Motion 1 (wording to go to Council)

[Phil Thomas]

Phil,

I am happy to play any opponent (as are you) at any event.

This is totally correct and a valuable contribution from Robin. Unfortunately this is not true of all active players on the Chess Circuit in Scotland. As a recent incident confirms. I still do not have permission from any of the moderators to publish details of that incident (nor have I been refused permission to publish)

Looking at the international situation
FIDE handbook Section C04.2 Paragraph D.10 states


The pairings once published shall not be changed unless two players have to play the second time.

Which prevents any player refusing to play another player once the draw has been made.

FIDE have the situation legislated for. Sadly there is no equivalent rule operating within Scotland. There needs to be. The pragmatic way to introduce such a rule is to modify one of the paragraphs in the document that is being discussed within this thread - a document that should be effective soon after the next council meeting.

The wording I recommend is
No one has the right to refuse to meet either a disabled player against whom he has been correctly paired or an able bodied player against whom they have been correctly paired


The alternative to not modifying this rule would be to give extra rights to disabled players that are not available to able bodied players. Surely this is not anybody's intention