05-11-2012, 11:14 PM
I've heard, through the loud beating of jungle drums, that the IJD is being a hard time over his board's selection, this year, for Liverpool. Does anyone on the board have any comment to make or do we have to treat silence as implied assent to recent criticism whether it is fair or not? There is a truly ugly rumour going around that a commercial interest has to some level dictated the choice of players this year. Personally, I find such an allegation insulting and barely credible! It would, nevertheless, be very helpful to be reassured, as a member of Chess Scotland, of the complete probity of the selectors. I fully appreciate that they often have hard decisions to make and can never please all of us all of the time. It is surely inevitable, on occasion, that some child will be passed over in favour of another with closely similar claim to selection. At the end of the day, there are only a limited number of places. All the more reason, then, that procedures are seen by everyone to be as equitable as human judgement allows them to be. I am personally unhappy with the idea of considering only those Juniors whose parents make their interest known. Why, for example, is an invitation based on merit considered to be such 'old hat'? I look at a potential situation where definite interest has been expressed on-line but the offer is subsequently declined. I ask myself how I would, as a parent, feel about that refusal. I would now want to be told very authoritatively that the guidance offered as to selection procedure by Chess Scotland has been conscientiously adhered to. A couple of fairly recent resignations from the Board leave me with the unhappy impression that all is not well and that, perhaps, a greater level of transparency is now, as always, required. =| ? All my best wishes and good luck, BTW, to our 'squad' in Slovenia-they'll certainly need it! =) Chris L