Does anyone know what's happening with this? A few of us at Paisley Chess Club have been trying to contact Paul Blair about this, with absolutely no success. Thanks in advance.

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The 28th International Open of Cappelle la Grande will take place 3 - 10 March 2012 to the Palais des arts.

Last year 2 players received help with accommodation from organisers.
I will check up for situation this year.
If you wish considered for a subsidy, please contact me by 31 December

FOLLOWING UP ANDREW'S SUGGESTION I FIND THAT I HAVE MADE A SERIOUS ERROR.

WHAT I THOUGHT WERE DECEMBER 2006 GRADES WERE IN FACT JULY 2006 GRADES.

SORRY EVERYONE

LOOKING DEEPER INTO THE DATA THIS CHANGES FINDINGS SUBSTANTIALLY AND RAISES SOME INTERESTING QUESTIONS.

RATHER THAN CLOG UP THIS POSTING I WILL CREATE A NEW ONE TO EXPLORE THE CORRECTED DATA.
THIS WILL APPEAR LATER TODAY

WHEN TIME (DOUGIE AND MINE) ALLOWS INSTEAD OF PUBLISHING NUMBERS 5 YEARS APART AND ASSUMING LINEAR TEND BETWEEN THE POINTS I WILL PUBLISH DATA AS OF JULY 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011

End of Correction


SECOND EDIT DEC 20th 2011
WITH THANKS TO DOUGIE BRYSON I NOW HAVE GRADING DATA FOR THE START OF SIX CONSECUTIVE SEASONS JULY 2006 TO JULY 2011. THESE I HAVE SUMMARISED IN A NEW POSTING AT THE END OF THIS THREAD.

I LOOK FORWARD TO COMMENTS FROM ALL THE USUAL SUSPECTS AND PERHAPS FROM SOME UNUSUAL SUSPECTS.

**********************************************************************************

5 years ago in December 2006(EDIT of Dec 13th DEC 2007) my son Daniel was in Primary 7. He was the only primary school pupil in Scotland with a grade above 1000. There were at that time very few S1, S2 and 3 pupils with a grade.
Using the excellent on line grading system I recorded the 10th highest grades in each J category.

Exactly 5 years later it is interesting to note the differences made as a result of (a) the increase in Junior competitions notably SJC and Hamilton events and (b) the initiatives I put in place and actions I took as IJD between 2008 and 2011.

Here then are the two sets of figures and for convenience the increases made over this 5 year time frame.

Dec 2006 tenth highest grade
J7 less than 10 graded players
J8(and below): 183
J9: 440
J10: 578
J11: 798
J12: 972
J13: 1005
J14: 1261
J15: 1485

Dec 2011 tenth highest grade

J7: 183
J8(and below): 355
J9: 527
J10: 663
J11: 886
J12: 1100
J13: 1186
J14: 1368
J15: 1530

INCREASES OVER 5 YEARS
J8(and below): 172
J9: 87
J10: 85
J11: 88
J12: 128
J13: 181
J14: 107
J15: 45

ALL POSITIVE NUMBERS IN NONE OF THESE AGE GROUPS HAS THE 10th HIGHEST GRADE DECLINED

Yesterday I received a very suspicious e-mail from a friend, the subject was just not her style.
Instead of opening it, I phoned her. She had not sent it, and on looking at her 'Sent' folder, it was apparent that her account had been hacked.

She then sent a warning e-mail to everyone in her address list.

I have two questions for the more up to date people out there:-

1) Is there any way of cleansing the account, or should it be closed after retrieving addresses and any important e-mails saved elsewhere?

2) Is there a chance that the computer has been compromised in any other fashion?

Under 300:
1st Samuel Kearns Glenrothes 7/7
2nd Tom Martin Lenzie Chess Academy 5/7
3rd Reece Kennedy Lenzie Chess Academy 5/7

Medals for 50% and above:
4/7 Abhinav Datta St Cadocs Giffnock
Joel Chambers Bonaly Edinburgh
Robbie McKichan Prestwick

3.5/7 Patrick Moyes Bonaly Edinburgh
Lucia Doyle Lenzie Chess Academy
Marc Lees St Brides Cambuslang
Jack McKie St Josephs Blantyre

Under 600:
1st Stuthi Hegde George Heriots Edinburgh 6/7
2nd Andrew Bodie Jordanhill Glasgow 5.5/7
3rd John Morrison Bruntsfield Edinburgh 5/7

Medals for 50% and above:
4.5/7 Lauren Hulme Keir Hardie Motherwell

4/7 Joe McKie St Josephs Blantyre
Jake Sanger Prestwick
Patrick Norris St John the Baptist Uddingston
Felix Esche Steiner School Edinburgh

3.5/7 Euan Hamilton James Gillespies Edinburgh
Martin Lang Hallside Cambuslang
Mati Steele St Marys Hamilton
Benjamin Ridge Steiner School

Over 600:
1st Leonardo Sani Ninewells Dundee 6/7
2nd Michael Doyle Lenzie Chess Academy 5.5/7
3rd Craig Gillies St Aloysius Chapelhall 4/7

Medals for 50% and above:
4/7 Darren Gillies St Aloysius Chapelhall

3.5/7 Andrew Gillies St Aloysius Chapelhall

Michael.

Playing lightning online and the following happened (I am white) [pgn][Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2011.12.10"]
[White "Wellfan"]
[Black "valere"]
[Result "1-0"]
[TimeControl "2|1"]
[Termination "Wellfan won by checkmate"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.e4 d6 4.Bd3 Bg7 5.e5 dxe5 6.dxe5 Nfd7 7.Nf3 Nxe5 8.Nxe5 Bxe5 9.Bh6 Nc6 10.O-O Be6
11.Qe2 Bf6 12.Rfd1 Qb8 13.Bb5 a5 14.Nd5 Bxd5 15.Rxd5 e6 16.Bxc6+ bxc6 17.Rd2 Qb6 18.Rad1 Qxb2 19.Rd7 Qxa2 20.h3 a4
21.Rxc7 a3 22.Rdd7 Qb2 23.Qc4 a2 24.Qxc6 a1=Q+ 25.Rd1# 1-0[/pgn]

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.