Junior Four Nations League

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

OK. That explains one thing - I was told that children could enter independently and be put in a team by the organisers. I was wondering how that would work if some of the children didn't play at all three events.

[Andrew Camp]

That can and does happen. But most of the kids there come down as a team.

[Andrew Camp]

I have written a report for last weekend that I would like to submit for the webpage. To whom should it be sent?

[Alex Holowczak]

I have written a report for last weekend that I would like to submit for the webpage. To whom should it be sent?

Answered via PM.

[Ian Thompson]

Instead of being a league over three weekends (which is what I signed up for), this weekend's event is now complete.

When we meet again in February, it will be a whole new tournament.

Perhaps not. The 4NCL website says "All teams retain their cumulative scores for the two final Junior 4 Nations Chess League weekends. This and subsequent weekends are also being run as individual tournaments." What this means in practice isn't clear to me.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Instead of being a league over three weekends (which is what I signed up for), this weekend's event is now complete.

When we meet again in February, it will be a whole new tournament.

Perhaps not. The 4NCL website says "All teams retain their cumulative scores for the two final Junior 4 Nations Chess League weekends. This and subsequent weekends are also being run as individual tournaments." What this means in practice isn't clear to me.

My guess is that it means the teams are competing for four titles:
Weekend 1 champion
Weekend 2 champion
Weekend 3 champion
Overall champion (based on their scores in the three separate tournaments).

[Andrew Camp]

Excellent! All nice and clear, then. Good grief.

[Andrew Camp]

If the league is now going to be carried forward again to the next two weekends, should it have not been an all-play-all format? The first weekend was played as a Swiss format.

So in subsequent weekends, will teams play the other sides they have not yet met or will it be Swiss again meaning that some sides will be meeting each other again?

I hate feeling negative about this as so many people give so much time to making this happen but why wasn't this all sorted out before the league began? It's not as though this is the first year the league has taken place.

An example of how this confusion manifests itself into teams: Believing that the league was going to be played over the three weekends, I decided to rest my top player for Round 5 on the Sunday morning as she was tired and had had three tough games the day before. The news that the weekend was now going to be an individual tournament was given to us when the kids were sitting at the boards ready to start Round 5. Had we known of the change, my top player would probably have wanted to play to give us a better chance of securing the win that was now more vital than before because points were not going to be carried forward.

Coach's error maybe but I was acting on the information I had.

Now the change has been reversed again.

As I have said before though, I like to back up any criticism I give with an offer to help out in the future and that offer stands. I hope I haven't come across as 'mouthy'.