It was touched on in Junior thread <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.chessscotland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&p=10577#p10577">viewtopic.php?f=5&p=10577#p10577</a><!-- l -->, but didn't want to deflect on that discussion.

Admittedly I didn't check the facts from the offset, but a quick google has told me:

East Lothian (where I live) + Aberdeen have a clash here with the school term. Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Fife appear to have finished their terms just before the Scottish starts. Haven't checked the many any other areas/regions of Scotland. Andy H is right, East Lothian/Aberdeen and one or two others appear to be in the minority in finishing later. But still right at the start of summer isn't ideal for the Scottish and it does exclude some, not just kids, but those employed in education, and parents of kids who have to care for kids.

Being a regular tournament player it is with lots of regret and dissapointment I cannot experience our big flagship event this year. My kid is in school, my wife would have to take a week off work for the last school week, then near to another 2 weeks for covering me to go to the Scottish. She only gets 4 or 5 weeks hol a year. Not possible.

Myself and a clubmate have been discussing going to Scarborough in October, or the Lake District event. We would rather be playing in the Scottish, it is on our doorstep afterall.

This isn't a rant but a point being made. Can we look at having it a litte further into the summer next year? I appreciate there will be some pratical and logistical reasons for the early nature of this years event. No explanation of that is seeked or required here. If I don't mention it now however, myself and others may miss out again next year.

I'd like to apologise for some over-aggressive posts/rants in the last year or two - in particular to Linda McCusker, Donald Wilson and Angus McDonald, and probably others too. Mostly it was down to frustration and was not intended to be personal in any way. Alan

AS there seems to be a lot mentioned today about MONEY I thought I would ask about the Junior International events this year. I have had a look on the FIDE calendar & it seems none of this years events are going to be easy to get to financially & maybe in some cases logistically. World Youth is South Africa, Euroyouth is Georgia.

My question to all is..... is 2014 the year where CS says well actually these places are difficult & will cost a lot of money, so lets give it a miss. Instead use a fraction of the funds for a majority of the top Junior Internationals to attend the Commonwealth which is after all on home soil & to encourage participation. Even if a 50% entry fee reduction was given, juniors/families will still need to fork out on travel & accommodation for those that are not in the Glasgow area. Some of the funds could even go towards some coaching for them as well. It would also be nice for them to have the squad t-shirt or similar.

There is also the Glorney taking place in Stirling this year where some additional funding could help the home juniors.

What I am saying really is what is the point of CS & families paying a lot of money to go abroad this year when the destinations are not easy & when Scotland is hosting both the Commonwealth & Glorney.

I will go & duck now before the bullets fly but I am being serious here its a very valid question :-ss

Money in chess.
Chess Scotland hasn't got much to go around. The pot gets spread super-thinly.
What could the priorities be?

Here we go....
Just my opinion.

If I had dictatorial influence over how Chess Scotland/congresses spent money (I'll never have the slightest influence as I am not prepared to invest my time in Chess admin (but I believe I'm still allowed an opinion)).

I would:

Never give free entry to anyone (FM/IM/GMs) for any event
Increase congress fees by ~20% (still dirt cheap)
Give £0 to International participants - yes that includes the Olympiad
Give £0 to everything/everyone else Chess Scotland currently finances

So, now I have a completely clean slate and all that saved cash what do I do with it?
Put it all towards supporting junior chess, particularly chess in schools. Every single penny.

Chess Scotland would spend none of its money on adults (including full-time players).

Reasoning?
Most people who play chess have jobs and can afford a few quid to play the game.
The full-time chess players have chosen the lifestyle. They're adults and they know the consequences.
It's a question of priorities. Juniors. Invest for the future.

Well, that should do it.
If the trend on this notice board is anything to go by I look forward to being lambasted with the utmost vitriol. That's OK, because I won't be entering into any pseudo non-debate via the written word.

So feel free, and very best wishes.

Regards,
Kevin.

Congrats to Poly on winning Glasgow league Division One, in their final match
they had one GM ,two IM's and a FM. Is this the strongest team ever to play
a league match?

Queens Baton Relay

April 1st, 2014

I have just been informed that Callum Smith has been selected for the Queens Baton Relay in Banchory on 29th June. Callum was selected for his chess playing as well as his work helping with the Chess Club in a local primary school.

Very well done Callum, fantastic to see you getting this honour!

Andy Howie
Executive Director

Well done Callum!

The Bowes-Lyon Trophy will be held at the Edinburgh Chess Club this year, on the weekend of the 26th/27th April.
It is open to any player graded under 1600 (or ungraded and estimated below 1600). It will be a 5 round Swiss event.

More details can be found on the Chess Scotland calendar. To enter or to find out more information, please email me at <!-- e --><a href="mailto:calum-1989@hotmail.co.uk">calum-1989@hotmail.co.uk</a><!-- e -->

For those interested, England's former U18 chess captain, Phil Makepeace will be playing former England left-back, Graeme Le-Saux at 6pm, Friday, on Bt Sport 1...

I thought I would congratulate Andy Howie for setting up the Scottish Inter Regional Chess League (SIRCL) and the SIRCL chess board made up of a representative from each region. It is also a great idea to make this league FIDE rated and to pick our Scotland team from the results generated from this national event. It's certainly going to turn heads for the points structure Yes April 1st will be a milestone for starting this event. I'm pure made up I am The only thing I'm worried about is his insistence on wearing ties and banning google glasses.....

X( X( X( X( X( X( X( X( X( X( X(

As many of you will know having mobile phones with eye detection (for those who are not sure of what I am talking about, Samsung have a feature in the s4 and Note 3 that tracks where you are looking, it can dim the screen when you look away or scroll for you. I have it disabled as it drives me nuts!). Some smart &%$%&&/§ has come up with an app that can be put onto Google Glasses (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass</a><!-- m -->) so you can see where your opponent is looking and have it highlighted in the inside of your glasses.

As if cheating detection was not hard enough, some moron comes up with this!

:bash: :bash: :bash: