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Good luck to all the Scottish juniors at the British Championships.

Starting today-
Under 16-Stuthi Hegde
Under 12- Jake Sanger, Aditya Hegde

Starting Sunday 31/7-
Under 15- Callum Smith, Sarah Smith
Under 11- James Hartman

BBC News are wanting to film some people playing chess as part of a news article. The article they are filming for will be about politics and Scotland's place in Europe.

This will provisionally take place at 1pm this Monday (25th July) at Bert's Bar, William Street, Edinburgh.

If you are interested in appearing on the news then you are welcome to attend. It is possible that it may not go ahead as planned so I will send another update if anything changes.

12.6. Nominations for elections must be received by the Executive Director in writing (including e-mail) at least three weeks before the meeting, and must be proposed and seconded by current members, and confirm the consent of the nominee to serve.

12.7. Any proposals for consideration at the AGM must be received by the Executive Director in writing (including e-mail) at least three weeks before the meeting, and must be proposed and seconded by current members.

The deadlines are therefore 6th August.

Proposal : All adult Scottish champions (i.e. main and senior) must be affiliated to Scotland (e.g. SCO on FIDE list)

Nomination: Andrew Muir to be International Director and International Director – Junior.

If anyone wishes to propose/second me in these matters to ensure the highest standards in Chess Scotland are debated at the AGM, please email me at <!-- e --><a href="mailto:andrew.muir@blueyonder.co.uk">andrew.muir@blueyonder.co.uk</a><!-- e -->.

Negative comments are not appreciated.

Why are the photos in reports always reduced down to tiny size? At least show the larger version on mouse click. It's basic web stuff.

Grand Prix 2015-2016

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The Grand Prix figures are finalised July 21 after the addition of the 2016 Scottish Championships. These are included twice in GP calculations as last event of 2016 and first of 2017 season. They will only count for grading in the new 2017 season.


Congratulations to the prizewinners. Prize distributions will start at Marymass - all will be notified.

Meanwhile if anyone spots any errors in calculations please let us know immediately: <!-- e --><a href="mailto:grading@chessscotland.com">grading@chessscotland.com</a><!-- e -->. The individual winner list will appear shortly after these final checks.

Thanks to our sponsors Chessbase, New in Chess magazine and Quality Chess. Chessbase and New in Chess have agreed to continue into the new 2017 season. Thanks to Quality Chess for their support this season. We are investigating possibility of a new sponsor.

Thanks to programmers Gordon Rattray and Andrew McHarg who continue to provide invaluable support to the grading system - of which the GP is an offshoot.

This event is due to take place in Marianske Lazne (Marienbad) from 18th November to 1st December 2016.

I will be posting information about this shortly, but in the meantime the following article may be of interest!

http://en.chessbase.com/post/seniors-the-bill-please

Regards,
Andy Burnett
(CS International Director)

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Play at the Glorney-Gilbert International starts today, Monday July 18th, with teams from Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales and France taking part. The Scotland teams will be announced as play starts !

Not much notice of the team selection then. Good luck to the players . Some of our top juniors did well in the Scottish Championship just finished and it was predicted to me yesterday that Scotland will win the Glorney Cup in the next five years.

The fide file is showing weird results for the byes. Please ignore the byes but can people please check both the results and the domestic grading and let me know of any errors as soon as possible. I am aware I am both human and very tired so the chances of a mistake being made are higher than normal!

Grading is up but who is the Scottish Champion - Keti or Matthew Turner?

I don't know who else is watching online, but a few strange games on the go today.

Tate-McKay
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6?! As White's plan is to take on c6 anyway, why on earth would Black waste a tempo on 3...a6? Birkett-Lees has also seen similar play by Black with a completely wasteful ...a6. These are all good players - what's going on??

Bryson- Muir
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2 0-0 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.Kb1 Nc4 13.Bxc4 Rxc4 14.g4 b5 15.b3 Rc8?!
Very bizarre choice of opening by Andy Muir and his 15th move has been known as very bad ever since Rowson - Burnett (!). Dougie is an opening theory specialist of sorts, so no idea what Andy is doing here. 15...b4!? was my novelty way back when and is probably the best move in the position.

A link to the Rowson-Burnett game here http://chess-db.com/public/game.jsp?id=2...2000&lan=6 which Bryson-Muir is still following.