With a few of our highest graded players missing - at the Isle of Man - our Open will be more open than usual so here's a chance for those just bubbling under to have a decent crack. Value of the top three places is £575.

Roll up, roll up.

This incredibly strong event kicks off today with plenty of Scottish interest! Check the link below for the full draw

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.iominternationalchess.com/news/101-masters-round-1-pairings-including-provisional-pairings.html">http://www.iominternationalchess.com/ne ... rings.html</a><!-- m -->

Provisional pairings see Alan Tate getting to play against the Dutch legend Jan Timman, while Neil Berry has black against Gawain Jones.

Other Scottish pairings...
Stephen Mannion vs Alexander Donchenko (2577)
Nils Grandelius (2647) vs Keti Arakhamia-Grant
Danny Gormally (2500) vs Jonathan Grant
Alina Zahn (2130) vs Andrew Greet

Just a wee reminder that the deadline for copy is October 10th

Any contributions (reports/games/results/articles etc) received before then would be greatly appreciated!!

Andy Burnett

Is it just me or is the 2015/2016 season not available yet?

And two Not Quite Immortal Kieseritzky - Anderssen games.

There is a link....

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...I think.

These titles were set up in 1971, anyone know when they fell out of use and was it by falling into disuse and forgetting about them or was it formally done?

I noticed that the President has published details of the management board meeting that was recently held.

There are a few questions that need clarification.
1/ Why were Pentland Hills appointed to replace Dunfermline as a club member of council?
Was this vacancy open to other nominations?
The reason given that Pentland Hills were next in line is not good enough. When an election is held and the result is declared the election is over. When someone resigns then a new election is held the result of the previous election is irrelevant. You do not appoint someone to replace of where they finished in the previous election for such a place.

The AGM is the place for such appointments and elections not the management board

Good luck to Monica, Callum and Jake who are representing Scotland at the Euroyouth, Croatia starting today.

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The Poly Quickplay (5 rounds @ 15min per player per game) is on Thursday 24th at 7pm.
So far I have 22 entries - we can probably take 38 maximum due to room size.
Fuller details on Poly website <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~daw/Poly/">http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~daw/Poly/</a><!-- m -->

It has been a busy few weeks since the AGM, however I’m slowly getting to come to grips with what I have taken onboard.

The first Management Board meeting since 2008 was held in Glasgow on 16 Sept. in what was intended to be a get-to-know each other coupled with an introduction into the needs and requirements of the various directorships.

There were three formal issues addressed at the start of the meeting:
• Membership Secretary
Karen Howie was confirmed as Membership Secretary following the 6 month initial evaluation period.
• U18 Council Representative
Declan Shafi has accepted the role of U18 representative on council and this was confirmed by the Management Board in accordance with the constitution rules.
• Dunfermline Club Membership on Council
Dunfermline have withdrawn from their position as Club Member on Council. It was felt that with the President as a club member on Council a second was unnecessary. Consequently the unsuccessful club standing for election at the AGM – Pentland Hills – is now the Member Club on Council.


The Home. Home Junior, International Junior and International Directors along with myself were given a background on what is expected of Directors with regard to PVG. Our thanks go to Steve Mannion for taking the time to do this.

There was a discussion on the use of Rules and Arbiters led by Alex McFarlane and Andy Howie and this added some clarity as to what to do and the suggested methodology in updating rules.

The Directors, according to the constitution are not formally members of the Management Board, where the responsibility lies with the Chairs of the respective Home, Junior and International Boards. It felt that consistency and the need for the directors to have some degree of control that the Board Chairs were appointed by the Management Board. Additionally the method of determining these Chairs is not actually defined in the constitution.

Consequently the Board Chairs are as follows:
• Home Board – Ian Brownlee
• Junior Board – Mark Sanger
• International Board – co-Chairs : Peter Smith (Junior Issues) & Andy Burnett (adult issues)
These boards will be assembled and function as defined in the constitution.

The date for the next Board meeting has yet to be determined, but topics will include those we were unable to cover owing to time constraints, namely – Marketing (Fiona Petrie), Grading (Douglas Bryson) and Finance (David Congalton).

The meeting will also look at the proposals for the Chess Scotland strategy after inputs from the Directors after consulting with their relevant Boards. With these proposals we try to build both a 1 year and, hopefully, 3 year plan laying out the way ahead for Chess Scotland. This plan will of course be presented to Council.

Jim Webster
President
Chess Scotland