10 strongest teams, round robin tournement – 63 players this year
1-st LEAGUE – 10 teams, round robin – 72 players
2-nd LEAGUE – swiss system, open to existing 2nd league teams + county team champions, 29 teams in 2010 – 196 players
Leagues are very important team events, but there is no many qualification places for individual Finals. Each winner each board of each league will qualify if the winner did not qualify before. All leagues running at the same time, but at 3 diffrent venues (and diffrent towns).
Semifinals (Inter-counties Championships)
September / October, 90 minutes + 30 seconds or 90 (120) minutes per game per player, 9 rounds or round robin (depends on number of entries) – 7 days,
Number of qualification places: U10 – 5 per group; U12, 14, 16, 18 – 4 per group
Participants: 870
There is 8 semifinals. Two counties meet together in each semifinal. This is the most popular and biggest opportunity for players to qualify to the Finals. Tournements are pretty prestigeous for players, important for clubs and local chess communities. But these tournaments have their wade as well, especially in groups G16 and G18 due to the small number of players (girls) in some cases.
‘Last Chance Tournement’
November/December, 90 minutes + 30 seconds , 7 or 9 rounds or round robin (depends on number of entries) – 7 days
Number of qualification places: U10, 12 – 4; U16, 18 – 3; U14 – depends how many places is still available
Total players: 123
The last chance to qualify over the chess board for the finals for well motivated players.
Wild cards
1 additional player per group (excluding U14) might be nominated by the Vice President for Youth PCF after consulting the Commission of Youth, Youth Chess Academy and Chief of Training Association.
From practical point of viev FINALS are pretty good tournements with competitive chess. Sometimes well motivated players, but simply not good enough are out of the competition year after year. That means that at the top of each age group there is not occasional players.
Now ... who is selected to the Worlds and Europeans.
JUNIOR SELECTION POLICY (shortcut)
1 World and European Youth Chess Championships
1.1 The right to participate in the WYCC, together with financing the full cost of the take-off, including the care of coaching, with the participation of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism are groups of players under the age of 14, 16 and 18:
a) WYCC and EYCC medalists of previous year
b) Polish junior champions, whose international ranking (ELO for 2-4 months before the first round of the championships), ranked in the top twenty list of the previous world championships,
c) the reigning EYCC medalist (if EYCC were held before the WYCC, and between the end of the EYCC, and the first round of WYCC is a minimum of 14 days).
Their full funding must be approved by the Ministry of Sport and Tourism.
1.2 The right to participate in the EYCC with the full cost of financing the take-off, including the care of coaching, with the participation of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism are groups of players under the age of 14, 16 and 18:
a) WYCC and EYCC medalists of previous year
b) Polish junior runners-up, whose international ranking (ELO for 2-4 months before the first round of the championships), ranked in the top twenty list of the previous EYCC,
c) the reigning Junior WYCC medalists (if WYCC took place before the EYCC, and between the end of the WYCC, and the first round of EYCC is a minimum of 14 days).
Their full funding must be approved by the Ministry of Sport and Tourism.
1.3 The right to partially finance the cost of starting from its own resources of Polish Chess Federation and resources of event organizer (if available) are:
a) the players mentioned in clause 1.1 and 1.2 who have not obtained approval of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism
b) the players named in clase 1.1b and 1.2b, who do not meet the requirement of ranking,
c) at the WYCC - Polish Junior Champions U12, U10 and U8,
d) at the EYCC- Polish Junior Runners-up U12, U10 and U8
By partially finance to be understood cover the cost of food and accomodation.
1.4 The right to participate in the WYCC at their own expense are:
a.) The players who finished 3rd or 4th in Polish Championships ,
b.) The players who have attained high sporting results or rankings in other international tournaments, the equivalent of the achievements in the Polish Championships,
c.) Fast progressive and promising players who are members of Youth Chess Academy of Polish Chess Federation
1.5 The right to participate in the EYCC at their own expense are the players mentioned in section 1.4, and those who finished 5th or 6th in Polish Championships
1.6 If Polish Chess Federation has free own resources or will receive from the organizer additional free places can support players listed in 1.4 - 1.5.
2 European Junior Team Championships U18 and World Olympiad U16
2.1 Participation depends on the PCF resources
2.2 European Junior Team Championships U18 - Polish Junior Champion B18 and G18, B18 and G18 with the highest ELO rating, and the players nominated by the Vice President for Youth PCF after consulting the Commission for Youth, Youth Chess Academy and Chief of Training Association.
2.3 World Olympiad U16 - Polish Junior Champion U16, junior U16 with the highest ELO rating, and the players nominated by the Vice President for Youth PCF after consulting the Commission of Youth, Youth Chess Academy and Chief of Training Association.
How it works:
EYCC Georgia 2010 – 16 players
http://chess-results.com/tnr38342.aspx? ... -1&wi=1000
WYCC Greece 2010 – 39 players
http://chess-results.com/tnr39565.aspx? ... -1&wi=1000
Unofficial rule is that if Champion of any age group prefer to go to Europeans, the runner-up will be selected to the Worlds. Sometimes if trip is very expensive (Ministry is always happy to funding less - for the satisfaction of football players) or is risky for health reasons (2 years a go WYCC in Vietnam) most players might choose the second possibility. Georgia this year was’t very attractive, perhaps because of cockroachs.
All of participants (including players, parents, coaches) are part of 1 team. No matter who pays the bills.
One more thing is important in my opinion - selection of coaches. They must be approved by the federation of course. But the first who have to give a name of a coach are the players. Selected players have right to 1 coach per 3 players and they are choosing wich coach is best for them. Usually they known each other very well. Players who pay their own expenses are choosing their own coaches (but they must be approved as well).
I don't wont to judge how good or bad is English selection policy, because I’m resident in this country from just a few years, and I have very little knowledge about junior chess here. From my personal point of viev at least ‘is not very friendly’. The main differences between the two countries are noteworthy.
Chess as a sport
That’s is a fact in most central european countries (perhaps all of them). That’s why funding from Polish Ministry of Sport and Tourism is possible. Of course there is a very little money for chess, because nobody is taken this discipline seriously. They prefer to support 100 footballs teams then one youth chess player.
Qualification Events and National Finals – long tournements only
PCF is trying to orginize all system as similar as possible to WYCC and EYCC. Most of National Finals are 11 rounds tournements. This sort of tournements simply helps juniors to play better chess in internationals events. They are not obliged to play not too serious weekenders and doing a lot of analizing work with coaches before Worlds or Europeans.
The role of schools
UK Chess Chalange wrote: The UK Chess Challenge began in 1996 and was an immediate success, with 700 schools entering, involving approximately 23,000 children. By 2006 numbers competing had more than trebled to 74,000.
If that’s true it is absolutely fantastic, magical. Nothing like this can't happend in Poland. Chess are not very popular in schools. Schools competitions are not very popular for children and youth chess players. Any idea “chess in every school†is unrealistic simply because there is not, and propably never will be, enough teachers (coaches) with good abilities to teach chess. On the other hand most of National Finals and qualifications events are organized during the school year. I never had a problem with excuse my daughter because of this reason. Schools and headteachers philosophy is: if child is enough smart to play chess will be enough smart to fill the gap in knowledge because of absence.
When I'v send my daughter from London to Poland to play the semifinals two months a go, I recived a respons from her’s headteacher: “I will athorise this term-time absence for Dominika to attend her chess tournement. However, I must inform that I will not be able to authorise this again as she will be entering her GCSE yearâ€
(Un)fortunately she qualify to the finals like every year. And now is in troubles.
By the way – anyone know how to solve that kind of problem? I will be grateful.
Sorry if it’s too long. I hope it will be useful.
Adrian Ociepka
If a pupil is adversely affected by time off school then in my opinion that is a reflection on the teacher and/or system What we need is more flexibility within the education system for all not just chess 
We also need to remember that education is not restricted to a classroom what we need is a system that equips our young people for the future and life in the real world, for example travel broadens ones' knowledge of countries and different cultures in a much more hands on approach. I believe the CBI are now looking for more hands on experience and have been complaining that the Maths and English skills that they are seeing in applicants are very poor and are having to give additional training to counteract this. I have interviewed many graduates who don't possess the common sense they were born with - needless to say they did not get the job.