Thursday 4 August 2011

Do you think you could improve your Coventry grade?

A thought occured to me the other day ( occasionally this happens !) Why not give the upcoming chess season a bit more spice. I've spoken to various players from different clubs and the general impression I get is that they feel the Coventry chess league has been dwindling in recent years. From our club's point of view, we've had a lot of new players join recently, which is very encouraging. Hopefully this is a reflection on the league's potential as well.
Back to my idea, and it's based on the player in our club whose Coventry grade increases by the most between now and next season, with prizes !! The amount of prizes is up to us !!
Basically, anyone that wants to enter pays an entry fee before the season starts, and everyone will pay the same amount, how much that is is up to you all. Now there's probably about 40 players in our club with a Coventry grade, if 40 people want to participate, then they pay into the pot. If this was even as little as £1 each, ( and bear in mind this is for a season ), that's enough to buy, for example, one of the strongest PC chess programs as a prize for the most improved player in our club. So the winner could win the latest version of Shredder, Junior, Hiarcs, Fritz or world computer champion Rybka, whichever they preferred.
That's just if participants put in a pound each, but as it would be for a whole season, players might want to put in a fiver, a tenner or even £20 each, providing everyone was happy with it, and were all willing to chip in the same amount. Think about it, £10 x 40 people, for example, gets enough money in the pot to have real nice prizes for the 3 or 4 most improved players of the season. The first prize in this instance could even be lessons from a master player, either in person or online, or tickets to see a major event, plus expenses paid !!
The league used to, and maybe still does, award a trophy to the league's most improved player. This is nice to win, but I don't know if it's even still awarded anymore, as the annual prizegiving has now been abandoned. So why not renew the idea for our club members ?
I think it's a nice idea which would create a lot of enthusiam and motivation to obtain good results during the season.
I think to make it a fair reflection on the overall season, players should have to play at least 10 league games to qualify for prizes. After all, if one player happened to get, say, 5 fortunate results in 5 games, they might abandon the rest of the season as a tactic to achieve a probably over inflated grade, and also to attempt to bank a prize having only played a part season.. This is not what their teams would want, as they would effectively lose that player for the rest of the season , and it would not be good for the league overall. However, a 10 games minimum rule would stop this potential tactic and mean all participants would have to play their fair share in the league.
So let me know what you all think, either when we're next at the club, or by posting comments.
I welcome views from other players and clubs in the league, or even if you don't play in the Coventry league ! Alternatively, I can be contacted at davidireland2010@hotmail.co.uk or irasputin@hotmail.co.uk
See you soon !

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