I was thinking about running a graded Blitz night at our club before the end of the season. I can't see any Blitz rating system on our online grading system though? We just have the regular or allegro grades. Didn't there used to be one? Or am I just imagining that?

Is the only way and done thing now in Scotland to grade Blitz games via the FIDE grading system? If so, is that an easy and simple enough process for someone at a club to do?

HI,

I know it's there somewhere, but can't find it - sorry.

Could someone perhaps indicate and/or post the link?

I tried emailing an official, but they were remarkably unhelpful and unfortunately the appropriate person's email address on the contact list seems to be broken.

thanks.

I am sorry to tell you of  the death of one of our Glasgow Polytechnic members, James Watson. James joined us six years ago on a return to chess and was an enthusiastic member of the club, taking part in the club championship, team matches and outside congresses. He assisted with the running of the club and served a spell on council. During the past season he successfully captained the team in the second division of the Glasgow League until becoming ill towards the end of the season.
Funeral arrangements are not yet known but will be posted on the Polytechnic website  http://glasgowpolychess.weebly.com/

This celebration of the 1867 Dundee Congress will take place 14 - 23 July 2017 in Dundee. The first round will take place on 14th July at Hampton by Hilton Hotel. Then, from 15th, it will run alongside the Scottish Championships in the Bonar Hall. Eight GMs and two IMs will be taking part – they are:
 
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant
Pia Cramling (Sweden)
Andrew Greet
Spyridon Kapnisis (Greece)
Colin McNab
Friðrik Ólafsson (Iceland)
Martin Petr (Czech Republic)
Craig Pritchett
Eduardas Rozentalis (Lithuania)
Simon Williams (England)
 
Event website: www.150chess.gs
Facebook: www.facebook.com/150ChessDundee/
 
Principal sponsors are 4jStudios of Dundee http://www.4jstudios.com/ developers of Minecraft amongst other things.
 
Commemorative T-shirts are now on sale for £10 with proceeds going towards running costs – see pics. Please email if you are interested - ksrose29@gmail.com

Congratulations to Alba on winning the 2nd division of the 4NCL in very convincing fashion.  They will certainly be an asset to the first division next year, although I am not quite sure they can break the Guildford dominance just yet.

Congratulations to Jim Kleboe for winning the Nancy Elder with a great run by Tom Constance to reach the final.  Jim has the Nancy Elder tournament already with Both Jim and Tom yet to receive a keepsake trophy (Jim) and a medal for Tom as runnerup

I wonder if we have a class strength in addition to grading for non titled players.

I checked on-line and all I could find was one for the US and if I used their system i would be a Class C player.

Do we have something similar and if so could you let me know the grading bands applicable to each class.

Thank you.

Stirling Congress this weekend and we are trying a new thing, assuming Wi-Fi at the venue.

For results and pairings in the Open click here - http://ayrshirechess.co.uk/wwwOpen/index.html

For results and pairing in the Challengers click here - http://ayrshirechess.co.uk/wwwChallengers/index.html

You may require to refresh the page (press F5) when on it to see the latest page.

1st round pairings are now available, these are subject to change dependent on appearance of entrants. Challengers changed due to late entrant.

I came across the draft unaudited accounts for the year ended 30 April 2016 on the website and was concerned to see the size of the deficit for the year. It looks as if this level of deficit is not sustainable going forward.We are almost at the end of another year and I wondered what the position is currently. Any thoughts about this.

C Black

I see from the Scotsman today Lord Kirkwood has died.

He was a former Glorney Cup player and a great supporter of Scottish Chess in general and the Edinburgh Chess Club in particular. I often saw him spectating at the Scottish Championship  and occasionally at the club but not many of those there would know who he was. His duties as a lawyer and subsequently as a high court judge meant that he played very little chess after the 1950s.

The funeral will be private and details of a memorial service will be announced later.