17-07-2019, 08:09 AM
I have nothing but great admiration for all the truly wonderful participants in the recent International Scottish Championships, which was played, as ever, in such an obvious spirit of mutual respect and boundless friendliness by all. I am especially grateful to all of the organisers, who, as ever, do such sterling work on an overwhelmingly voluntary basis to make such events in Scotland work and sustain Chess Scotland.
Poignantly, this year's event was dedicated to the memory of one of the most stalwart, quietly objective, effective and selfless of these Chess Scotland servants, Ken Stewart (1942-2018). I thought of him a lot at Edinburgh ... and of his endless ability to defuse tensions and solve problems, sometimes, Solomon-like, when all despaired. I'd like to ask his advice on the current thread, as there is an (apparent) very 'real' problem here about 'eligibility'. Sadly.
Here is what is actually logged at Chess Scotland's (own) 'international' link (though not easy to find) about selection criteria for Scottish (adult) international individual and team representation: https://www.chessscotland.com/internatio...sentation/
I presume that Matthew Turner, although registered through CS for FIDE international rating purposes (and therefore potentially eligible to represent Scotland internationally), still fails to meet any of these three 'selection' criteria. This has long been my own understanding and I well remember being (one of very many) consulted on the finalisation of these criteria some years back, when the issue was raised whether CS should relax the 'one parent rule' to include 'one grand-parent', which would admit Matthew to consideration for selection to represent Scotland internationally. Those moves (for good or worse) failed to achieve a majority.
If this (published) definition of 'international eligibility for national representation' (CS's own published words) also holds for eligibility to contest the national individual Scottish championship title(s), then Matthew was clearly ineligible to contest this year's Scottish championship title ('only' the International Scottish Championship Open title, which he won hands down … fantastic play, by the way!). But do they?
I think most folk's 'assumption' has been that the nationality definition for international 'representation' extends to eligibility (or otherwise) to contest national championship titles. That kind of makes most obvious sense. Unfortunately, however, there may actually be a legal lacuna here in CS's definitions. I cannot find any clarity on this on the CS website anywhere re: national titles.
Moreover while the 2019 entry form does indeed say (under 'Titles') that winners must satisfy 'Scottish nationality (SCO)', that only adds puzzlement to me, as it's far too cryptic and certainly unrelated to the only Scottish nationality definition (for international selection purposes) that appears to exist on the CS website, which I and most others (I guess) thought also applied to eligibility to win the Scottish Championship.
An act of Solomon!? I have some ideas. But I'll keep to myself just yet.
Poignantly, this year's event was dedicated to the memory of one of the most stalwart, quietly objective, effective and selfless of these Chess Scotland servants, Ken Stewart (1942-2018). I thought of him a lot at Edinburgh ... and of his endless ability to defuse tensions and solve problems, sometimes, Solomon-like, when all despaired. I'd like to ask his advice on the current thread, as there is an (apparent) very 'real' problem here about 'eligibility'. Sadly.
Here is what is actually logged at Chess Scotland's (own) 'international' link (though not easy to find) about selection criteria for Scottish (adult) international individual and team representation: https://www.chessscotland.com/internatio...sentation/
I presume that Matthew Turner, although registered through CS for FIDE international rating purposes (and therefore potentially eligible to represent Scotland internationally), still fails to meet any of these three 'selection' criteria. This has long been my own understanding and I well remember being (one of very many) consulted on the finalisation of these criteria some years back, when the issue was raised whether CS should relax the 'one parent rule' to include 'one grand-parent', which would admit Matthew to consideration for selection to represent Scotland internationally. Those moves (for good or worse) failed to achieve a majority.
If this (published) definition of 'international eligibility for national representation' (CS's own published words) also holds for eligibility to contest the national individual Scottish championship title(s), then Matthew was clearly ineligible to contest this year's Scottish championship title ('only' the International Scottish Championship Open title, which he won hands down … fantastic play, by the way!). But do they?
I think most folk's 'assumption' has been that the nationality definition for international 'representation' extends to eligibility (or otherwise) to contest national championship titles. That kind of makes most obvious sense. Unfortunately, however, there may actually be a legal lacuna here in CS's definitions. I cannot find any clarity on this on the CS website anywhere re: national titles.
Moreover while the 2019 entry form does indeed say (under 'Titles') that winners must satisfy 'Scottish nationality (SCO)', that only adds puzzlement to me, as it's far too cryptic and certainly unrelated to the only Scottish nationality definition (for international selection purposes) that appears to exist on the CS website, which I and most others (I guess) thought also applied to eligibility to win the Scottish Championship.
An act of Solomon!? I have some ideas. But I'll keep to myself just yet.