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...

Under 300:
1st Joe McKie St josephs Blantyre 7/8
2nd Fraser Kennedy Hamilton CC 6/8
3rd Mati Steele St Marys Hamilton 6/8

medals for 50% and above:
5.5/8 Kyle McFie Paisley

5/8 Robbie McKilchan Prestwick
Oran Pathi Kirkhill Newton Mearns

4.5/8 Aeden McGhie Alexandra Airdrie

4/8 Ryan Cunningham Bothwell
Richard Menzies Bishopton
Toby Bleakley Kilwinning
Thomas Taylor Prestwick

Qualifiers for final, Joe McKie, Fraser Kennedy, Mati Steele, Kyle McFie

Under 600:
1st Andrew Gillies St Aloysius Chapelhall 6.5/8
2nd Robert Pirrie South Morningside Edinburgh 6/8
3rd Rachel Lees St Brides Cambuslang 5.5/8

Medals for 50% and above:
5/8 Fintan Pathi Kirkhill Newton Mearns
Stuthi Hegde George Heriots Edinburgh

4.5/8 Andrew Bodie Jordanhill Glasgow

4/8 Tom Constance Lawhead St Andrews
Michael Campbell St Brides Bothwell
Andrew Bleakley Kilwinning
Lauren Hulme Keir Hardie Newarthill

Qualifiers for final, Robert Pirrie, Rachel Lees, Fintan Pathi, Andrew Bodie

Under 1000:
1st Rowan Pathi east Kilbride CC 6/7
2nd Jan Van Heese Hamilton CC 5.5/7
3rd Darren Gillies St Aloysius Chapelhall 5/7

Medals for 50% and above:
4.5/7 Craig Gillies St Aloysius Chapelhall

3.5/7 Euan Dawson Lawhead st Andrews

Qualifiers for final, Jan Van Heese, Rebekah Jack.

Michael.

Sorry for the delay, FTP was down

PICS
Div1
Div2
Div3
Div4

Quote of the day is from Andrew MacQueen on learning that Giffnock lose a point for defaulting 3 games already this season. "Thats fine, we will be safe as Forth Valley and Greenwood will go down". 4 hours later and Forth Valley have just beaten Hamilton A 3-2 putting them 4th and 4 points ahead of Giffnock...

I will be making up the crosstables on saturday morning
so will be accepting late entries up to friday night

http://www.chessscotland.com/livegames/SNCL/r3/tfd.htm

and

http://www.chessscotland.com/livegames/SNCL/r4/tfd.htm

Names will appear when I have them