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

does anyone know what year she presented prizes at Langside Hall champs ?
I have a photo from my archives I wish to add

I was playing a game at my chess club last week at Musselburgh and both me and my opponent were short of time I just promoted a pawn and said queen please which my opponent change the pawn for a queen then his flag fell and he said that he should not have to change the pawn for a queen in his time and went on to say the game was null in void which I just laughed at and I walked away now this was a friendly game but was wondering what is the correct procedure for the promoting of a pawn to a queen is it your opponents job or your own ? Thanks for you help in this matter.

Jim Crawford

Does anyone know whether the Law Society Chess event is liable to re-surface and if so who is in charge?

The domain is due to expire at the end of the month and needs to be renewed @ a cost of £20 or so (I think from memory). If someone is wanting to keep that domain going (and has the funds :-) ) please can you contact me. [ chess at neuroscot.co.uk]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.dropbox.com/home#!/home/Chess%20Affairs/SCHOOLSCHESS">https://www.dropbox.com/home#!/home/Che ... HOOLSCHESS</a><!-- m -->

Press Release
'School Chess Ltd. has launched a ground breaking website for school chess clubs http://www.schoolchess.net/en which is designed to facilitate live chess play between children and young people inschools and school chess clubs throughout the UK and beyond. Junior chess clubs are springing up all over the UK, both in schools and outside and numbers in existing clubs have mushroomed in recent years. All this shows that chess is one of the most enjoyable and exciting ways for children to learn how to think.
The site provides a safe learning environment for all users with absolutely no on-site advertising or pop-ups. The only personal information stored is a player's first name and surname initial. Teachers & players can access and review all their past games and learn from over 1,000 teaching and 'master' games stored on the site.
For players, <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.schoolchess.net">http://www.schoolchess.net</a><!-- m --> gives them the chance to test their chess strength against the whole world! It places them at the forefront of technology, and it has the capacity to liberate them from any staleness in their own chess club - there's a whole exciting world out there to explore and we open the gate.
Hassle-free online chess for schools. Teachers are automatically notified by email when invitations to play are received from other schools; so there's no reason to miss a potential match ever again. Whether it’s finding the perfect opponents using the clever search facility, or choosing a randomschool to play, the teachers love it. Itinerant chess teachers can be linked to multiple schools – a great feature.
When playing overseas opponents, a full auto-translation service is available, meaning teachers can chat in their own language, and players will understand messages too.
www.schoolchess.net offers a tailor-made educational website to children and young people in order to learn how to play chess, to improve their skills and to gain more match play experience.

Let me know if I can help further.

All the best,

Ian (Masson)'

I recommend this innovation as being a good solution for busy teachers/coaches and schools that don't happen to own a minibus! Chris H. =)

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NII4d78bVF8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NII4d78bVF8</a><!-- m -->
first match of the season, well played Edinburgh 4

Some more photos from the event:

http://tinyurl.com/cz6pvrm

The first batch are at:

http://tinyurl.com/9d3ytn7

Someone left a spectacle case at the Glen today. Let me know if it is yours

Thanks for a lovely start to the new season. You all seemed to enjoy yourselves.

Remember depending what is on in the next months we may not have the run of the building as much as today. We just have to go with the flow!!! We only pay for the main hall so the rest is at the venue's discretion.

I would ask that people tidy up behind them. After the games please put your rubbish in the bins. We're all tired but we can't get home until everything is cleared away (I refuse to leave it all to the two members of staff -- they are tired too and have plenty more jobs to complete)
GG

Division 1
Division 2
Division 3
Division 4

Hoping to have the boards broadcasting tomorrow