SRB Wrote:Alex, thanks for this. However, I have to say that it's not made things any clearer for me. I don't know if this is a result of a failure on my part to understand something obvious.
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I'm aware all this might sound a bit 'picky' or negative. Sorry if that's the case. In one sense, maybe it doesn't matter, so long as funding as been found and will help produce a strong Scottish. However, there are implications in the sense that the cost of the boards may be borne by the wider chess playing community and in the way that it is (almost) being presented as a given that having these boards will be a "good thing" for all and used by all.
SRB – I think you are right to keep asking questions – IMO such questions should be part of the process by which officers and suchlike of Chess Scotland are held to account, and are helpful to all concerned(not least such officers). And to be honest, I wasn’t really sure what was going on either...
£6,000 is a large proportion of the CS budget (particularly given the doubts over the Government grant – I don’t think anyone ever answered the questions I posed on that subject on the previous noticeboard) so questions needed to be asked. That doesn’t mean there aren’t perfectly satisfactory answers to be had.
I imagine that Alex advised the mysterious benefactor – let’s call them TMB (do we know their real initials BTW??
) - of the cost to hold a super-duper championships and TMB wrote out a cheque.
From that donation a loan has been made to purchase the sensory boards, a loan that must be repaid. Alex reckons we can generate the £6,000 required within 2 years (although another mysterious benefactor has offered to provide an interest free loan of £2,000 should that be necessary).
I think sensory boards are “a good thing”. I certainly enjoyed watching live(ish) coverage of the Scottish and the British Championships. Given that was free, I am happy to offer (strictly anonymously) a donation towards their purchase.
Do we know how many hits/unique visitors watched the coverage of the Scottish and British on both a daily basis and in total? That would help guage the interest.
As regards which games to broadcast, I am open-minded. Watching games both in person (and on t’internet), I know I like to keep an eye on the games in the top tournament, games involving people I know, and maybe one or two games of interest elsewhere – either a particular position or perhaps the crucial last round game in one of the other competitions. If that viewpoint is common, then the “big games” are going to be of more interest to the chess watching public than random games. I think that parallels the situation with football or any other sport, to be honest.
