Megafinals impact rounds 10 & 11 once again!

[John Upham]

I am unhappy to report that once more AMCA may have to drop a team or two for rounds 10 and 11.

This is due, once more, to the intelligent scheduling of the Hampshire and Berkshire Mega finals combined with AMCA's continued policy of using strong juniors in its squad.

Apologies in advance to any teams so affected.

Does anyone know the date of the Bucks Mega Final?

I tried consulting http://www.bucksinfo.net/byca/ and http://www.byca.supanet.com/ without success.

[Ray Sayers]

Dates have just been updated. Bucks is 12th May:

http://www.ukchesschallenge.com/megafin ... _2012.html

[John Upham]

Dates have just been updated. Bucks is 12th May:

http://www.ukchesschallenge.com/megafin ... _2012.html

Thanks Ray. I believe there is an option for a child from one county to use another counties Mega Final and qualify from there.

However, as I understand it, they cannot win a prize at their non-county. Can someone correct me on this please?

I have now handed out all badges, furry toys, mascots, gold spots, key rings and bag tags at my schools!

I appoint a gold spot badge application monitor at each school chess club.

Being mugged on a weekly basis by 20 eight year-olds is no longer a novel event.

Their "I've lost my badge excuses" have been compiled into a list which I read out at the start to pre-empt further excuses!

[Ray Sayers]

Yes, as I understand it, a child from one county can play in another county's megafinal. But the 'Supremo' and 'Suprema' titles are for the children of the county it is being held in. So if a Berks player played in the Bucks Megafinal and scored 6/6, they qualify for the Gigafinal, but a Bucks player scoring say 5/6 as the highest Bucks score would be the Supremo/Suprema. If anyone knows different, shout!

As an example, look at Joost Hoppe in the Under 11 of the Bucks Megafinal last year; from Berks but qualified through the Bucks Megafinal:

http://www.ukchesschallenge.com/MFResul ... es11.shtml

PS you only get one shot at a Megafinal; you can't just enter a string hoping to qualify.

PPS Sorry about all the edits; doing this while working on another PC!

[Ray Sayers]

One further thought strikes me; if the Berks players are going to to be encouraged to play in the Bucks Megafinal, then there are Bucks players who will potentially miss out on qualifying, i.e. the issue of the clash with 4NCL (I am assuming AMCA is a 4NCL team?) is going to be bumped onto another County. Especially if the Berks players are strong enough to be playing in the 4NCL. Of course, that is not to say they are not entitled to play in the Bucks event, just an observation to back up your point about the date clash.

[angelaeyton]

Middlesex will be having three Megafinals again this year:
Isleworth TW7 - 13 May
Harlesden NW10 - 19 May
Wembley HA0 - 27 May

Two of these dates clash with the EPSCA Schools Semi-Finals at Pontin's.
I checked with my local organiser back in Feb to share dates and ensure my schools would have an alternative venue.
Local organisers have a choice in dates limited to when they can get a willing school at low cost.
May be worth getting in touch with your local organiser in the planning stage next year if there are major dates to avoid.
Ray is correct in stating that qualified children may enter any Megafinal convenient, but may only win title in a County they live in or go to school in.
I hope this helps.
(nervous first post!)

Angela Eyton
Middlesex Junior Organiser for MCCA (and previous Midx Megafinal organiser)

[Peter Turner]

Welcome to the Forum, hope you find it an interesting source of information.

Peter Turner

[Alan Burke]

It also seems odd that although players may chose a particular Megafinal to enter, the dates for the Gigafinals are set in stone dependant upon which part of the country they live in - this year the Northern Gigafinals are on 7/8 July whilst the Southern events are on 14/15 July.

Therefore if a player already has other commitments on the date of their local Megafinal they can switch to another. However, if two players (one in the North and one in South) have already got holidays booked for 14/15 July, then the Northern player can still compete yet the Southern player cannot.

I am not bothered whether players are allowed to switch areas or not, but surely the same rules should be applied for every round of the tournament ?

[John Upham]

I am not bothered whether players are allowed to switch areas or not, but surely the same rules should be applied for every round of the tournament ?

The various rounds have differing objectives and are therefore likely to be governed with non-identical rules sets.

Most contrasting would be the schools stage and the Tera Final stage. Mega and Giga Finals like somewhere in between.

I would like to see both Femto and Ato Finals in some shape or form.

[Ray Sayers]

Alan,

That's a fair point. I don't have any issue in principle with children playing in other Megafinals. There are good reason why this may happen. For example, a player may miss their own County Megafinal through illness or family commitment. Or, in the case of very large Counties, it may actually be easier and quicker to hop over the border of another County. I think that the idea of being able to play in an alternative County Megafinal was probably to cover these sorts of issues.

I am sure no one would abuse this setup, but as I was musing about it on the school run today, a rather nasty flaw in the rules came to mind. This is hypothetical, mind you, I am sure no one would do this. But say County A was next to County B. And say County A was much stronger than County B. If County A wanted to increase the number of players sent to the Gigafinal, they could send their strongest players to County B and qualify there. However, back in County A, the weaker remaining players would also qualify in their depleted competition and so County A sends several players forward and County B does not.

Now, there may be some rule squirreled away which says this can't happen. Also, it would involve a lot of collusion and co-operation, but it is (as I understand it) possible. But can anyone see why in theory this is barred from happening? I hasten to add, I am dead against this, as it seems to me that a large point of the competition is to encourage children, especially maybe not so strong players, to take up chess and get the bug to continue with it.

[Alan Burke]

Ray .. I wouldn't bet against someone having already thought about the situation you describe.

John ... Although the organisers might have different objectives for each round, the players only have one objective - to go through to the next stage of the tournament. I do agree that the aim of the tournament is to get more youngsters involved in chess rather than just provide an event for already-established players, but it does seem a bit of a lottery at the Gigafinal stage that one person is able to play just because of where they live, whereas another player is unable to do so. (Perhaps both Gigafinals should be on the same date.)

I would think that the players who look to enter a Megafinal in another area are those who are trying to progress in the tournament rather than the 'newcomers' to the game, so why should they be given that chance when they cannot have that option later in the event ?

[Alex Holowczak]

(Perhaps both Gigafinals should be on the same date.)

Mike Basman is very good, but even he has yet to master the art of being in two places at the same time!

[Alan Burke]

So why does Mike Basman have to be at both places ?

He is not present at every school event, nor at every Megafinal - there are surely enough qualified people in order to delegate one of the Gigafinals to someone else ?

[Alex Holowczak]

So why does Mike Basman have to be at both places ?

He is not present at every school event, nor at every Megafinal - there are surely enough qualified people in order to delegate one of the Gigafinals to someone else ?

Mike Basman needs to be at both places because he runs both events.

At the Megafinals, of the £12 entry fee for each person, £6 goes to the organiser, and £6 goes to Mike.

At the Gigafinals, the entry fee of whatever it is all goes to Mike.

So by running the Gigafinals himself, Mike and his team make more money, because he doesn't lose 50% of the entry fees to local organisers.

[Neville Belinfante]

Round 9 is also affected. There are megafinals on Saturday 5th May in Sussex, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire - all of which have a large number of juniors in their 4NCL squads.

The county organisors have a difficult choice. Last week of April may be too early. Second week of May clashes with the EPSCA Under 11 Final, Last two weeks in May clash with EPSCA Schools semi-finals at Pontins.

From the 4NCL perspective, the situation is better now than it used to be when the final 4ncl weekend was the end of May, and all junior teams were affected by their top players revising for school exams.

Regards

Neville Belinfante