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"Imagine that, in 2011, I was a new player to tournament chess. When I entered my first (FIDE) tournament I could put my nationality as SCO, ENG, or any other nationality for that matter, and that would become my FIDE code. There were no status requirements."
I do not believe that this statement is correct.
Only the Scottish IRO (International Rating Officer) can issue Scottish FIN numbers. Tournament organisers cannot register a player with FIDE. IROs can, but only to their Federation. The English IRO cannot assign Scottish FINs. (FINs are the identification numbers that are issued by FIDE before a player takes part in an internationally rated event - the equivalent of our pnum).
That situation has not changed recently and was in operation in 2011.
Matthew therefore was a special case. I can understand Matthew's error in this regard. Regardless of their 'real' nationality the ECF will register anyone playing in an English event as ENG regardless of nationality. (This happened to Donald Heron without his knowledge. If you look at his FIN it has and English format.)
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29-03-2022, 01:09 PM
(This post was last modified: 29-03-2022, 01:11 PM by George Neave.)
Just read Jim Webster's faux outrage above. Hardly the language I'd expect from someone supposedly taking on a moderator role. In particular I note the accusation "I looks to me that you have simply a basic case of personal vendetta"
What utter nonsense Jim - I am not sure what you are smoking but I suggest you give it up quick.
I think the arguments presented up until this post all seemed fairly mature and reasoned and, dare I say, attempting to apply some dispassionate logic to the situation. To my mind, the key point is we do not want "foreign" GMs parachuted into the National Team or winning national awards when not even matching the membership's eligibility criteria. It doesn't matter who we are talking about.
I note with interest Alex's post that Matthew relinquished his natural English affiliation on grounds of cost. Suspect there must be more to this. Anyway, clearly mistakes have been made and as a result of only this, personally, I'd see no issue with Mathew keeping his SCO affiliation by exception if it saves him some money and allows him to compete individually in FIDE events. As long as it is understood that as a foreign grandmaster he is no more eligible for the Scottish title or place in the international team than Gary Kasparov.
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Gary Kasparov you say!?......just joking.
Putting aside the history of past motions and the latest discussion on here, I now think it is pretty simple and George nailed it with this sentence.
"To my mind, the key point is we do not want "foreign" GMs parachuted into the National Team or winning national awards when not even matching the membership's eligibility criteria. It doesn't matter who we are talking about."
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5. Matters by members. Chess Scotland Champion must be SCO registered. Grey areas over who is Scottish and who isn’t. Discussion on wording of proposal. IE discussion on whether this is to do with number of Country code. Minor amendment – DB suggests change to federation designation instead of Country Code. AM agrees to amendment. amendment passed. Vote on proposal. 16 for. 14 against. Motion passed.
This is from the minutes and does indicate an amendment.
NOTE: I did not say Matthew relinquished being ENG on cost. I do not think that the cost was the issue. I did say that he could have continued as ENG had he wished.
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Had my decision being based purely on cost, I would presumably have not coached various Scottish juniors teams for free, paid the significant transfer fees myself along with an admin donation to CS, or continue to pay the CS membership fees which are currently higher than the ECF's.
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Walter Buchanan wrote
"Matthew can you tell us anything about your dispute with ECF - I'd presumed it was over some point of principle."
This is way, way off topic , as moderator I urge everyone to stay on topic . Any further discussions about the ECF and alleged disputes will not be allowed as they are subjective, opinionated, and ELEVEN years ago
I
