MATCH WARSAW - ENGLAND
20 British schoolchildren from the national English team in the under-12 age group have recently paid a visit to Warsaw. The young chess-players, under the supervision of three coaches, came to see our capital and to play several friendly matches with their local counterparts. They were met by young players from several Warsaw clubs, rated from 3rd category upwards.
The match on Sunday 14th February closed with our guests winning 11:9. They also won the return match on Monday 15th 11:8, and dominated in the active chess Swiss tournament played on Tuesday 16th.
As a curiosity we noted that playing for the Polish side was the well-known Warsaw coach and trainer Mr Jan Brustman, who replaced some of the absent players.
The Polish players were better prepared for the opening stage, but the middle-game was clearly controlled by our guests. It seems a shame that due to short notice they could not match forces with the Polish under-12 national team.
Our talks with the British coaches revealed that team games in Great Britain are played between 25-30 county teams on 12 to 20 boards, depending on the age group. This is a concept virtually unknown in Poland, where we are still struggling with an outdated system based on club work. Since (almost) all the sports clubs in Poland have died a violent death, obviously the time has come for young chess enthusiasts to look for support elsewhere, for example to the local governments. At present the latter are practically the only authorities interested in aiding child and youth sports and recreation. In any case, that's what the British do, especially since the hopeful experiment introducing chess in schools failed dismally, as a result of a conflict between teachers' union and the British government, when the teachers refused to conduct any extracurricular activities.
It just shows that social unrest among various professional groups is not restricted to Poland or other Central-European countries. We are simply living in interesting times. Europe is obviously becoming one organism.
Detailed results of the meeting Warsaw-England:
Results of matches Warsaw-England
Warsaw-England Match Games