Hi Guys
In order to relieve the boredom (i've also finished my garden) I've spent the last few weeks getting the highs and lows about online chess using playchess, Chess.com and Lichess. I think i've got the hang of using these sites for users, club and leagues. If you or your club wish to have an online presence and need a bit of help and advice, then please let me know and I will advise. More and more clubs have registered and they are now at the point of playing other clubs online and/or they want to join an established chess league. Also individuals wish to play online and want to get a bit organised. If you need any help, please contact me and I can help and/or help you contact a club. I've also heard criticism and concerns about games being available to other players but i'm afraid that's the nature of online chess. 


The chess engines are very good for improvement and the anti-cheating engines on Chess.com and Lichess to me are very good but that wont stop players trying their luck. I've been looking into this well outside the remit of Chess Scotland and is separate from Andy Howie's work on this. Nevertheless I think its the way to go even for fun chess and also for improving your game.

On both Lichess (good for team battle chess) and especially on chess.com (my own favourite at the moment) I have created clubs for anyone to join. On Chess.com I have created the Lanarkshire Chess League - invitational where there will be weekly tournaments for anyone to join. Chess.com have teams for Lanark, Hamilton, East Kilbride, Salsburgh, Pentland Hills, Stepps, Wandering Dragons and many others who are forming (I believe Bellshill is at the moment about to form one) At the moment even users with a free chess.com account can create clubs but this may change in a couple of months.

Harry Marron, the Junior Home Director is the man for local chess for juniors. If you contact him, he will help you out with loads of options , including chesskids.com and chess for schools already mentioned by Alex McFarlane. I psersonally believe Over The Board chess will resume later this year albeit in a different format with social distancing. Online chess will never be a replacement for OTB chess but possibly a welcome addition.

As mentioned above if anyone has any questions or needs any help, then please let me know

I've been asked by a player abroad if I know how Jim Macrae is.

It has been some time since I've seen Jim.

Can anyone provide some info that I can pass on?

Thanks.

Sadly Hugh Flockhart has passed away today.

Hugh was a stalwart of the local Edinburgh and Scottish chess scene for many years. Hugh was a formidable organiser, leader and persuader forming the Lasswade chess team in 1985. He managed to take that team from the lower leagues of the Edinburgh and Lothians chess league to the Premier division in successive seasons, winning the odd title on the way and securing the services of many new stronger team players as well.  Some seasons saw Lasswade challenging for the Premier title and in others avoiding the drop.

Not content with that achievement, Hugh is credited with getting the Scottish seniors team up and running to participate in international tournaments.

With every challenge he faced in life, he brought his dignity to the fore.

He will be greatly missed.

Rest in peace Hugh.

John Watkins

Good evening everyone, 

We are thinking of running a series of online Chess Tournaments as Official Chess Scotland events and allowing  the grading of the online games from the tournaments on the Allegro grading list.  By doing this we can link to the Grand Prix next year and keep that relevant and has the benefit of money coming into Chess Scotland as we are losing income from Grading Fees.  The events would take place on Lichess as from an arbiting point of view it is easier to view games.  The draws would be done offline using Swiss Manager or Vega.

We would really like to hear your views on this as there is no point doing it if no one actually wants to play.


All tournaments will award prizes and prizes will not be released until the Anti cheating checks are done. I will outline the Anti cheating measures in a separate post.

We are running some test tournaments with the SCT and will work with them so we are not competing over dates and have things spread out.  Depending how it works with the experimental tournaments we are doing, we are considering holding some competitions with prizes. and using the allegro grading so they can count towards the Grand Prix.    

In all events, 50% of the Entry fee goes to prize fund  47% goes to Chess Scotland 3% are Paypal fees.  Nothing goes to the Organisers or arbiters, we are giving our time free here.


The plan would be for Chess Scotland Members only, however the first non titled tournament would be open.  We are having discussions about membership at the moment but I will hold off for now until we have agreement on it.

Events I am thinking of at the moment are (the events and entry fees are not set in stone!)

June 

Scottish Online Rapidplay Championships - Entry £10, 5 Rounds in a day., CS members only Time control 25+5

Scottish Online Lightning Championships - Entry £5, 9 Rounds in a day, CS members only Time control 5+3

July

Scottish Online Championship - Entry £15, - 9 round championship played in the evening 

Played from Sat to Sunday.  U1500,  U1800 and Weekend Open events as well - CS Members only,  Time control 60+15     

August

Scottish Triathlon Chess Event - Entry £10 - 3 Round Normal, 3 Rounds rapid, 3 rounds Time  Lightning, over 3 days each
day has 1 of each, open to all    , Time controls 45+15, 25+5, 5+3

Starting August / September

Monthly Online Grand Prix Weekend congress - Entry £15 5 rounds as normal weekend congress or 5 evenings,First Open to all then members only, Time control 60+15 or 45+15

Monthly Online Rapidplay Grand prix event - Entry £10, 5 rounds alternating Saturdays and Sundays so people can play.  First open to all then members only Time control 25+5  

Here is a rough idea of how the prizes would break down.

A blitz this Friday, enter here.

A 2nd Allegro here.

A 6 round event here.

Hopefully you'll find something for you. 

Hi everyone,

hope you are doing ok.

We are running a blitz event on lichess this evening - 3mins +.2sec / move increment  It's quite informal, and you can sign up through the link below:

https://lichess.org/tournament/wLryjahs

Password is 1822.  We had 39 players last week - was a lot of fun.

Edinburgh are also involved in a UK Team Blitz competition - up to 10 teams can sign up, and individuals then join the event through their team.  You get paired against players only from team members, and the top 5 point scorers contribute to your club total.  Would be interesting to do something similar with Scottish clubs if there was interest?

We are going to experiment running an online Allegro tournament on Sunday 26th April. It will be a 5 round event from 10:00 to 15:20.

As with many people, this format is new to us, so we are limiting it to Chess Scotland members and those who have played in previous Scottish Chess Tour events for whom we have details for.

It will be played on Chess.com, we will use CS grading for pairing and tournament selection. Results will not be passed onto CS for grading.

Pairings will be done using Vega, just as we would at a Scottish Chess Tour event.

For more information, please see our website.

For more information or enquiries, please use the Contact Page on our website, or post questions here on the forum.

Hopefully it will be an enjoyable event and players will get an opportunity to play against others they have previously encountered at events around Scotland.

From Chris Fegan

I am delighted to announce that CSC has now formally launched its #chessathome offering for schools, children and parents following the Easter break.

This offering is designed to support schools, children and parents during the Covid-19 lockdown and the ambition is to teach chess to 1 million children. The centrepiece of the offering will be 1 million FREE Gold ChessKid accounts, valid to July 20, 2020

I would stress that this offer is not limited to CSC schools but is available to all UK primary schools, individual parents, libraries and chess clubs.

Further details can be found on the CSC Website using the following link

https://www.chessinschools.co.uk/

Dear Chess Friends

I have organised an online Glasgow Polytechnic - Ken Stewart Quickplay for April 30th, 2020 on Chess.com. Registration on my new website chess123.uk

This was when our OTB would have taken place. As a substitute I am attempting this online. This is new to me, and perhaps to some of you as well. There is a free Basic membership on Chess.com
.
I hope that Chess.com will be working OK on that day. It has been acquiring a lot of new members recently.

I have set up a new website to deal with the new situation.

More details at: https://www.chessscotland.com/news-post/...pril-2020/



I hope this works out.

Andy Heron

Webmaster
Glasgow Polytechnic Chess Club

Hi All
I've been asked to help out players who wish to set up their clubs or indeed wish to play games online. Thor and myself are setting up any clubs in the Glasgow and Lanarkshire leagues but we will assist any club or league who wishes to play online games, especially in the current crisis. There are also teams in the Edinburgh league already set up. Contact me directly by telephone (07899 832770) or by email ian.brownlee@systemsit.co.uk if you require any help or assistance. Thor is also keep to help as well.

Ian