In November 2012, a complaint was made by a parent accompanying her 14 year old child who was representing Scotland at the World Youth Chess Championships in Maribor, Slovenia. The complaint alleged that her child was seized by the shoulders in an attempt to pull him from a chair by an adult male Chess Scotland (CS) official, who was part of the delegation.

After an inquiry, a report was submitted to the Chess Scotland Standards Committee. The CS official involved resigned his post prior to a meeting of the Standards Committee (SC). While the SC noted the resignation, it proceeded to investigate the complaint fully and reached the decision to uphold the parental complaint and made a number of recommendations.

As a consequence, the CS official was suspended from the list of CS Coaches with immediate effect until a meeting could be held with the CS official to decide if further action was required and to consider the reinstatement of the official to the Coaches List and whether he should be allowed to hold office in the future. As per the SC decision, the group to conduct this meeting would consist of the President, Chairman of SC and the PVG Lead Signatory.

The parent was dissatisfied with the decision of the SC and decided to appeal. The matter was then referred to the Appeals Committee (AC) who, following a lengthy review of the evidence, upheld the decisions of the SC.

On 30 April, 2013, the group, convened by the President, met with the CS official to consider the recommendations of the SC. The CS official was interviewed and, after lengthy deliberation, the group decided that :-

(i) he could remain a member of Chess Scotland.

(ii) his suspension from the Coaches List would be continued until 1st September, 2013. After that, he could apply for re-admission to the Coaches List if he so wished.

Posted on: 30-04-2013
Categories: News