Minutes February 2024
2024-02-29
Minutes of the Chess Edinburgh Council Meeting
held at the Edinburgh Chess Club, 1 Alva Street, Edinburgh on Thursday 29th February 2024 at 19.30.
Present: David Stewart (Chair), Calum McGillivray, Jim O’Neil, Dave Watson, Martin Robinson,
Peter Woollven, Stewart Good,.Crawford Macnab and Jenny Wilson,
1. Apologies for Absence: Nil
2. Minutes of Last Meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 23rd November 2023, were approved: proposed by Jim O’Neil and seconded by Martin Robinson.
3. Matters Arising
3. Child Safety Policy. Stewart Good reported that he had not received a reply from Liz Sams and Council members were asked to think of other people who might be asked to act as Contact Person. This will be discussed at the next meeting.
14. (d) Paintings. Jim O’Neil reported that these have been distributed to members of the Wandering Dragons club.
4. Edinburgh Chess League
The League Secretary, Calum McGillivray, reported that:
(a) Sandy Bells 1 had played an ineligible player in a league match. The Council decided that, for a first offence, the offending club should forfeit one point. If the ineligible player won their game, the result would be reversed and if they had lost, a point would be taken from their team. However, the games would be put forward for grading as the result over the board.
(b) Edinburgh University 1 have still to arrange some matches.
(c) George Neave of Edinburgh West 1 had raised that in their match with Edinburgh 1, Freddie Gordon had played above Neil Berry, which was different from their expected line-up and that this meant that Edinburgh West members had spent a lot of time preparing to play against the wrong opponent. Martin Robinson stressed that Edinburgh West had no issue with Freddie playing above Neil (this had been approved by Calum) but felt that this should have been publicised prior to the match.
The Council decided that starting next season, team pools in the Premier and Division 1 will be listed on the website in playing order and that clubs wishing to change this must inform Calum a week prior to the match and he will then amend the website. This does not change the rules regarding playing order.
(d) The engraving of the Division 1 Trophy is ongoing.
(e) Civil Service had complained about playing conditions at Sandy Bells. However, as this appeared to be a one off, the Council decided just to keep an eye on the situation.
5. Edinburgh Allegro Chess League
Peter Woollven reported that the league continues to run smoothly and that there is one round to go.
6. Lothians Allegro Congress
Martin Robinson reported that the event had taken place as scheduled on 14th January at Bainfield Bowling Club and that it had run smoothly.
Entries were down by 25% and this resulted in a loss of £81 as against a profit of £367 the previous year. The lower entry was put down to less advertising, the date being publicised later than normal and a clash with a Junior event in Glasgow.
Most players entered and paid on-line and prizes were paid electronically saving a lot of time.
Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding there was no canteen.
A provisional date of 12th January was set for next years event and Martin will liaise with Harry Marron to avoid a clash with any junior events.
7. Summer Cup/Plate
Calum McGillivray will again run these competitions and invitations to clubs will be sent out soon.
8. Edinburgh Congress
Calum McGillivray reported on his endeavours to find a suitable venue. He has narrowed it down to Summerhall and the Edinburgh College at Sighthill.
It was agreed that Calum, Martin Robinson and Jim O’Neil would meet the following week, possibly by Zoom, for which Jim would draw up a budget of proposed entry fees and profit/loss.
A final decision on the Congress will be made by the full Council.
Neil Irving has offered to help with the Congress and Martin and Jim will contact him.
9. Lothians Championship
Calum McGillivray reported that the first three rounds are almost complete and that all competitors have now paid.
It was decided that in the event of a tie the prize-money would be split and the title decided by
(a) the result of the match(es) between the tied players
(b) the sum of the opponents’ scores
(c) the sum of their progressive scores
10. Lothians Junior Chess
Jenny Wilson reported that
(a) Entries for the first team event on 2nd December were down slightly.
(b) Entries for the Lothian Junior Championships are also down: 92 players across four categories,
(c) They will be hosting the UK Chess Challenge Mega Final on 23rd March and the Giga Final on 22nd/23rd June, both at Broughton High School.
(d) The Scottish Girls’ Championships are now being held in Glasgow.
(e) Due to their healthy financial situation they have been able to reduce entry costs and make some donations.
(f) Bruntsfield Primary School won the Scottish Primary Schools Championships and James Gillespies were third in the Secondary event.
11. Website
It continues to be updated on a regular basis.
12. Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer, Jim O’Neil, had circulated interim reports prior to the meeting which showed that in the period from July income had exceeded expenditure by £89.50 and that we have total assets of £20,443.
We have still to pay the grading fees for the Allegro League which may mean that the entry fees may have to be raised next season.
Trophies have still to be valued.
The training of Martin Robinson in the online banking system is under way.
13. President’s Report
David Stewart reported that
(a) Chess in the Park: He hopes that this will start in May but is unsure if the owners of the cafe are going to have an indoor cafe, which we rely on for storage.
Due to the time it was decided to leave discussion of Chess Edinburgh’s involvement until the next meeting.
15. AOCB
Jim O’Neil raised the question of using incremental time controls in the League.
Due to the time it was decided to leave discussion of this until the next meeting and Jim O’Neil said that he would circulate ideas on how this can work.
Date of Next Meeting
Thursday 30th May 2024 at 7.30pm at the Edinburgh Chess Club. Calum McGillivray to book