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| YCA Venues There are a few changes to the club venues published in the Yearbook or changes from last year. Note in particular: St Vincents, West Leeds, Pontefract, Sheffield D. The full corrected list is as follows: see YCA Venues The following directions are to WEST LEEDS new venue: Drive FROM Leeds City Centre along Hunslet Road/Low Road (A61). Turn right into Church Lane towards Morrisons. Take first right and the Garden Gate is behind St Joseph's Social Club on Whitfield Place. First match league results.see YCA league tables Regards, Stuart |
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| Under 150s triumph Congratulations to Geoff Smith and the Yorkshire U150 team that lifted the County championship title. Full details on the ECF website. See the Team photo. |
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| Final League tables
Congratulations to York A for their third successive Championship, also to Sheffield B and Calderdale B, Div 2 and 3 winners, not forgetting York E, winners of the AG Sunderland Cup. YCA league tables You can find last years big news items in Archive news |
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THE YCA
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2006 2005/06 was a bad year for loosing
chess friends. We should follow FIDE’s example and
list all our friends we have lost at the beginning of the
YCA AGM agenda. I was most saddened by the tragically
early death of Sam Haystead. Sam was disabled and every
time he played was a victory for him and his devoted mum.
I managed to play Sam twice, narrowly escaping with a win
the first time. He was already a good player and set a
fine example to the rest of us. My condolences go to his
mother and the rest of his family. Though not of
Yorkshire, I was saddened to hear of Steve
Boniface’s death. He was our tutor on the
arbiters’ course that Doncaster organised in
September 2002. Ihor, Stuart, Jim Burnett, Neill Lowther
and myself attended. The saddest part of it was that it
took over a week to discover he was dead. And a big
positive to emerge from Jon Robinson’s death is his
very generous decision to leave the majority of his
estate to chess. Junior chess in the country is set to
benefit. It has been an interesting year for
chess in Yorkshire. The biggest achievements have been
the rapid progress of ‘the Juniors’. This goes
back to Ihor Lewyk becoming the Chairman in 2001. Back
then, Junior chess in Yorkshire was not so visible. In
2006, overall in the country the Yorkshire Juniors came 2nd
when adding up all the age groups. The highlight was the
Under 14 Girls winning the County Championship. Just the
idea that we could put out a girls team a few years ago
seemed close to ridiculous and to go from chumps to
winners so quickly is very heartening. For this
achievement I have to say a big thank you to John Hipshon
their manager, and headmaster at Alcuin School in Leeds.
No one could remember the last time that Surrey had not
won the competition. Note that three members of that team
have Alcuin connections. The other feature of that team I
am proud of is the teams’ wide ethnic diversity.
Special mentions must also go to the Under 9 (5th)
and 11 (their best ever performance in coming 3rd!!!)
for both finishing high up in the Nationals.
Congratulations to the Yorkshire Juniors who won Giga
Finals in Manchester; Harry Li (Alwoodley), Robert Bowler
(Copperworks) and Thomas Mavin. They were amongst the
final 54 (from over 70,000!!!) who played in the Tera
Final in August. Harry finished as the top under 8 in the
country. Lastly well done to Jean Luc Weller on making
the England ‘under 11’ team. The other feature has been the NMS. In terms of
getting members it has been very successful. Almost 100%
in some counties. Yorkshire especially South and East
have lagged well behind and this is something we have
been reminded of. However with the BCF changing to ECF
and becoming a company limited by guarantee came
complications and the end result a breakdown in the
relationship between the NCCU and the ECF. The old NMS
has collapsed. Replacing it sees two schemes on offer.
One in which you pay your membership direct to the NCCU
and the other where the County becomes a membership
organisation and collects the money and passes it on to
the ECF keeping 10%. Both schemes will get you a variety
of entry discounts. However with the NCCU scheme you will
not be a member of the ECF. A good deal of your
membership is used to pay game fee. The EFC scheme will
make you a member and that will include your grading. The
YCA Committee has chosen to recommend the ECF scheme. Why
because it is important that we all look at the bigger
picture. We must raise the general membership of the ECF.
We have 30,000 on the grading list but only 1,000 paid up
members that we can show to the government. With more
members we get bigger grants and maybe charity
recognition and sponsors. Joining the ECF is very
important for the bigger picture as it helps determine
the health of chess in the country. Stuart Johnson is the
person to get details of all sides and to interpret the
small print of the two schemes. Do not be afraid to ask
him. Before you yourselves come to a conclusion please
check out the facts and have a look at the detail. On sponsorship etc I am strangely
optimistic that things may be about to happen. I have
been impressed by David Bentley’s efforts. I
attended his Rotherham tournament and though different,
it ran very well. I was impressed by the Junior’s
winning £100 first prizes. I have always said that if you give
Junior’s good cash prizes then you get them hooked.
That is what we did in Botswana. In October, Michael
Adams visits for a simultaneous. This is the sort of
event that we need in the region and why David should be
encouraged by all of us. THANKYOU’S. Let me start with
Stuart Johnson. He does a lot of work. To those who have
made him angry remember I have probably been sworn at
more times then anyone. To Jon Griffiths whose work with
the ratings is fabulous. Also to Alan Coupe for his work
with the Junior’s and the AG Sunderland. I must also
thank John Hipshon and Peter Cloudsdale for all the work
they do with Juniors in their area. Peter has always been
there, firstly with Harrogate and then York. John’s
involvement in the Leeds area has put Leeds on the map
and I am sure has made Yorkshire more competitive. We
must never take such people for granted. Also thank you
to Richard Palliser and Ihor for their work in organising
the County Open side. They lost narrowly to Kent in the
Semi Final, after having had the toughest of draws and
seen out Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Many
congratulations to York Chess Club for their fine effort
in retaining the Woodhouse Cup. It took them an eternity
to win the trophy for the first time and then like London
buses come three in a row. And now to one of my small ambitions
for Yorkshire chess. This is to make the Woodhouse Cup
ELO rated. It will cost £24 a team to do and I hope to
find a sponsor so we can start as soon as possible. Then
we will rate the IM Brown. ELO ratings now go down to
1600. They are an ‘international currency’. I
think we as players are interested in getting an ELO; the
4NCL’s successful division 4 has shown this. We are
slowly discovering the wonderful Open’s they have on
the continent especially in France and Spain. If we want
to play there then we need to have an ELO. Explaining to
an organiser in Girona that your YCA rating is 125 might
just get the Catalan equivalent of a reply I once got
from Richard Furness whose retort was… ‘and
what is your Heckmondwike rating’… Finally a big thankyou to all the
Chess players in the county for there has been a big
increase in congress attendance in the county. There has
also been a big increase in the number of Juniors
entering Congresses. For me personally the most heartening
sight was in the Minor section of the British Rapid play
where over 30 of the 101 entrees were under the age of 16
and they were winning the top prizes. Have a good season. Rupert Jones . |
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| OBITUARY - Ted Johnson Ted Johnson, President of Hull & District Chess Association for the last 13 years, passed away on Thursday, 22nd June, 2006 at the age of 66. He had been ill with leukemia for the last 9 months and several courses of chemo-therapy had been unsuccessful. Despite this Ted was very positive and took each day at a time,and, like many other chess players refused to resign even though the position was bad. Ted will be remembered by many chess players from all over the country who attended the Hull Congress which he organised for many years. He was also Treasurer of the Hull Chess Club and was a Captain of one of the club's Yorkshire teams, playing in the I.M.Brown Trophy. Before retirement, Ted was a Schoolteacher. He also ran chess schools at Croxby and South Hunsley and after retirement, he continued to promote Junior chess in the Hull Chess Club and by coaching at various schools. Ted was a keen golfer and was a member at both Springhead Park and Hull Golf Club. I am sure that all chess players will wish to offer their deepest sympathy to Ted's wife, Edith and to his daughters, Kathryn and Debbie. Older members will probably recall that Debbie was a keen player as a Junior. I personally will miss Ted greatly, since we worked as a team in promoting chess in Hull and District for many years. The funeral is to be held at Askew Avenue Methodist Church at 1 pm on Thursday 29th June 2006. Family flowers only. I personally will miss Ted greatly, since we worked as a team to promote chess in Hull and District for many years. John Lawson |
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| YCA AGM I am submitting 3 rule proposals for the YCA AGM on Sat June 17 at Alwoodley CC. I have received no other proposals. 3 separate proposals: Proposal 1 enables opposing captains to check grades before the start of a match, which gives the opportunity to raise any queries and hopefully avoid later problems. Standard practice in many leagues. Proposal 2 allows greater flexibility, giving guidelines on the interpretation of order of playing strength. Team captains are given the opportunity to explain or justify their board order should the Controller suspect their teams have not played in order of strength. The Controller has authority over this, does not need a complaint from the opposing team, and makes the final judgement based on all information available. He should be trusted to be impartial and consistent in all such matters. He should give the benefit of the doubt wherever reasonable, but ultimately he must be allowed the discretion to draw the line between what is acceptable and what is not. His decision may only be overturned by appeal to the YCA Committee. Proposal 3 puts in place a more clarified and slightly less draconian penalty system. It establishes clearly which players should be penalised, working on the principal that the lower placed but stronger players would be the ones to gain a potential benefit. Rule A18 Before the start of play the opposing captains shall exchange lists of their respective team members, arranged in order of playing strength, and the players shall be paired in accordance with these lists. INSERT THE FOLLOWING BEFORE THE NEXT SENTENCE: 1 The lists should include known grades of the players, normally the most recently published YCA grades, unless unavailable or if alternative grades of a higher category are available. 2 Players’ grades and previous board orders shall be the prior factors for determining the order of playing strength, but the Controller will give consideration to any other relevant information made available to him. Category A grades will be considered to be accurate to within a 10 point margin of error, the Controller will allow some extra discretion for lower grade categories. If the Controller has sufficient information to suggest that the limits of these guidelines have been exceeded, he will ask the team captain for further explanation. The team will only be penalised if the Controller is still not satisfied that the board order can be justified. Such a decision will be at the Controller’s discretion, subject to any subsequent appeal to the Committee. If a captain declares he has insufficient players at his disposal and so must default one or more boards, then the opposing captain may insist the lowest board or boards are those defaulted. The penalty for any proven infringement of this rule shall be that defined in rule A16. AMMEND THE LAST SENTENCE ABOVE AS FOLLOWS: 3 The penalty for any proven infringement of this rule shall be loss of the board concerned, one game point being awarded to the opposing player. For this purpose, any player considered to be stronger than a higher placed player shall be penalised. The result of any such game will not be graded. Stuart Johnson You can view the full minutes of the last AGM here. |
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| Yorkshire
Junior successes The Yorkshire Under 11 team yesterday took a bronze medal in the finals of the county championships (The top 17 county teams had qualified for this final stage). Third place is a best ever performance. It also means that the Yorkshire Juniors finished 2nd in the overall Grand Prix (combined results from Under 11s, Under 9s and Under 11 Girls teams). Another best ever performance ! It is a credit to both the juniors involved and the teachers, coaches and organisers of junior chess throughout Yorkshire. Many thanks to Andy Bowler for providing this news. More details can be found |
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