Hi everyone,

As the new editor of Scottish Chess magazine I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Peter Wood for his excellent stewardship over the last few years - hopefully I can match his standards!

I am expecting to have the next issue out by mid-August, so please feel free to contact me if you have anything you'd like to see included - the deadline for copy is Wednesday July 30th.

I have already contacted many of those who regularly contribute to the magazine and plan to contact many more in the days to come - CS directors/event organisers/league secretaries/members/writers/etc. - but please feel free to contact me in the meantime via abburnett (at) hotmail.com

I'm really looking forward to the challenge but will obviously require help from all those mentioned and others to produce the quality of publication we have become accustomed to. All suggestions, comments, offers of support and constructive criticisms are welcome!

Kind regards,
Andy Burnett

I am looking for clarification of SCA Club Membership options (or affiliation its maybe called?). I can't find anything on our website, but maybe not looking in the right places?

What are the different levels and associated costs of Club Membership? And what benefits does each option have.

In particular I was interested in the grading aspect of taking out a Club Membership. i.e. how many internal club games would a club be allowed to grade during the season? And how would that compare with the cost of grading games on an individual game by game basis without having membership?

There doesn't seem to be much details about the above on the main page, not even the organiser's contact details.
Is it still going ahead?

Would it be allowed to use the yNotate app on an android device during a week-end Scottish tournament?
The Google Play link is here..... <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chess.yNotate2.ui.android&hl=en_GB">https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... d&hl=en_GB</a><!-- m -->

It apparently locks out all other applications on the device when activated and only works in Airplane Mode.
It also appears to be sanctioned by the USCF.

I've just seen the selections for the Glorney and associated events. We've got some good players there, and I think they'll do well.

One thing puzzles me, though: the U14 and U12 events are for teams of six - so why have we got seven players named for each event? I am assuming that substitutes and changes to board order are not allowed once play has started - is the seventh player just a reserve in case anyone has to pull out?

English WIM Sabrina Chevannes has written a fine report here

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Just a pity she didn't understand it was an Orange Order march she was listening too

Scotland (David Findlay, Alastair White, Alastair Dawson, Stephen Hilton) are seeded 13th out of 18 teams in the over-50s section. This now includes the 4 women teams.

With Russia 1 not appearing. the home team Lithuania 1 are the favourites with GM Rosentalis on top board the only 2600+ player at the event. England 1 have a useful team, too, with GM Plaskett on 1 and Euro Senior Champion GM Arkell on 2.

We nearly had a problem on the first day as serious transport problems led to Steve arriving a dat late! However FIDE co-operated by being unable to start the tournament at the scheduled time, meaning we avoided a possible forfeit. However we had to play the 4th seeds in he first round:

Round 1: Scotland 1 - 3 Russian Women

Against an experienced team of 4 WGMs, we did well to manage a couple of draws on the middle boards after surviving serious pressure in lengthy endgames. David sadly lost on time after a misunderstanding about the time controls, albeit from a difficult position, while Steve played well enough but was understandably very tired after 2 days en route to the venue.

All the best to the Scotland team playing in this event - Dave Findlay, Alastair White, Alastair Dawson and Stephen Hilton. Tough match to start against 'Russia Women' who outgrade our boys by about 200 points per board, but I'm sure they'll put up a good fight!

Links to Live games and results below

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605 Games from Scottish / Commonwealth here
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If you find any errors - please email <!-- e --><a href="mailto:downloads@chesscotland.com">downloads@chesscotland.com</a><!-- e -->

Can I ask why has this event ceased to exist? Conscious it was a fixture in the calendar for many years normally attracting a strong turnout no doubt because of the good central venue and local sponsorship. Initially I thought it maybe just a 1 year gap but not appears to have gone permanently. How come? What would have to happen to get it resurrected? Feels to me like a major loss.