I am the new Youth Coordinator. Still learning the ropes.
I like the idea to have Youth Committee. At least until we can establish regulation, selection criteria, creating more revenue and distribution of the youth fund.
It will make the task for Youth Coordinator much easier when dealing with the parents.
The main challenge since I became Youth Coordinator is not enough money to go around.
Any suggestion on who should be in the committee?
Undriadi Benggawan
CFC Youth Coordinator
Suggestion - Youth Coordinator from each province, or one member nominated by the provincial federation if the province do not currently have a Youth Coordinator. Lead by the CFC Youth Coordinator.
We should clearly define the responsibility/authority of the Committee so not to cross boundary with the executive team.
Just numbers. My work schedule in Uruguay:
8am-1:20pm, then lunch, then last minute preparation; round 3pm ~6 hours. work 6-10pm with dinner in between ~3 hours = 9 hours per day
9x50 (average coach fee nowadays. mine is 60) = 450 x ~9 days = 4050 (2 days are double round days, rest day I was working too)
As it is right now, CFC pays air fees ~1200 + 500 coach fee (should definitely be higher). Just from the numbers point of view - having a coach on-site is a definite positive.
I think it makes more sense to have any youth committee staffed with such individuals. Making the committee too large makes it unwieldy. My impression of the youth coordinators across the country is that they are somewhat busy individuals. This committee would require an investment of time.
I was a captain/coach 3 years ago in Hungary-2014 U-16 Olympiad and want to share some ideas about this tournament.
1. I agree with Nikolay: coach on site is very important. Once I asked E.Bareev (who gives lessons both on internet and face-to-face) to compare the efficiency. Eugene believes that on-line teaching has about 30% efficiency compare to face-to-face lessons. That means 3 times less eficient!! Maybe 30% is a very low number, I would say around 50%, but anyway the difference is huge.
2. U-16 Olympiad is a very interesting and usually well-organized event, so CFC should make some effort to send and support the strongest possible team. Unfortunately, in Canada juniors don't have enough experience it team tournaments. I remember, in USSR most of junior tournaments were team events.
3. Sometimes team of 4 is better than team of 5. According to regulations, one player must be a girl, but team of 4 boys-only is possible. In Canada we don't have too many competitive girls and sometimes the gap between board 4 and 5 is very significant (more than 300 rating points). In this case, a girl is less involved and feels not comfortable. My opinion - if the gap is too big - send team of 4. What is too big? Something like 150 points. In 2014, even Q.Zhou played just 6 out of 10 games and wasn't too happy.
Last edited by Victor Plotkin; 12-14-2017 at 01:22 PM.
Those efficiencies are probably specific to Eugene. I actually find that online lessons can be more efficient than face to face because you don't have to reset the pieces and it is easier to backtrack to an earlier position without the inaccuracies of face to face where you usually use a chessboard. Also the elimination of travel time is a plus.
I agree. We went a little overboard with the Hungary U16 Olympiad but the results were satisfying from the point of view of team experience and participation. The only downside is that it created some expectations in certain individuals that we cannot repeat year after year.2. U-16 Olympiad is a very interesting and usually well-organized event, so CFC should make some effort to send and support the strongest possible team. Unfortunately, in Canada juniors don't have enough experience it team tournaments. I remember, in USSR most of junior tournaments were team events.
According to the rules you must send a girl and she must play. In the instance where we did not send an onsite coach we had some issues with parents pushing the HOD not to play the girl even when the team they were facing was very bad. It would be better if they went to a national team and a girls team for this event instead of the current situation where we send a girl who plays less than her counterparts.
3. Sometimes team of 4 is better than team of 5. According to regulations, one player must be a girl, but team of 4 boys-only is possible. In Canada we don't have too many competitive girls and sometimes the gap between board 4 and 5 is very significant (more than 300 rating points). In this case, a girl is less involved and feels not comfortable. My opinion - if the gap is too big - send team of 4. What is too big? Something like 150 points. In 2014, even Q.Zhou played just 6 out of 10 games and wasn't too happy.
Looks like you are right, Vlad. It was possible in 2014 to send 4 boys only. In 2017 even teams with 4 players (Belarus, Kyrgyzstan) have a girl. Probably, FIDE has changed the rules.