I am surprised that there does not seem to be a topic open on this already (maybe there is and I did not search enough). When I renewed my membership my attention was drawn to this and I am glad it was because I might have missed it as I do not look at the Chess Scotland web-site very often: as one gets older one realises that a person has a limited time so concentrates on the important. I am concerned that yet more rules are being imposed on chess players who only want to play chess and that these might be hidden to some players: those not from Scotland or not on the interweb or those, like me, who think it is already a big effort to keep up with the real rules. To look at some of the specifics: I looked at the section on general principles and could not find any - I was hoping for something like Jesus' principle of love which, if you keep to, a person would almost be sure to be keeping the main laws of Judaism. Instead - just words. The important section for me is Chess Scotland Members. This begins by stating that members do not bring the game into disrepute - I thought that was already in the laws. Then the next important section, for me, is Players. It begins with arriving late. I cannot think of an instance where a player would arrive late without a good reason since the player will already be losing time or the game. The second is agreeing a result in advance of a game: I can see where this is coming from but this action can be innocent - for example in one congress it was the last round and my opponent, an older person like myself, wanted to get home early; so I asked him if he was offering a draw and if he had been I could see no harm in it as we were bot out of the running anyway. Deliberately failing to play one's best - how can anyone know if this is deliberate? Unreasonably failing to resign a lost game - what is unreasonable? what is lost? An example of the abuse of this "principle" is that of Peter MacFarland (not Para Handy but of the Wandering Dragons) when he was playing in a simultaneous at the Edinburgh chess club and had sacrificed a piece for a mating attack only to be told that he was a piece down and must resign. Failing to dress appropriately - a matter of opinion surely. Playing while unfit to do so - most older people are unfit: are we to be banned? Failing to submit results - I have always taken the view that it is in the interests of the winner to submit results otherwise the organiser could default both. Showing disrespect for the officials - always a dangerous thing to do anyway since they can impose penalties anyway - but sometimes an arbiter can be wrong! Ethics are important but they are for judging a person's own behavior, not others. Also they need to be simple - not a set of rules. If these are to be used for judging others and imposing penalties then make them part of the rules, subject to the usual scrutiny of rules to make sure that they are fair and enforceable. This is a long statement therefore there are probably some holes or misconceptions in it but this is a subject that needs to be talked about before those people who like to tell other people what to do, because they love power, tighten their vice-like grip on ordinary people (not a complaint about chess - yet, but as Tony Benn said "each generation must fight again for its freedom").

If anyone is interested the state of play at Dundee & Angus Congress after round three is:

Open
1 - Andrew Greet - 3
2 = Adam Bremner, Murad Abdulla, Iain Swan, Elaine Bamber - 2½

Challengers
1 - Richard Carter - 3
2 = 8 others - 2

Major
1 - Ray Noble, David Potts - 3
3 - David Adams - 2½

Minor
1 = Andy McCulloch, Derek Coope, Dave Watson, Alastair Dallas, Geoff White, Malcolm MacMillan - 2½

WiFi at the venue is down again so information can't get out in a very timely fashion.

Hi folks,

I have just sent entry forms to all clubs that have an email address on CS website.

I have also arranged for the entry form to be put on the calendar.

Please send them back to me by 31/10/14

GG

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.iominternationalchess.com/news/39-masters-first-round-draw.html">http://www.iominternationalchess.com/ne ... -draw.html</a><!-- m -->

1 Adams, Michael.......... 2758 ..... Ferguson, Mark.......... 2414 1 35
2 L'Ami, Alina............ 2386 ..... Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime. 2757 37 2
3 Fressinet, Laurent...... 2713 ..... Ansell, Simon T......... 2370 3 39
4 Peek, Marcel............ 2359 ..... Sargissian, Gabriel..... 2690 42 4
5 Granda Zuniga, Julio E.. 2674 ..... Welling, Gerard......... 2350 5 44

6 Mannion, Stephen R...... 2347 ..... Tiviakov, Sergei........ 2668 45 6
7 Jones, Gawain C B....... 2664 ..... Wallis, Christopher..... 2347 7 46
8 Tate, Alan.............. 2320 ..... Howell, David W L....... 2657 47 8
9 Short, Nigel D.......... 2646 ..... Duncan, Chris R......... 2319 9 48
10 Kolbus, Dietmar......... 2316 ..... Gupta, Abhijeet......... 2640 50 10

Eric Holt died May 22, 2013.

Eric was joint Scottish Champion with Roddy McKay in 1971. A bio will follow from CS historian Alan McGowan.

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<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/whatever-happened-to-eric-holt.html">http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... -holt.html</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/in-end-i-did-ok-what-happened-to-eric.html">http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... -eric.html</a><!-- m -->

This week's upload is taking far longer than expected. The uploader usually refreshes whole system in about an hour. We are investigating reason for delay.

We are still thinking of this match v the Basque Federation and costing it. How much did players have to pay on average for flights for the Club Cup ?

Results of NEJCA Deeside event at Banchory Town Hall Sunday September 28th 2014
A return to Royal Deeside for the first event of the new NEJCA season

U-300
1st Kalyan Kante (Westhill Primary) 7.5/8
2nd Aditya Hegde (Robert Gordons College) 6/8
3rd (on tie-break) Samuel Booth (Kemnay Primary) 5/8
4th (on tie break) Jalal Bayramov (Ashley Road) 5/8

U-750
Ist Nandini Dutta (St Margarets) 7/7
2nd (on tie-break) Oishini Dutta (Broomhill Primary) 4/7
3rd (on tie-break) Tommy Roulson (Albyn School) 4/7

Above-750
1st Duncan Depasquale (Albyn School) 5.5/6
2nd Atharva Dabholkar (Robert Gordons College) 4.5/6
3rd Anoop Babu (Aberdeen Grammar) 4/6

Not our best attendance but many schools on Deeside do not start their chess clubs until after the October break.

Thanks to all helpers and parent for their support.
As usual, full results and photos at http://www.nejca.co.uk

Next event, in combination with SJC, Chess for Kicks qualifier on Saturday November 8th at Mastrick Community Centre, Aberdeen

From ECF forum:

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In case anyone is interested.

GM Lars Schandorff lecture in Edinburgh 30th October – 2nd November

Quality Chess author and National Coach of the Danish elite GM Lars Schandorff is coming to Edinburgh to give a 15 hour lecture on aggressive positional chess, with a starting point in the games of Bobby Fischer.

The lectures will take place in Edinburgh Chess Club on 1 Alva Street in the heart of Edinburgh. Attendance costs £80 for the full session and £50 for those aged 24 or less. Also those travelling from outside Scotland will get this discount.

The timings are:
Thursday 30th October 18.30-22.00
Friday 31st October 18.30-22.00
Saturday 1st November 14.30-18.30
Sunday 2nd November 12.30-16.30
Registration is through GM Jacob Aagaard at <!-- e --><a href="mailto:Jacob@qualitychess.co.uk">Jacob@qualitychess.co.uk</a><!-- e -->

At present our school chess club is bursting at the seams with 35 members which, of course, is fabulous However, there is a wide variety of playing abilities running from complete beginners to experienced players. It’s a bit of a logistical nightmare so having Dinosaur Chess on our school computer network would be a great benefit.

At present Dinosaur Chess is not avaialble on our school network so I have tried to contact the CS Dino Chess Information person listed on the CS website to ask who the software was given to for Glasgow City Council. Unfortunately the e-mail was returned with the message :

‘Remote host said: 554 delivery error: dd Sorry your message to <!-- e --><a href="mailto:hayt555@yahoo.co.uk">hayt555@yahoo.co.uk</a><!-- e --> cannot be delivered. This account has been disabled or discontinued [#102]. - mta1171.mail.ir2.yahoo.com’

Does anyone in CS know the name of the person in Glasgow City Council that the Dinosaur chess software was given to? Also is the Dinosaur Chess software compliant with Windows 7 PC’s which are being used in Glasgow schools?

Thank you for any help with this.