Cultural Diversity in Irish Chess

collesystem654

Greetings fellow chess enthusiasts.
I am recently moved to Ireland from my home country of Malta. I have not yet registered with the ICU but I possess a FIDE rating of around 1600. Allow me to make some observations regarding my experience of visiting the recent Kilkenny chess tournament. I saw a lot of players who were without Irish heritage. I believe this is wonderful that Irish chess has so much cultural diversity and this brings me to my main recommendation.
I would advise that a tournament be considered to celebrate the diversity within Irish chess. This tournament would be a special event open to all players originally hailing from outside the emerald isle. I believe it would really promote inclusion among the people trying to make a home for themselves in this fantastic country.
I hope you find my idea to be of use and I am willing to aid any further debate regarding the matter.

cdeb

A tournament which excludes a set group of players (ie Irish players) is a curious way to promote inclusion?

sodacat11

cdeb wrote: »

A tournament which excludes a set group of players (ie Irish players) is a curious way to promote inclusion?

Agreed. As things stand players from any country are very welcome and fit seamlessly into the Irish chess scene, there is no need to mark them out as a distinct group in any way.

cdeb

We're agreeing an awful lot lately sodacat.

Are you alright?

sodacat11

cdeb wrote: »

We're agreeing an awful lot lately sodacat.

Are you alright?

I am just being my usual non confrontational gentle self always afraid to cause controversy or hurt anyone's feelings

PurpleRiver14

cdeb wrote: »

A tournament which excludes a set group of players (ie Irish players) is a curious way to promote inclusion?

Same thing could be said for female only tournaments, yet they exist.

cdeb

Not really comparable though; there are legitimate competitive reasons for gender splits in sport.

Plus the Irish Women's Championship - the only gender-specific tournament in the Irish calendar - is to decide the best female Irish chess player, not to promote inclusion.

collesystem654

Interesting points raised. Maybe if not a specific tournament then we could introduce prize in tournaments for best non-Irish player which would be very similar to the ideas of the 'best girl prize' at some tournaments.

cdeb

Again though - why?

A prize which excludes a group of people based on their race is...well...racist. It can only promote the idea of differences, which is the exact opposite of your suggestion.

There is often a Best Irish Player award at Bunratty/Kilkenny, but this is effectively a grading prize because so many foreign GMs are invited in to play (and rightly so; we don't have the requisite strength in depth here at the top level)

What is the comparable issue you are trying to fix?

PurpleRiver14

cdeb wrote: »

Not really comparable though; there are legitimate competitive reasons for gender splits in sport.

Plus the Irish Women's Championship - the only gender-specific tournament in the Irish calendar - is to decide the best female Irish chess player, not to promote inclusion.

Yes I see your point, but in someways are comparable as are both minorities on the chess scene. While in plenty of sports there are legitimate reasons for separating genders, from my understanding it was down to physical strength which is not something that applies in chess. Maybe Collesystem654 suggestion could be applied to find the top non irish player or something of the sort as well as promoting inclusion?

collesystem654

There is no issue I am trying to fix as such. A prize that excludes people based on race is equivalent to a prize that excludes people based on gender. Either both are wrong or both help promote chess to minorities within the sport

cdeb

It's years since I've seen a women's prize at a tournament tbh.

But while there is a need to encourage females to play, there's no need to encourage foreign nationals to play. As can very easily be seen.

So why set about creating differences between people?

Tim Harding

cdeb wrote: »

It's years since I've seen a women's prize at a tournament tbh.

Not in Irish tournaments, true, but Gibraltar and Isle of Man have generous women's prizes, Reykjavik also. If the ICU plan for an open goes ahead next Easter they should also offer some women's prizes to attract an international female entry.

I agree with all the objections stated to having a separate tournament/ prizes for non-Irish players. Irish chess is already very encouraging to such players and there are also some simple objections.

For example, you could have two young brothers, one born in Ireland one not...

PurpleRiver14

As far as I am aware girls prizes still exist at the tournaments such as The Irish Junior Championships but I could be wrong. While there may not be a need to encourage non nationals in Ireland, for example in America there is a noticeable lack African Americans yet there don't seem to be African American teams / tournaments like there are women's. I too don't see the need to set differences from people but I find it interesting that its more acceptable in gender than race.

cdeb

It's more acceptable in gender because in most sports (chess included), women don't be among the top players at all.

Chess is certainly more equal in that regard as really the only gender specific tournaments are the Irish Women's Championship and the Women's Olympiad. Pretty much everything else is an open.

Fairly sure we didn't do girls' prizes when running the Irish Juniors in 2016