05-05-2023, 09:56 PM
I would agree that an Open tournament of only five rounds heightens what might indeed be termed, for want of a better word, the likely 'lottery' element of this championship. I also understand the financial pressures. But couldn't CS have extended the Open to include one further day and seven rounds to help mitigate the high chance element?
Has anyone, moreover, considered approaching ScottishPower for perhaps a three year sponsorship deal? The company hardly lacks current profitability and I suspect that their sponsorship people will have their antennae pretty well attuned these days for an association with deserving community investments for worthwhile, essentially amateur sports as chess, seeking to emerge from the dire impacts of Covid and cost of living effects that have greatly raised the cost of staging such events in the last few years?
With its centuries old history and all of the game's wider inter-generational and societal benefits, Scottish chess and the championships have a great story to tell.
Way back in 1994, when the then SCA lacked a sponsor for the Centenary Championships, Scottish Rail (I think it may have then called itself) spontaneously offered to fund the event quite handsomely, in response to a piece in my chess column in The Herald that highlighted the financial problems and above all sought to 'sell' the game and the championship's in that sort of positive light.
The company put on a fun blitz chess opener on the Glasgow-Edinburgh commuter line and the championships was a wonderfully enjoyable experience for the railways and chess. Perhaps ScottishPower could find ways to put on similarly bright 2023 light?
Has anyone, moreover, considered approaching ScottishPower for perhaps a three year sponsorship deal? The company hardly lacks current profitability and I suspect that their sponsorship people will have their antennae pretty well attuned these days for an association with deserving community investments for worthwhile, essentially amateur sports as chess, seeking to emerge from the dire impacts of Covid and cost of living effects that have greatly raised the cost of staging such events in the last few years?
With its centuries old history and all of the game's wider inter-generational and societal benefits, Scottish chess and the championships have a great story to tell.
Way back in 1994, when the then SCA lacked a sponsor for the Centenary Championships, Scottish Rail (I think it may have then called itself) spontaneously offered to fund the event quite handsomely, in response to a piece in my chess column in The Herald that highlighted the financial problems and above all sought to 'sell' the game and the championship's in that sort of positive light.
The company put on a fun blitz chess opener on the Glasgow-Edinburgh commuter line and the championships was a wonderfully enjoyable experience for the railways and chess. Perhaps ScottishPower could find ways to put on similarly bright 2023 light?