Hi Folks

Due to popular demand I am in the process of developing a new SNCL website.

It is on <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.snclchess.weebly.com">www.snclchess.weebly.com</a><!-- w -->

Give me a couple of weeks to get info on and then let me know what you think (politely please)
I'd like to hear what you want to see on the site.

GG

Didn't expect to be the one to kick this one off!

I just want to say a massive thanks to Alex and Lara for doing such a fantastic job at the Olympiad and winning the event for us.

In the words of Willie Wonka, there is much to do and little time to do it. As you can imagine Alex is working feverishly in the background and this is going to be a massive ask on us all.

We will be putting the call out for volunteers to assist soon. Please don't be shy

The title says it all.
Almost all.

Looking for a team where I can play all the games this season.

Thank you for any offers.
Please contact me at <!-- e --><a href="mailto:kevinsmayo@hotmail.com">kevinsmayo@hotmail.com</a><!-- e -->

Hi Folks,

I am doing the forms at the moment. However, if your team does not receive one please email me at <!-- e --><a href="mailto:glynis@ggrant1.fsnet.co.uk">glynis@ggrant1.fsnet.co.uk</a><!-- e --> and I'll send one out to you

GG

Under 300:
1st Ross Heeman Grangemouth 6/7
2nd Aryaman Tyagi Giffnock 6/7
3rd James Norwood Bishopton 5/7

Medals for 50% and above:
4/7 Aimi Reid Paisley
Lucia Doyle Lenzie Chess Academy
Callum Chalkley Bishopton
Brodie Black Lenzie Chess Academy
3.5/7 Adam Coyle Bishopton

Under 600:
1st Ben Volland Muckhart 6/7
2nd Callum Smith Banchory 5.5/7
3rd= Fraser Kennedy Hamilton 5/7
Tom Constance Lawhead 5/7

Medals for 50% and above:
4.5/7 Liam Mathieson Perth
Advaith Sastry Bearsden
4/7 Jack McKie St Josephs
Atharia Dabholkar Bon Accord
Luke Laverty St Kenneths
3.5/7 Andrew McNeil Paisley

Over 600:
1st Euan Dawson Lawhead 5/7
2nd John Anthony Craig Hamilton 5/7
3rd= Michael Doyle Hamilton 5/7
Jack Stewart Greenwood 5/7

Medals for 50% and above:
4.5/7 Caitlin Reid Paisley
Craig Gillies Hamilton
3.5/7 Nadia Ameur Hamilton
Darren Gillies Hamilton

The next Hamilton Junior Congress on Sunday 11th November will have a 12.30pm start as an experiment.

Michael.

This deserves a thread on its own.

I think incremental times are the way forward. They do take getting used to. At the Olympiad I was on the top boards of the Women's event. It was obvious that the use of the incremental time control did change the nature of the game significantly.

Obviously there were no time scrambles but instead you got longer time pressure situations. Instead of having a 10 minute period of intensive thought and movement you could have over twice that approaching the 40 move control but more so towards the end of the game where you didn't have 5-10 minute blitz but instead perhaps 30 minutes of constant pressure on the players.

I think it is necessary for Scottish players of all levels to get used to that situation. It is clear to me that those who aren't used to it are at a significant disadvantage.

While mistakes can still be made, these are less common. Games do not swing to and fro. Instead you get more ground out wins or prolonged struggles to achieve the draw. Effectively, skill rather than luck plays its part.

It is known that I have wanted to introduce a congress with increments for some considerable time. There were two problems to this - the lack of sufficient clocks and the lack of a speaking clock for the visually impared. The former is becoming less of a problem and there are now two 'talking clocks' on the market. DGT has stalled in producing a third and I believe that they require 'sponsorship' of €20-30,000 to continue development.

I ran a lightning tournament using incremental times for a few years. The first year in particular there were a large number of complaints during the first few rounds. Eventually these disappeared and some of the most vociferous at the start were the most supportive at the end.

FIDE is about to change the Laws to allow an incremental clock to be introduced in th final stages of the game. However this will give only 5 seconds per move and though it may be a useful way of solving disputes over draw claims in the last two minutes (10.2 for those who know the Laws) it is nowhere near the same thing as the continuous 'pressure' put on by having to play every move every 30 seconds for a long period of time. (I know that several fast moves means that your time can increase but what I witnessed was that when this happened the player would take longer over one move and very quickly find themselves back in the same situation.)

Many of us will have seen the situation of an inexperienced player thrown into a league match with little practice of using a clock. Those without experience of increments are in a similar position to this. The time handling skills can be different. Until you are used to those then you are under more pressure and, just as for the beginner, the clock has a significance beyond what it should.

FIDE tournaments in the main will continue with the current time control of 40 in 90 +30mins with 30 sec per move. To ensure a level playing field these time controls must be adopted in Scotland. I would cetainly like to introduce that for the next Scottish. Most of the longer games finish around the 5 and a half hours mark with a few approaching 6 hours which is the current limit at the Scottish.

CJ de mooi and Nigel Short of England refused to sit with Scotland, Wales and Ireland at the general assembly - having Stewart Reuben change their seats.

Contrary to popular belief we are voting for the ECF...

Hi i am just wondering what support if any is given to Scottish chess juniors by the Scottish chess federation?
I am from England so it would be of interest to know if you guys support your juniors better than we do.Do you have training weekends for your players with a coach? or is help given towards coaching?
Hope you do not mind an English man joining the forum.My son is quite a good player some of you may know or have heard of him Peter A Williams.

If any of you guys are going to Oban chess i found a good B+B near to venue, much cheaper than hotel and they have some rooms left,

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thornloeoban.co.uk/">http://www.thornloeoban.co.uk/</a><!-- m -->

I would like to highlight the E2-E4 organised events and suggest that parents looking for a reasonable step up from the usual Scottish weekend congress should look at these events. They are generally held in excellent playing facilities and the ones that Jonny has played in have been 9 round all-play-alls in which all the players are relatively close in grade. Although there are two games a day so it does not give you time to prepare for opponents at the time, being an APA the draw is available in advance so that you can still do prep.