As some of you may be aware, a situation arose this weekend in Oban regarding a certain player and a refusal to play on a live board. I don't want this to turn into anything personal or overly negative, but there were a large number of us seriously disgruntled by what went on that I feel it is worth raising so that something similar can either be avoided or fully clarified.

Live boards were in operation on the top 4 boards of the Open this weekend, in order that people watching could see some of the highest quality games played in Scotland purely for the entertainment and interest of spectators. After round 1, a request was made by the resident of the top board that he did not want to play on a live board, for what I believe was due to him feeling that he was disadvantaged by having games online which could be potentially used in future rounds for prep (matches are available on the same night in a database at most international tournaments by the way). As a result, you may have noticed that no moves were broadcast from this board for the rest of the event. Funnily enough, the IM in question seemed to be the only person who wasn't at the pub quiz on the Saturday night... Must've been preparing in his room for his game the next morning against my flatmate!

The reasons why some of us were upset is as follows:

These sensory boards were funded by the generous donations of CS members in order that games could be watched by people who either could not make the event, or do not play tournaments but still enjoy following them. By refusing to play on such a board seems somewhat selfish. It should also be noted that when one of Scotland's top players plays, the event becomes more interesting to everyone, including potential sponsors.

This player played the remainder of the games on a DGT board but with the transmission switched off. This seems a farce, as a perfectly functioning board was not being used to broadcast some of the other incredibly hard fought games in all 4 of the sections.

The thought of refusing due to prep issues during an event seems quite poor sportsmanship. Everyone is allowed to go and watch games, and even request to see duplicate scoresheets from the arbiter. Nobody really uses these games for preparation.

This is not meant as an attack on the person in question, but instead some clarification of what will happen in the future would be nice. As far as my own personal opinion goes, a clause should be inserted into all congresses that means all entrants agree that if they are due to play on a board which is being broadcast, it is being broadcast because the organiser feels it is something of interest to online followers, and therefore the game must be played on this board.

If anyone else has views on this it would be nice to hear them.

Having some issues, known in tech parlance as PEBCAK

Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5.

Seems to be quite a bit of interference on site which is causing a bit of havoc with the boards. Trying to find out who is broadcasting on channel 15...

[pgn]1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. Ng5 d5 6. exd5 Nxd5 7. Nxf7 Bxf2+ 8. Kf1 Ne3+ 9. Ke2 Bg4+[/pgn] Robin Johnson vs Jim Crawford

Dunfermline Knaves v Pentland Hills
Mussleburgh v Wandering Dragons
CSBos 2 v Irvine
Corstorphine v SJC
Woodmill Warriors v Dundee City Juniors

Under 300:
1st Siddharth Berera South Morningside 5/5
2nd Alen Shen Lenzie Chess Academy 4/5
3rd Jack Clelland Lenzie Chess Academy 4/5

Medals 50% and above:
3.5/5 Lewis Towle Bishopton
Rebecca Lamb Bishopton
3/5 Daniel Chamberlain Prestwick
Sambhav Chadha Glasgow Academy
Rachel Lorna Smith Irvine
Alexander Lonie Giffnock
Liam Wilson St John the Baptist Uddingston
2.5/5 Kyle Paterson Hamilton College
Carrick Simpson Hamilton College
Drystan Simpson Hamilton College
Ritvek Maheshwari Edinburgh

Under 600:
1st Tom Laing Prestwick 5/5
Arran Ghosh St Thomas Edinburgh 4/5
Advaith Sastry Bearsden 4/5

Medals for 50% and above:
3.5/5 Marc Lees St Brides Cambuslang
Beth McAlister St Anthonys Rutherglen
Andrew McNeil Paisley
3/5 Erin Allen St Anthonys Rutherglen
Jennifer Lowe Keir Hardie Motherwell
Aryaman Tyagi Giffnock
Aiden Connor Holy Cross Croy
Felix Esche Steiner School Edinburgh
2.5/5 Aaron Miller Hamilton College
Alexander Nicolson St Thomas Edinburgh
Kaleb Millar Hamilton College
Alix Smith Lenzie Chess Academy
Priyanshu Agarwal Edinburgh

Over 600:
1st Stuthi Hegde George Heriots 4/5
2nd Jack Stewart Greenwood 4/5
3rd Michael Doyle Hamilton 4/5

Medals for 50% and above:
3/5 Caitlin Reid Paisley
Ben Volland Muckhart
Fraser Kennedy Hamilton
Michael Campbell St Brides Bothwell
2.5/5 Rachel Lees St Aloysius Glasgow

Michael.

Children in Need is coming and an interesting chess challenge has been accepted at Keele University.
Staffordshire chess player and ECF Arbiter Matthew Carr is performing a 24 hour chess marathon at Keele University to raise money for Children in Need. Facing him in this challenge is Fraser Greenroyd, Matthew’s best friend and fellow madman. Its a game of skill vs Endurance. Matthew has the skill and tactics to be able to take Fraser down but not the endurance to make it last at high a level for 24 hours. Fraser may not be as powerful but is more than capable of lasting foe the entire duration. Who will win and how will the games go? Lets find out.
When & Where: Keele University Library foyer, Starting at 12pm on Friday 16th November until 12pm Saturday 17th November.
Time Control: All moves in 20 minutes + 10 seconds per move.
Rules: The game shall be played according to the FIDE Rapidplay laws of chess. We will play as many games as we can using the time control in 24 hours. 1 point for a win and ½ point for a draw. Whoever has the most points at the end of 24 hours will be declared the winner.
Boards and Equipment – For this challenge we will be using a DGT live board. The games will be broadcast online for the whole 24 hours so everyone will be able to keep track of our progress and who has the most points.
All are welcome to come and watch our progress and see how well we are getting on. We will have a donation bucket by us so feel free to come and donate any money you have to our cause. If you are unable to come and see us in person then you can donate money to our cause online. The donation website is at: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.justgiving.com/MatthewCarr-FraserGreenroyd">http://www.justgiving.com/MatthewCarr-FraserGreenroyd</a><!-- m -->
The website with the live games on will be announced at a later date.
You can also follow our preparations on facebook at:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/282626361773821/">http://www.facebook.com/groups/282626361773821/</a><!-- m -->
Finally the children in need website is: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008dk4b">http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008dk4b</a><!-- m -->

Hope this helps

Please give generously for Children in Need :U

Results of NEJCA event at Portknockie, Moray Saturday November 10th 2012

P5& Under
1st Nathan Roulson (Albyn School) 5/5
2nd Leonard Holmes (Laurencekirk PS) 4/5
3rd Rafal Wilowski (Banchory PS) 3/5
4th Oishani Dutta (Broomhill PS) 3/5

P6 & 7 (Portknockie Primary Shield)
1st Andrei Gheorghe (St Josephs) 5/5
2nd Atharva Dabholkar (Robert Gordons) 3.5/5
3rd Callum Smith (Banchory PS) 3/5
4th= (3/5) Thomas Stidolph (Banchory PS), Nandini Dutta (Broomhill PS), Mitchell Adam (Portknockie)

Open/Secondary
1st Nicholas Straw (Banchory Academy) 5/5
2nd Tariq Pasha (Albyn School) 4/5
3rd Paul Kaniowski (Buckie High) 3/5

Full results and photos at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.nejca.co.uk">http://www.nejca.co.uk</a><!-- m -->

Next Event: Sunday, December 9th, at Albyn School, Aberdeen

Are these published somewhere? If so, can someone point me in right direction. Thanks

this is from tuesday 6th November league game Musselburgh 2 vs Wandering Dragons 4[pgn][Event "League Match"]
[Site "The Polish Club"]
[Date "2012.11.06"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Anne Donkin"]
[Black "Jim Crawford"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[BlackElo "1046"]
[WhiteElo "1215"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Qe2 Nxc4 7.Qxc4 Nxd5 8.d3 c6 9.Nc3 Bb4 10.a3 Bxc3+ 11.bxc3 h6 12.Nf3 f6 13.O-O Be6 14.Re1 Qd6 15.Qe4 Nxc3 16.Qg6+ Kf8 17.Bb2 Nd5 18.Nxe5 Nf4 19.Qg3 fxe5 20.Bxe5 Qd7 21.Qxf4+ Qf7 22.Bd6+ Ke8 23.Qxf7+ Kxf7 24.Re3 Rad8 25.Be5 Rhe8 26.Rae1 g6 27.f4 Rd5 28.g4 Bxg4 29.Kg2 Bf5 30.Kg3 h5 31.h4 a6 32.Ra1 Ra5 33.Rae1 Ra4 34.Bd6 Rxe3+ 35.Rxe3 Be6 36.Kf2 b6 37.Re4 Rxe4 38.dxe4 Bg4 39.c3 b5 40.Bb4 Ke6 41.Ke3 Bd1 42.Kd4 Bf3 43.Ke3 Bg4 44.Kd4
1/2-1/2[/pgn]

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