North American YCC

[Valer Eugen Demian]

Mr. Demian:

I think you are changing the topic now. Mr. Peng simply asked a question: per NYCC official website, top five will receive trophies. Mr. Peng is asking why Mr. Birorav only mentioned top 3?

For example, WYCC will award top 10 per section. If any of our players will make top 10 but not top 3, will Mr. Birorav do the same thing? If yes, Mr. Peng and myself will ask the same question again. Why?

Should we just simply follow the tournament rule and announce the winners' list?

If Mr. Birorav persists that only top 3 have big achievement, it is so easy to say his statement is not that logic when he tried to apply his idea to NYCC. For example, U18 girl section, 4 players in toatl. U 12 boy section, I am not sure how many players but must be over 30. How would you compare 3/4 and 3/30? Who has big achievement? 4th or 5th place in U12 open section or top 3 in U18 girl section? The answer is straight forward.

Anyway, not a big deal. All parents and players have their own definition of achievement.

Have a nice weekend.

Top 3 has always been recognized the most in any sport competition. Mr. Birarov has done nothing wrong.

Top 3 will always have a bigger achievement than anyone placed 4th or below. They should be recognized as such. Hope this is pretty straight forward as well

[Valer Eugen Demian]

I have noticed it is now quite commonplace to have (in some sports) a registration level where keeping score is deliberately not allowed. I guess the idea is that the kids will all be 'winners' and there will be no (official) losers...

I also noticed from umpiring kids t-ball and baseball, that even without any official score-keeping, all of the kids KNOW who won and who lost!
Quelle surprise...

I am reminded of an anonymous quote:
"winning isn't everything, but losing sucks"

Just want to point out we talk about international competitions. Here the level of expectations is far greater than your regular local tournament where everyone gets a participation ribbon or medal.

A local tournament seeks to promote chess, so everyone participating is a winner; the score matters less. Meantime an international tournament is between the best from different countries. Over there the performance is important! Each has a different purpose and we need to recognize that in order to make the right decisions.

[jack qian]

Thank you for touching these points! We definitely need to work on these to improve chess. My personal actions (not only words) are:

1. Have been asking CFC to relentlesly pursue recognizing chess as a sport in Canada. You should look only on this forum to see how many times I have been saying this.

2. My club has received some donations, including the real case of my current employer sponsoring the participation of one club member to CYCC (value about $2,000). What we promote is "support your brightest" since not only those in need require help!

3. In BC our FIDE rated juniors have increased in numbers in the past 2-3 years. Names like Botez, Sohal, ChangHe are part of the new wave and they have been trained locally!

4. Outside of my junior chess club there are also a couple in Surrey, one in Vancouver at the public library, a couple in private schools and so on. This is far more than let's say 5 years ago or more.

5. You would be surprised (or not) to find out most of the top BC junior players representing Canada in inetrnational competitions have private coaches and very good ones.

What I want to say is junior chess in BC is right now in better shape than it was in the mid 90s, last time when there was a very active junior life because of a very good BCCF leadership. All we have to do is continue this work and improve it. Good juniors need time and opportunities to grow. They do not come out of the blue!

Now if more would do only as much, we could be farther ahead in CFC.

Compare with alberta,ontario, BC is very poor about chess for junior.
Only one fide rating tournament(Keres Memorial) in Vancouver every year.
No junior chess tournament during July and November in BC.
see http://juniorchess.ca/events.html
No many teachers in BC.
In my opinion Sohal, ChangHe is not your club member. They study by themself or private coach. Sohal's coach is Indian coach
Only Botez is your pride.

I don't know what BCCF are doing?

[Victor Plotkin]

About brutal attack on Canadian youth coach Vladimir Birarov. I think it's absolutely inacceptable even if did something wrong. But he DIDN'T.
What did he do? In report about NYCC he mentioned (congratulated) 3 winners in each age group.
Which options did he have for this report?
1. Congratulations to champions.
2. Congratulations to champions and to co-winners who lost on tie-break.
3. Congratulations to 3 first places.
4. Congratulations to 5 trophies winners.
5. Congratulations to evereone.
So what the best option is? I don't know. Personally I would prefer 2 or 3-rd. But it was completely his choice.

Just for example about another tournament (also organized by CMA) with a lot of trophies. I mean Ontario chess challenger. CMA distributed 10 trophies in eash section... 120 trophies altogether. Could somebody writing report mention all 120 winners? It's not too easy...
In this example winner was only one. The champion got the main prize: trip to Montreal to Canadian Chess Challenger. In this case trophy is just a trophy. My son Mark answered my question about his result on the last Ontario chess challenger "I didn't win" ( he finished clear 2-nd with 4.5 out of 5).
I guess some parents should sometimes think more before posting (even if they kids are involved).

[Valer Eugen Demian]

Compare with alberta,ontario, BC is very poor about chess for junior.
Only one fide rating tournament(Keres Memorial) in Vancouver every year.
No junior chess tournament during July and November in BC.
see http://juniorchess.ca/events.html
No many teachers in BC.
In my opinion Sohal, ChangHe is not your club member. They study by themself or private coach. Sohal's coach is Indian coach
Only Botez is your pride.

I don't know what BCCF are doing?

I have never said Sohal and ChangHe were my students. I said they were trained locally; we all know by whom. Next time please read again with more care!

There are more top students who attended my club, but it takes a good chess person to recognize this. Anyway, it does not bother me you see just Alexandra Botez. On top of this we are entering our 10th year of running the program without a stop. Students are still coming and new ones are joining the entry level ranks; another point not a lot understand...

Are there more teachers outside BC except in Ontario and Quebec? I know the junior situation in BC since 1994. If you do as well, we can continue to discuss our points. If you do not, then we just argue for the sake of arguing and I fail to see the point in that.

[jack qian]

I have never said Sohal and ChangHe were my students. I said they were trained locally; we all know by whom. Next time please read again with more care!

There are more top students who attended my club, but it takes a good chess person to recognize this. Anyway, it does not bother me you see just Alexandra Botez. On top of this we are entering our 10th year of running the program without a stop. Students are still coming and new ones are joining the entry level ranks; another point not a lot understand...

Are there more teachers outside BC except in Ontario and Quebec? I know the junior situation in BC since 1994. If you do as well, we can continue to discuss our points. If you do not, then we just argue for the sake of arguing and I fail to see the point in that.

I think that BC junior chess will be developed more fast if you do as James chan doing in Vancouver library.