ECF National Secondary Schools Co-ordinator

[Andrew Martin]

Can I just clarify something and bear in mind I am the current ECF Manager of Schools (!). Maybe I don't understand this situation correctly.

The current National Schools Championships has an U19 and U11 Open sections. There is a seperate girls event, again U11 and U19. We have good sponsors, who enabled us to offer free entry, although we need a new U11 Open section sponsor for next year. The others renewed.

In the case of my own schools, I have kids aged 6-8 playing in my teams to give them experience, to develop them as players and to let them enjoy chess. Is the ECF saying that these children have to be members of the ECF in order to play in the same event next year, if it is graded? If it is not graded would this make a difference?

[Roger de Coverly]

I haven't commented as to whether people have succeeded or failed.

As far as I am aware, the various events run by Neill Cooper were run with free entry and that was applied to the National Schools as well. This meant that in effect the events were being sponsored by the venues in which they took place waiving hire charges and by the ECF itself waiving membership requirements. If the ECF imposes membership requirements where none previously existed, it is imposing an entry cost of £ 8 times the number of non-members in the team. If the intended message was one of "free entry", that message has been compromised.

Can it be clarified regarding the National Schools? Is it to be ungraded next season,membership demanded from all participants or removed from direct control of the ECF?

[Andrew Martin]

It will have to be clarified by a board member, because as a manager, I do not know the answer to the above questions. I do know what I will recommend once the answers are clear.

[LawrenceCooper]

It will have to be clarified by a board member, because as a manager, I do not know the answer to the above questions. I do know what I will recommend once the answers are clear.

Thankfully I'm no longer involved but I would hope that a director (in your case that would be the Junior Director) would brief his managers when the board makes a decision that could impact on them.

[Neill Cooper]

I am now home after teaching maths, running a lunchtime maths club and an after school chess club (for which I insist on ECF membership).

Sean thinks I'm flogging a dead horse, perhaps because secondary school chess is moribund in Leics. In Surrey 23 secondary school have played chess matches this year. Of the 23 schools ten have started playing chess matches in the past two years, through various ECF or personal initiatives. I was planning on spreading this enthusiasm to other counties. I do expect to carry on promoting secondary school chess in Surrey, and with over 30 supportive emails from around the country perhaps we can continue nationwide.

[Andrew Martin]

Is the ECF going to insist that all participants in the 2013/14 National Schools Championship, young and old, 5-18, boys and girls, become ECF members if the event is graded, albeit on the lowest tier?

[Roger de Coverly]

Is the ECF going to insist that all participants in the 2013/14 National Schools Championship, young and old, 5-18, boys and girls, become ECF members if the event is graded, albeit on the lowest tier?

It would appear so, unless the narrow decision of the Directors to adopt this is overturned in some manner.

from

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-conte ... -Final.pdf

Membership Requirements in ECF Events
AH reported that Home Chess was insisting on ECF membership for all events. PE confirmed that
all Junior individual events required ECF membership.

Motion: “That people playing in events organised and graded by the ECF must be ECF members.”
Vote: In favour 4 ; Against 3

An Amendment to the motion to exempt school team tournaments was not accepted.

The new guidance takes effect immediately; however the National Schools Championships currently under way will be graded in the traditional way without requiring membership.
The new guidance applies to next year's National Schools Championships and all future ECF-organised graded school team events.

Am I correct to presume that attendees at this year's Finance Council meeting were unaware of this change?

[LawrenceCooper]

Is the ECF going to insist that all participants in the 2013/14 National Schools Championship, young and old, 5-18, boys and girls, become ECF members if the event is graded, albeit on the lowest tier?

"An amendment to the motion to exempt school team tournaments was not accepted. The new guidance takes effect immediately; however the National Schools Championships currently underway will be graded in the traditional way without requiring membership. The new guidance applies to next year's National Schools Championships and all future ECF-organised graded school team
events."

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-conte ... -Final.pdf

[Andrew Martin]

Yes, I can see it. I saw it before.

It's a decision that simply has to be changed.

[Angus French]

It will have to be clarified by a board member, because as a manager, I do not know the answer to the above questions. I do know what I will recommend once the answers are clear.

Thankfully I'm no longer involved but I would hope that a director (in your case that would be the Junior Director) would brief his managers when the board makes a decision that could impact on them.

I'd expect more than that. I'd expect consultation before the decision was taken.

[LawrenceCooper]

It will have to be clarified by a board member, because as a manager, I do not know the answer to the above questions. I do know what I will recommend once the answers are clear.

Thankfully I'm no longer involved but I would hope that a director (in your case that would be the Junior Director) would brief his managers when the board makes a decision that could impact on them.

I'd expect more than that. I'd expect consultation before the decision was taken.

That too

[Angus French]

Am I correct to presume that attendees at this year's Finance Council meeting were unaware of this change?

I'm pretty sure it wasn't on the agenda and I don't recall it being mentioned at the meeting.
Council *was* asked to decide which events (or event types) should be exempt from various membership requirements.
It *wasn't* asked to decide whether participants in all ECF-run events had to be members.

[Richard James]

Primary school chess is getting stronger...

Is it? My impression is that, if anything, the opposite is true. Yes, there are a few outstanding players but that's all.

Richard,

Apologies. I meant "level of activity" and numbers rather than gradings or playing strength.

Did you?

In the late 1970s we'd get about 300 kids in the local LJCC qualifying tournament. This year we had about 50.

At the start of the Richmond Chess Initiative (1993-1995) we'd get 300 kids from Richmond schools in our annual schools tournament. We'd be lucky to get 100 if we ran the same thing now.

The number of participants in the UK Chess Challenge has been declining in recent years.

Yes, there is a large increase in the areas covered by CSC, but that's a different issue and they have a different purpose.

What's happened in junior chess in this country over the past 30 years has broken my heart.

[Ray Sayers]

Satellite TV
Smart phones
Ipods
Xbox/Wii/Nintendo and any manner of video games
The Internet
Social Networking
An incredibly stupid, self-defeating amount of homework which seems not to have raised the employability of school leavers one jot (sorry, said with feeling!)
No Fischer-type inspiration (but really ties up with lack of coverage in the mainstream)

It's not hard to see why getting kids to play chess is so hard today.

Thing is, when given the opportunity, they seem to love it! As Richard says, it is very sad to compare to 30 years ago.

[Neill Cooper]

For those who did not see it in January's Chess Moves, here is my article about Secondary School Team Chess in England

1. The past
I started playing chess when I was in the fourth form (now called year 10) at Maidenhead Grammar School. I joined an enthusiastic group of players and my first experiences of playing team chess were for the school second team. My memory is of lots of fixtures against all sorts of schools in East Berkshire including other grammar schools, independent schools and comprehensive schools.
Travelling to away league matches was often interesting. There was no teacher in charge of chess so we went by public transport, often on circuitous routes by bus to Windsor or train to Reading. We would then normally get a lift home from parents. When we became successful in the Sunday Times National School Chess Tournament the Headmaster would take us to distant away matches (such as Whitgift, Croydon and Dulwich College) in the recently acquired school minibus.
I think this pattern was repeated up and down the country, with most counties having their own inter-school competition. In the 1970s over 750 teams entered the Sunday Times National Tournament every year, peaking with almost 1000 in 1973. Most of the entries were secondary school first teams and chess was highly popular at many secondary schools
But over the following decades numbers have fallen dramatically. In 2005 only 93 teams entered the National School Chess Championships. What is more secondary school chess leagues closed in many counties. Those still running only had two or three entries, and many match results were very one sided. The only vibrant secondary school chess league was that in Surrey.
Various causes have been thought to have contributed to the demise in secondary school chess matches, including:
1) The rise of computer and other electronic games;
2) The greater pressure on pupils to succeed in exams;
3) The pressure on schools to achieve academically;
4) The replacement of most grammar schools with comprehensives;
5) State school teachers being less willing to give time to extracurricular activities;
6) Child protection policies making it much more difficult to arrange away matches;
7) The rise in primary school chess having put teenagers off chess and
8) Too many matches were very one sided – which neither team enjoys
The list, of course, can be extended. I think that all these have contributed to the decline in secondary school chess. However, diagnosing the cause is not important - finding a way forward is the vital task.

2. The present
By 2010 only Surrey had the traditional county secondary school league with an active open section. A few counties (Oxon, Sussex, Suffolk) ran U14/U13/U12 inter-school tournaments but failed in their attempts to run an open (U19) schools event. Birmingham still had a schools league, whilst they only had two teams in their top division it did have more in lower divisions.
Without having a local secondary school league to play in, some schools who were keen to play chess had to look elsewhere. The National Schools tournament had increased in size from the nadir of 2005, and by 2010 had about 150 entries. Birmingham Schools continued to annually host 2 one day rapidplay events, though entries here had also fallen to low numbers. The Millfield International weekend tournament in October attracts a select group of elite schools and the U18/U16/U14/U12 tournaments held at Pontins in early July has a similar entry. For prep schools there are also weekend National Preparatory Schools Tournaments run by Aldro School. Some secondary schools found that the only way to get matches was to play in the local adult league.
But most secondary schools just stopped playing chess matches, even though they might still have a chess club.
Here and there local initiatives provide chess for schools: Cumbria had a termly Wednesday afternoon event that a few schools enter, the Bournemouth Mayor hosted an annual event to which two local secondary schools regularly entered. Birmingham also ran an afternoon 5 minute chess event which attracted half a dozen local schools.
It was in this context that I agreed to become ECF Manager of Secondary school chess in early 2012. Others were already undertaking local initiatives – in Spring 2012 Sussex Junior Chess restarted their Open section for secondary schools, which two schools entered and they played one match. In autumn 2012 Barnet Junior Chess extended their successful primary school league, played in a central venue, to also include a secondary school event to which five teams from four schools entered.

3. Learning from Cricket
As has been described above, Secondary school chess has been rapidly shrinking in England. With the exception of the National Schools Championship (which itself has also seen a dramatic fall in secondary school entries) there were very few secondary school fixtures outside Surrey in 2010.
Whilst the Briant Poulter (Surrey Schools) league, which now has 6 divisions and 35 teams from 14 schools, shows how secondary school chess might have developed in other counties it is not a model that can now be emulated. Instead we must seek to arrange chess events that more secondary schools wish to take part in.
There are three forms of cricket: First class cricket (test matches and county fixtures); One day games and Twenty20 cricket. It is the quicker forms that are most popular with most players and spectators. Most inter-school cricket is based on the Twenty20 version.
Similarly we have three forms of chess: Long play, rapidplay and blitz. I think that most secondary school leagues, when they existed, just used long play. In the past few years the Surrey Schools (Briant Poulter) league has introduced the use of rapidplay in its lowest two divisions. In those fixtures players now play two rapidplay games rather than one long play game. Many of the local initiatives referred to in Section 2 are blitz events (though chess clocks are only used in some of the games).
As ECF Manager of Secondary School chess I have started three initiatives to encourage more secondary school chess:
• an ECF secondary school chess newsletter
• one day tournaments
• afternoon chess tournaments.
In both tournaments teams play a Swiss tournament rather than the traditional inter-school fixture. One day events can have five rounds when played at 25 mins each whilst afternoon events can have four rounds when played at 12 mins each. Also, as the afternoon event is entry level I have also found that many of the inexperienced players prefer not to use chess clocks.
Feedback from the schools who have taken parts has shown both types of events to be popular. The reasons for their popularity include:
1. There is a buzz from being in a large event, and seeing lots of other chess players.
2. Multiple games mean that most players, and teams, win at least one game (A reason for using a Swiss approach rather than Jamboree pairings
3. Schools have some matches against teams of a similar ability to themselves
4. Players get lots of games, most of which are not too one sided.
5. Teams still play as teams, and so can easily watch each others games
6. Schools meet lots of other schools, school chess organisers also have a chance to mix and chat
7. The events have a relaxed atmosphere
8. One day rapidplay events are graded
9. Schools only need to do the administration for travel once, not for every fixture. In some schools this is quite onerous (parental permission, safety assessments etc).

I’m pleased to report that some schools have already shown interested in hosting such events in the future. Therefore I expect to see in 2013 more such events and more schools running chess teams. Hopefully in due course this will lead to more schools wanting to take part in the National Schools Championships.