Tromso Olympiad 2014

[amuir]

Guys, this topic is too hot for a noticeboard discussion from me so I will comment no further.
Why not discuss who should be in the team, not who isn't ?

[andyburnett]

Guys, this topic is too hot for a noticeboard discussion from me so I will comment no further.
Why not discuss who should be in the team, not who isn't ?

Well I guess that's the problem Andy. Are we alone within FIDE in not following its guidelines/rules on this?

If we were to follow them, then we simply ask all those who play under SCO if they are available and willing to play, working from Jonathan Rowson down the rating list until we have a team. If ratings don't give a clear indication between certain players, then the selection team goes to work.

Personally I think the FIDE system of transfers is wrong. For a fee of between 500 and 5000 Euros, a player can switch allegiance after 1 days residency (with a 3 month wait for possible objections)!

[IMarks]

Why not discuss who should be in the team

I thought we were.

[HelenMilligan]

Guess I shouldn't be interfering but hey I did see my name mentioned!

As far back as I remember, Scottish Chess has had a strict rule of requiring residence for those who are not eligible though other channels. For example, Carey was advised that if she took a job in England, she would lose her right to play in the Scottish team as she would no longer be resident.

It's really not clear to me why Matthew was allowed (by Chess Scotland) to change to SCO in the first place, but I guess that's not the issue. By FIDE rules he's perfectly eligible as he has the correct (UK) passport. However, if you allow him to play without satisfying the residence requirement, then there are an awful lot of other British players who might decide to swap from their own nationality to 'SCO' and to me that seems wrong.

If you drop the residence requirement, then all those keen chess-playing people who don't quite make the English team but would readily make the Scottish team will have their applications in to FIDE forthwith...and I don't see that you would have any means to deny them places in the Olympiad teams.

[Alan Jelfs]

As far back as I remember, Scottish Chess has had a strict rule of requiring residence for those who are not eligible though other channels. For example, Carey was advised that if she took a job in England, she would lose her right to play in the Scottish team as she would no longer be resident.

But surely she would still qualify under the fourth eligibility criteria :

" Has the player been previously accepted as qualifying for Scottish representation?"

[amuir]

Perhaps in the eligibility clause we should simply add: anyone with SCO grandparent is SCO but cannot play for teams.
On a different topic, the invitations are now out. The travel fund seems to apply to faraway teams eg NZ but not SCO. Also no chartered flights specially arranged, so flight costs will be sky high on 1st and 15th august with 150 countries all flying same day. Our funds cannot cope with this. JR usually likes appearance fees, instead may have to pay to play. Several other IMs/GMs eg Colin also might not want to pay to play.
Perhaps it will be the rich bankers team that plays eg Alan Minnican, Chris Morrison.

[Douglas Bryson]

Why is it causing such difficulty the idea that a federation should have its own rules of what it deems to constitute eligibility to play for the national team.

First off there is no FIDE diktat on how any federation should operate its national selection policy. As far as FIDE is concerned any player with the relevant country code SCO will be accepted as a Scotland player if the national federation puts them forward to be a represenative.

The fact that members voted not to change the longstanding eligibility requirements is a matter for us the Scotland federation - not a matter for FIDE. IE If a non-resident player can only offer a connection at grandparent level then on the most recent vote CS deems that not sufficient to make you eligible to play.

How is that any different from other self imposed restrictions CS or any other federation might lay down. For example if you choose not to join the national federation as an individual paid up CS member then you wont be picked regardless of how good you are.

Other federations make it a requirement that you compete in the national championship or you wont be selected.

Federations can indeed "make up" their own rules on how they want to operate eligibility.

The <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.chessscotland.com/international/elignational.htm">http://www.chessscotland.com/internatio ... tional.htm</a><!-- m --> eligibility rules will need a rewrite to reflect that players can apply for a country code change to SCO based on a claim at grandparent level.

[Matthew Turner]

Without wishing to go over old ground. It seems to me that there is no reason to decline anyone the right to play under SCO for FIDE purposes. After all, that is what would have happened had I put Scottish when I entered my first FIDE tournament. Equally, I could have put Belgian, Nigerian, Israeli or any other Nationality that I fancied.
Then there is a totally separate issue of who is eligible to play for the Scottish team. It seems entirely appropriate that a national federation will set rules on who is eligible. Since this is an important issue there may be quite fierce disagreements, but lets not lose sight that the rules are put in place to do the best for Scottish Chess which is what we all want.
To reiterate, I would like to represent the Scottish team one day, but I fully accept that the rules at present do not allow me to do so. I am in no way seeking to change those rules. I have also said that if the rules were to be changed I would only play with the agreement of the rest of the team.
I hope that is clear.
Matt

[andyburnett]

@ Dougie: I'm not sure people are finding difficulty with the idea that we can have our own CS eligibility rules, rather that it wasn't particularly clear how, or if, the FIDE rules affect us (to me at least).
As you've now pointed out a couple of examples of individual nations rules on this (membership/championship participation) it makes more sense to me. Thanks

@ Matthew: Thanks for that clarification. May I ask, however, WHY you want to represent Scotland?

[Matthew Turner]

Andy,
That is actually a rather good question!

I would like to play in an Olympiad because I think it is a great experience for any chess player to do so. I am sure that there are any number of nations that I could switch allegiance to in order to do this (small countries who just want the strongest team they can get), so why am I bothering with Scotland? Well, relatives from both sides of my family come from Scotland, I feel very at home in Scotland, I like the majority of Scottish chess players and I approve of what ChessScotland generally tries to do.

I an not sure if I was supposed to give an answer reciting Rabbie Burns and invoking the spirit of Bannockburn, but there is the simple truth.

Matt