19-11-2012, 08:57 PM
As the idiot who lugs the boards around the country, I suppose I really should comment on the weekend's shenanigans.
Firstly, Oban did not request the boards from me. I had updated software to test and really didn't want to wait until next year to give it a real test so took the boards with me. The first the Oban organisers knew about it was when I arrived with them and offered them the boards.
Had they requested the boards, and as they are looking at for next year, trying to get sponsorship using the boards, then I think it would have been a completely different outcome.
We have never had this issue before and so there is no precedence to fall back on. Oban is a different event, Oban is quite special as everyone has to travel a distance to get there (bar the few local players). It is a friendly congress where most of us take our partners for the weekend. The TD was in an impossible position and trying to find a solution that would work.
I have been asked what my opinion is of the refusal to play on the board and to be honest, with the effort that was put in with fund raising from the general chess community who wanted these boards, it was a disgrace. I was raging when the last two boards were played on essentially what was a dead board when we could have had one of the other games on it.
I suppose the reality is, I am to blame for this mess for taking the boards in the first place. I want these boards to be available to congresses to use, preferably as a service than at a cost, but as has been suggested by several people to me in private, we need a "code of conduct" to prevent this from happening.
Someone has mentioned in a previous post that it is an honour to play on these boards. I can still remember the faces of the players in the Minor last year in the Scottish in Edinburgh when we played a round on them! Indeed I am looking at raising funds to allow us to get more as I would like to have 20 available for congress use giving a minimum of 4 boards a section. But what is the point if this is the reaction we are going to get?
I have real sympathy for the Oban organisers, it was an impossible position they were put in and they are not to blame. If this is going to become the norm, I am just going to give up as it is just not worth the extra effort I have to put in.
Firstly, Oban did not request the boards from me. I had updated software to test and really didn't want to wait until next year to give it a real test so took the boards with me. The first the Oban organisers knew about it was when I arrived with them and offered them the boards.
Had they requested the boards, and as they are looking at for next year, trying to get sponsorship using the boards, then I think it would have been a completely different outcome.
We have never had this issue before and so there is no precedence to fall back on. Oban is a different event, Oban is quite special as everyone has to travel a distance to get there (bar the few local players). It is a friendly congress where most of us take our partners for the weekend. The TD was in an impossible position and trying to find a solution that would work.
I have been asked what my opinion is of the refusal to play on the board and to be honest, with the effort that was put in with fund raising from the general chess community who wanted these boards, it was a disgrace. I was raging when the last two boards were played on essentially what was a dead board when we could have had one of the other games on it.
I suppose the reality is, I am to blame for this mess for taking the boards in the first place. I want these boards to be available to congresses to use, preferably as a service than at a cost, but as has been suggested by several people to me in private, we need a "code of conduct" to prevent this from happening.
Someone has mentioned in a previous post that it is an honour to play on these boards. I can still remember the faces of the players in the Minor last year in the Scottish in Edinburgh when we played a round on them! Indeed I am looking at raising funds to allow us to get more as I would like to have 20 available for congress use giving a minimum of 4 boards a section. But what is the point if this is the reaction we are going to get?
I have real sympathy for the Oban organisers, it was an impossible position they were put in and they are not to blame. If this is going to become the norm, I am just going to give up as it is just not worth the extra effort I have to put in.
"How sad to see, what used to be, a model of decorum and tranquility become like any other sport, a battleground for rival ideologies to slug it out with glee"