U12 won both games and face the Midlands tomorrow in a winner takes all clash

I am sorry to have to announce that Jim has passed away. For anyone who will wish to pay their respects I will advise of arrangements once they are in place.

A full and appropriate reflection of Jim's contribution to chess and of the man himself will follow.

Hot hands is something I read about in a BBC web site article - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16074623 - which reports on an investigation into the believe that basketball players have that if they score a long range shot that they have hot hands and are therefore more likely to score with their next shots. The research confirmed that players that did score with a shot did then attempt more long range shots.

However what it also showed was that a player that has just scored with a long range shot is LESS likely to score on their next shot. They also found that the player that misses a shot is MORE likely to get the next shot.

The conclusion being "... that despite years of experience, professional basketball players let the outcomes of their most recent actions affect their behaviour in ways that can negatively impact their performance.

Whats this to do with chess?

Well how often do we play a good or bad move (or game) and let that cloud our assessments and actions thereafter? I guess it is no different from the gambler that gets lucky, assumes that the gods are on his side and keeps playing and loosing until all the pennies are gone.

I wonder how often that someone plays well, gets a good position and gambles it on a move they can not properly calculate but play because they assume that they're playing well. Or how often do we miss a saving move or even a winning move because we stop trusting our own judgement because of a poor earlier move?

It also again shows what a gulf can exist between human gut feeling/instincts/old wife's tales when a scientific study is applied.

The above event which was cancelled on Thursday 8th December will now take place on Thursday 15th December.

Please pass on to those who may be affected.

Two primary school brothers who represented Australia in the recent World Youth Championships in Brazil have been told by their primary school that they must leave and go elsewhere. They were refused permission to go to the tournament and therefore there participation was regarded as unathorised absence.
Both scored well so it was not a case of buying a place.

As you can imagine there are some very annoyed Australian chess players.

How would we react if the same thing happened to our representatives?

Obviously when considering upcoming exams it must be a consideration - but at primary (and I think the brothers are 6 and 8 years old)

Nice to see the 2800 club playing. How McShane survived that I'll never know!

Also very nice to see some Scots down in the FIDE open. Goods win for Neil Berry and Julius Schwartz. Julius's reward being white vs Lawrence Webb.
Douglas McKerracher went down as black vs an IM. Neil Farrell and Clement Sreeves seemed to have a bit of an off day losing and drawing respectively. But long tournament so heres to a bit more luck in the next few rounds. Good luck all!

Calum

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Monica Espinosa is playing in the sub 2000 event in Benidorm. She is mainly there to play in the under 12 event but the very best wishes to her for having the courage to play in this really tough but excellent tournament.

As it states in the minutes of the Congress

"Speaking about problems which FIDE is facing, I would like to draw your attention to a law suit,
initiated by Chess Federations of Great Britain and Georgia. I just want to mention that we have a
necessity to amend the FIDE Statutes, regarding the place of settling legal disputes – CAS of
Lausanne."

I have contacted FIDE and we have been sent an apology as it was the ECF and we are not involved.

This Wednesday BBc 4 9pm showing the storyville documentary of Fischers life before and after becoming world champion

Lothians Allegro 2012

Venue: Wester Hailes Education Centre, Edinburgh
Date: 7th January 2012
Rounds: 5
Round 1 Starts: 10:00
Time Controls: 30 minutes each for all moves (Allegro)

More details to follow...