The Largs Viking Chess Congress is taking place from the 4th to the 6th of September at the Sportscotland National Centre Inverclyde, Largs. Full details of the congress are available at the Chess Scotland website.

I would like to draw attention to a change in how the Grading Prizes will operate this year. Unlike in our previous two congresses, 90% of the field will be eligible for a Grading Prize e.g in a 40 player section, only the 4 highest graded players entered will not be eligible to win a Grading Prize at the start of the event.

As well as offering this increased opportunity for winning a prize, I would also like to point out that the more entries we have, the prize fund will increase. We have based the advertised prizes on 80 players participating, and if we attract the 120 players the recent Ayr congress managed, this would result in a doubling of the prize fund.

On behalf of everybody involved in organizing the congress, we look forward to welcoming you to Largs!

Karen has asked me to post to let you know we are on Vacation until 8 August. Any new memberships will be processed when she comes back

Elegibility

Andrew Green & Adam Brenner on live boards today. Games live on Czech Open website and on <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.chessbomb.com">http://www.chessbomb.com</a><!-- m -->

Grand Prix 2014-2015

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://chessscotland.com/csinfo/gpleader.htm">http://chessscotland.com/csinfo/gpleader.htm</a><!-- m -->

The Grand Prix figures are finalised July 23 after the addition of the 2015 Scottish Championships. These are included twice in GP calculations as last event of 2015 and first of 2016 season. They will only count for grading in the new 2016 season.


Congratulations to the prizewinners. Prizes may be distributed at Marymass - all will be notified.

Meanwhile if anyone spots any errors in calculations please let us know immediately: <!-- e --><a href="mailto:grading@chessscotland.com">grading@chessscotland.com</a><!-- e -->. The individual winner list will appear shortly after these final checks.

Thanks to our sponsors Chessbase, Everyman Books and New in Chess magazine. Chessbase and New in Chess have agreed to continue into the new 2016 season. Thanks to Everyman for support over several years. We are investigating possibility of a new sponsor.

Thanks to programmers Gordon Rattray and Andrew McHarg who continue to provide invaluable support to the grading system - of which the GP is an offshoot.

After speaking to David Congalton, I have put the photos from the Scottish Championship onto a stock site to allow people to buy printed copies.

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/4081058

Can I make it crystal clear that I do not make any money from this, the proceeds from any sales go to Chess Scotland.

I have uploaded just over 10,000 images I have taken and will be creating a web link from the CS pages to the archive. If anyone is wanting prints of them, the idea would be they contact me and I move the image over to the store.

Just a wee idea I had to raise funds for CS

Hi Guys
I have received today the kind donation of a specially adapted chess set for the visually impaired from our affiliate the Braille Chess Association. I intend to loan it out ( or demonstrate it) to anyone requiring this type of chess set so that anyone can try it out. I also intend to obtain other resources such as specialist chess clocks, audio and braille books so that we can encourage disabled people either to take up the game or at least enjoy the resources that Chess Scotland can provide. If anyone knows of anyone that needs any help or has any suggestions that can help Chess Scotland in this area, please contact me

I've been asked to post this on behalf of the organisers.

Dear Chess Friends,

I’d like to invite you for participation in the 2nd World Chess Championship for Disabled 2015 in Dresden, Germany, 17 – 25 October 2015. This tournament is organized for disabled chess players of three categories (blind, deaf and physically disabled persons) from IBCA, ICCD and IPCA.

Everyone physically disabled chess player who has min. 50% of disability can take part in this tournament in IPCA section.

You can find the Regulations of the tournament on website: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.worldchess-disabled.com/en/regulations.html">http://www.worldchess-disabled.com/en/regulations.html</a><!-- m -->

Registration to the tournament you can make by IPCA President Zbigniew Pilimon.

In attached I send you the IPCA Entry form to the tournament.

Please send me your application to the tournament till 25th July 2015 on my email: <!-- e --><a href="mailto:zpilimon@interia.pl">zpilimon@interia.pl</a><!-- e -->

I will make a preliminary registration to the Organizing Committee of tournament till 31st July 2015.

Please inform others physically disabled chess players from your Chess Federation about this tournament.



Best regards,

Zbigniew PILIMON

IPCA President

Congratulations to Neil Berry for not only achieving his final IM norm, but also becoming 2015 Scottish Champion.

Overall winner was Oleg Korneev

Craig Pritchett was Scottish Seniors Champion

Colin McNab and Roddy McKay were the U50 Seniors Joint Champions

Junior Champion was Declan Shafi

Sarah Smith was the Girls Champion

and finally Player of the Year was Andy Burnett

Congrats everyone!

I'll be updating the website later on when I get in

My congrats to Neil Berry on achieving his IM norm after a sterling performance against Keti in the 9th round of the Scottish.