Chess in the Greater Manchester area
Federation News
Presidents Report 2010 AGM.
The past year has, in my view, been one of steady, if sometimes difficult, progress.
For me the most noteworthy achievement has been the introduction of a fifth division into our league.
For over three decades, we saw a gentle decline in interest in our league. The eight divisions I remember from the 1970s slowly reduced until we were left a few years ago with just three, and were even talking about cutting down to two.
We are nowhere near getting back to eight divisions, but our re-creation of D and E divisions in a time of a general decrease in interest in chess is something in which we can take pride.
There is, of course, absolutely no room for complacency. I know that several clubs are planning to reduce the number of their Manchester League teams for next season as a consequence of losing members, and it would certainly not be accurate for us to assume that we have turned a corner in the battle against declining numbers.
We need to continue to try to adapt to the changing needs of our clubs, and to ensure that we are able to find a place within our league for all club players in our region, regardless of strength.
The league got off to a slow start last season and I know that many clubs were irritated by the late revisions of our fixtures and the delays that those revisions caused.
As with many things last season, this was caused by the coincidence of two relatively minor events working against each other. In particular, we introduced our new division in the same season that the ECF decided to revise its grading base. In itself, the ECF revision shouldn’t have been too much of a problem; it should have simply been a case of revising upwards our E Division grading ceiling. Unfortunately, the ECF felt that it needed to recalculate certain grades and then to recalculate them again. The affected grades related mainly to relatively low graded but very active juniors, and, unfortunately, the re-grading of this pool of players had a knock-on effect on the grades of many of those wanting to play in E division.
So, we ended up in a situation where clubs were entering a team in E division, based on the first grading list, asking to switch to D Division when the second grading list meant that several of their players were now too strong for E, and switching back to E when these players’ grades were reduced again.
We could have been tougher and insisted that clubs stick to their original choice of division, but that would have led to ill-will and lots of defaults and, in any event, it wasn’t the clubs’ fault that the ECF kept revising their grades.
So, we decided to allow divisional change requests for as long as we possibly could.
I am grateful for the patience and understanding of those clubs who felt that they were messed about through no fault of their own during this period.
The result was a highly successful first season for D division, and continuing interest in E Division, so I hope that the initial pain is now seen as worthwhile.
After our slow start, we then, of course, had to cope with some of the worst weather for decades, which pretty much wiped out our fixtures programme for January. This not only meant that we had lots of rearranging to do, but also lead to some misunderstandings about cup fixture dates.
The main casualty of this was the Reyner Shield, and, unfortunately, the final has still to be played.
Before I leave the subject of the league, I need to refer to a couple of disputes which have arisen this year.
I don’t particularly want to go into details here, but I do want to make a general point.
Our officers may sometimes make decisions with which clubs and individual players disagree, but in my view, they are all people of great integrity and we are very lucky to have them.
We ask a great deal of our officers, and if we are to survive as an organisation, there must be a responsibility on all of us to appreciate that unpleasant and disproportionate reactions to decisions will simply lead officers to decide that chess administration is more trouble than it’s worth, and we will all be the losers for that.
So, please keep engaging with us about our activities, feel free to comment and criticise, but please also be mindful that you are dealing with amateurs, giving up their time to help the federation, who do not deserve to be subject to personal attack.
I now want to turn to our representative teams. Our county captains and league team organiser will report shortly, but my personal focus this season has been on our attempts to create a 4NCL North team.
All is going very well, and we have a list of something like sixteen players who have shown interest in playing 4NCL chess for Manchester next season. Although this is an excellent response, the nature of these things is that there will be different degrees of commitment amongst the sixteen. So, we have certainly not closed the book on applications, and I would encourage anyone who is interested in playing, but has not yet told us, to contact James Murphy.
I would emphasise that the team will be self-financing, and that there are no plans for the MCF to subsidise it.
I have very little to report this season about our relationship with the Northern Counties Chess Union. At last year’s AGM, I mentioned that I had received a letter from Mr Tenant-Smith, offering to meet with me, to explain why our application to join the NCCU was inappropriate. After much thought, and after taking advice from many people, I declined to meet Mr Tenant-Smith.
In my letter to him, which I copied to the President of the NCCU, I explained that I am more than happy to meet with anyone to discuss Manchester chess, but that yet another meeting focussing entirely on the issue of our application to join the NCCU was, in my view, pointless.
I am increasingly certain that the way forward is to build relationships with NCCU members in other areas, and I am confident that it will then eventually become clear that any resistance to our joining the NCCU is short-sighted and self-defeating.
We are already making great progress with this strategy. Our junior organisers work extremely well with their Lancashire counterparts, and our league team plays against teams from both the Sheffield and the Lancaster and Morecambe leagues, with matches against both Liverpool and Bradford in the pipeline.
Building bridges is a slow process, but these projects are worth doing for their own sake, and I am sure we will feel huge benefits from all of this good work in the future.
As always, it is my privilege to acknowledge the hard work done by all of our officers in the past year and to thank them all for their time and efforts.
I never like to single out particular people, but I do want to especially mention those who are not standing for re-election.
James Murphy has decided not to continue as captain of the county open team. He leaves a sound base for whoever succeeds him, and we are grateful to him for that. The good news is that we are not losing James from the Federation, as he has kindly agreed to take forward our plans for a 4NCL team.
Eric Nowell has decided not to continue to captain our correspondence chess team. This has been an extremely challenging job in recent years, with many players moving away from correspondence chess, and it is a huge tribute to Eric that we have continued to field competitive teams.
Des Perryman has decided to step down as Deputy General Secretary. His organisation and conscientiousness will be much missed on Council and we thank him for his work in looking after our trophies over many years.
In conclusion, this is, of course, my final AGM as President. It has been a huge honour to be your President for the past four years. It really is a fascinating and challenging job, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time.
I wish my successor well and would like to thank you for making my time as President so pleasurable and interesting.
Matthew Pollard
July 2010.
The past year has, in my view, been one of steady, if sometimes difficult, progress.
For me the most noteworthy achievement has been the introduction of a fifth division into our league.
For over three decades, we saw a gentle decline in interest in our league. The eight divisions I remember from the 1970s slowly reduced until we were left a few years ago with just three, and were even talking about cutting down to two.
We are nowhere near getting back to eight divisions, but our re-
We need to continue to try to adapt to the changing needs of our clubs, and to ensure that we are able to find a place within our league for all club players in our region, regardless of strength.
The league got off to a slow start last season and I know that many clubs were irritated by the late revisions of our fixtures and the delays that those revisions caused.
As with many things last season, this was caused by the coincidence of two relatively minor events working against each other. In particular, we introduced our new division in the same season that the ECF decided to revise its grading base. In itself, the ECF revision shouldn’t have been too much of a problem; it should have simply been a case of revising upwards our E Division grading ceiling. Unfortunately, the ECF felt that it needed to recalculate certain grades and then to recalculate them again. The affected grades related mainly to relatively low graded but very active juniors, and, unfortunately, the re-
We could have been tougher and insisted that clubs stick to their original choice of division, but that would have led to ill-
I am grateful for the patience and understanding of those clubs who felt that they were messed about through no fault of their own during this period.
The result was a highly successful first season for D division, and continuing interest in E Division, so I hope that the initial pain is now seen as worthwhile.
After our slow start, we then, of course, had to cope with some of the worst weather for decades, which pretty much wiped out our fixtures programme for January. This not only meant that we had lots of rearranging to do, but also lead to some misunderstandings about cup fixture dates.
The main casualty of this was the Reyner Shield, and, unfortunately, the final has still to be played.
Before I leave the subject of the league, I need to refer to a couple of disputes which have arisen this year.
I don’t particularly want to go into details here, but I do want to make a general point.
Our officers may sometimes make decisions with which clubs and individual players disagree, but in my view, they are all people of great integrity and we are very lucky to have them.
We ask a great deal of our officers, and if we are to survive as an organisation, there must be a responsibility on all of us to appreciate that unpleasant and disproportionate reactions to decisions will simply lead officers to decide that chess administration is more trouble than it’s worth, and we will all be the losers for that.
So, please keep engaging with us about our activities, feel free to comment and criticise, but please also be mindful that you are dealing with amateurs, giving up their time to help the federation, who do not deserve to be subject to personal attack.
I now want to turn to our representative teams. Our county captains and league team organiser will report shortly, but my personal focus this season has been on our attempts to create a 4NCL North team.
All is going very well, and we have a list of something like sixteen players who have shown interest in playing 4NCL chess for Manchester next season. Although this is an excellent response, the nature of these things is that there will be different degrees of commitment amongst the sixteen. So, we have certainly not closed the book on applications, and I would encourage anyone who is interested in playing, but has not yet told us, to contact James Murphy.
I would emphasise that the team will be self-
I am increasingly certain that the way forward is to build relationships with NCCU members in other areas, and I am confident that it will then eventually become clear that any resistance to our joining the NCCU is short-
Building bridges is a slow process, but these projects are worth doing for their own sake, and I am sure we will feel huge benefits from all of this good work in the future.
As always, it is my privilege to acknowledge the hard work done by all of our officers in the past year and to thank them all for their time and efforts.
I never like to single out particular people, but I do want to especially mention those who are not standing for re-
Eric Nowell has decided not to continue to captain our correspondence chess team. This has been an extremely challenging job in recent years, with many players moving away from correspondence chess, and it is a huge tribute to Eric that we have continued to field competitive teams.
Des Perryman has decided to step down as Deputy General Secretary. His organisation and conscientiousness will be much missed on Council and we thank him for his work in looking after our trophies over many years.
In conclusion, this is, of course, my final AGM as President. It has been a huge honour to be your President for the past four years. It really is a fascinating and challenging job, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time.
I wish my successor well and would like to thank you for making my time as President so pleasurable and interesting.
Matthew Pollard
July 2010.
4 NCL North
Some of you will already have seen the email, reproduced below, from Mike Truran:
‘As some of you will know already, the 4NCL have recently been working to develop the idea of a 4NCL Northern League in response to the comment often made in the past that the 4NCL's choice of locations for its weekends has not always been conducive to northern teams playing in the 4NCL.
‘After various discussions with the Barcelo and De Vere hotel/conference centre chains we have now been able to secure weekends for a 4NCL Northern League on the same terms and conditions as our other 4NCL venues as follows. Within the constraints of venue availability, venue willingness to host us, coordination with other 4NCL weekends etc we have tried to get an equitable geographical spread between the north-west and the north-east:
‘6/7 November 2010: Barcelo Redworth Hall (nr Darlington)
15/16 January 2011: De Vere Wychwood Park (nr Crewe)
19/20 February 2011: Barcelo Majestic Hotel (Harrogate)
26/27 March 2011: De Vere Wychwood Park (nr Crewe).
‘These weekends are the same as those already booked for rest of the 4NCL for the 2010/2011 season to avoid the 4NCL taking up too many weekends in an already crowded chess calendar. We envisage all 4NCL teams (Divisions 1, 2, 3 and the Northern League) coming together at the fifth and final weekend on 30 April-2 May 2011 at the 4NCL's Hinckley Island venue (between Coventry and Leicester) for what would hopefully be a memorable and spectacular coming together of chess players from across the country.
‘As regards format etc:
‘1. The Northern League would have a similar format to existing 4NCL Division 3 (six boards, no female player requirement, Swiss system, FIDE rated, ECF graded etc etc). There would be two matches a weekend as with the rest of the 4NCL.
‘2. Rules, entry guidelines etc would be the same as the 4NCL. You might want to visit these links for the 4NCL's rules and entry guidelines for the 2009/2010 season for an idea of what playing in the Northern League would entail: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/0910_rules.htm and http://www.4ncl.co.uk/0910_announce.htm
‘3. Our current thinking is that the Northern League would be combined with the current 4NCL third division for the fifth and final weekend, with match and game points carried forward from the first four weekends. Promotion places to Division 2 would be from the combined Northern League/Division 3 league for those teams that wanted it.
‘4. As with the existing 4NCL, rules around the composition of teams would be as relaxed as possible. Teams can be existing clubs and teams, amalgamations of two or more clubs and teams, groups of friends, junior teams etc etc etc.
‘My purpose in emailing you is to gauge the level of interest for a Northern League that we would get from Manchester Chess Federation clubs and teams. Ideally we would need at least 12 teams from across the north to get things started (and if we did so, we could probably guarantee a prize fund of at least £1,000 to provide some further interest and incentive) - but by the same token if there is minimal interest in the idea, then the sooner I know the better so that I can cancel venue bookings in good time so as to give the venues a decent chance of finding alternative bookings.’
The MCF will discuss at its January Council Meeting the possibility of entering a team in the 4NCL.
This should not, however, discourage individual clubs, combinations of clubs or new teams to consider the possibility of entering this competition themselves.
Should you have any interest in playing 4NCL North chess for a Manchester team, or have any views about the desirability, or otherwise, of the creation of an MCF 4NCL team, please feel free to email President@Manchesterchessfederation.co.uk.
Any queries about the competition itself should go to Mike Truran at mike@mtruran.fsnet.co.uk
M Pollard
December 2009.
Some of you will already have seen the email, reproduced below, from Mike Truran:
‘As some of you will know already, the 4NCL have recently been working to develop the idea of a 4NCL Northern League in response to the comment often made in the past that the 4NCL's choice of locations for its weekends has not always been conducive to northern teams playing in the 4NCL.
‘After various discussions with the Barcelo and De Vere hotel/conference centre chains we have now been able to secure weekends for a 4NCL Northern League on the same terms and conditions as our other 4NCL venues as follows. Within the constraints of venue availability, venue willingness to host us, coordination with other 4NCL weekends etc we have tried to get an equitable geographical spread between the north-
‘6/7 November 2010: Barcelo Redworth Hall (nr Darlington)
15/16 January 2011: De Vere Wychwood Park (nr Crewe)
19/20 February 2011: Barcelo Majestic Hotel (Harrogate)
26/27 March 2011: De Vere Wychwood Park (nr Crewe).
‘These weekends are the same as those already booked for rest of the 4NCL for the 2010/2011 season to avoid the 4NCL taking up too many weekends in an already crowded chess calendar. We envisage all 4NCL teams (Divisions 1, 2, 3 and the Northern League) coming together at the fifth and final weekend on 30 April-
‘As regards format etc:
‘1. The Northern League would have a similar format to existing 4NCL Division 3 (six boards, no female player requirement, Swiss system, FIDE rated, ECF graded etc etc). There would be two matches a weekend as with the rest of the 4NCL.
‘2. Rules, entry guidelines etc would be the same as the 4NCL. You might want to visit these links for the 4NCL's rules and entry guidelines for the 2009/2010 season for an idea of what playing in the Northern League would entail: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/0910_rules.htm and http://www.4ncl.co.uk/0910_announce.htm
‘3. Our current thinking is that the Northern League would be combined with the current 4NCL third division for the fifth and final weekend, with match and game points carried forward from the first four weekends. Promotion places to Division 2 would be from the combined Northern League/Division 3 league for those teams that wanted it.
‘4. As with the existing 4NCL, rules around the composition of teams would be as relaxed as possible. Teams can be existing clubs and teams, amalgamations of two or more clubs and teams, groups of friends, junior teams etc etc etc.
‘My purpose in emailing you is to gauge the level of interest for a Northern League that we would get from Manchester Chess Federation clubs and teams. Ideally we would need at least 12 teams from across the north to get things started (and if we did so, we could probably guarantee a prize fund of at least £1,000 to provide some further interest and incentive) -
The MCF will discuss at its January Council Meeting the possibility of entering a team in the 4NCL.
This should not, however, discourage individual clubs, combinations of clubs or new teams to consider the possibility of entering this competition themselves.
Should you have any interest in playing 4NCL North chess for a Manchester team, or have any views about the desirability, or otherwise, of the creation of an MCF 4NCL team, please feel free to email President@Manchesterchessfederation.co.uk.
Any queries about the competition itself should go to Mike Truran at mike@mtruran.fsnet.co.uk
M Pollard
December 2009.
4 NCL North
The Manchester Chess Federation has decided to formally express an interest in entering a team in to the proposed 4NCL North Division.
Whether we actually enter a team will be dependent upon both our ability to recruit sufficient players for the team and, of course, upon the 4NCL confirming that the Division will go ahead.
Teams will consist of six players, with no restrictions or obligations in terms of a gender or age balance, and will play eleven matches.
The proposed dates and venues of these matches are:
6/7 November 2010: Barcelo Redworth Hall (nr Darlington)
15/16 January 2011: De Vere Wychwood Park (nr Crewe)
19/20 February 2011: Barcelo Majestic Hotel (Harrogate)
26/27 March 2011: De Vere Wychwood Park (nr Crewe).
30 April/1 May/2 May 2011: Barcelo Hinkley Island (between Coventry and Leicester)
We appreciate that not everyone can commit to all eleven rounds, and we therefore anticipate that we will need a squad of about twelve players to enable us to fulfil all of these fixtures.
The MCF expects the team to be self-financing, and will therefore expect players to meet their own travel and accommodation costs, as well as making a small contribution towards entry fees (expected to be about £2.50 per game).
Players will also have to be direct members of the ECF in order to participate.
We see this as an excellent opportunity for local players to take a step towards achieving their FIDE rating as well being an interesting competition in its own right.
It is difficult to gauge just how strong this new competition will be, but we anticipate that we should be able to accommodate a wide range of strengths, so please don’t assume that we are only looking county Open Team standard players for our team.
If you are interested in playing for the MCF 4NCL team, or have any questions or comments, please email: president@manchesterchessfederation.co.uk .
M Pollard
February 2010.
The Manchester Chess Federation has decided to formally express an interest in entering a team in to the proposed 4NCL North Division.
Whether we actually enter a team will be dependent upon both our ability to recruit sufficient players for the team and, of course, upon the 4NCL confirming that the Division will go ahead.
Teams will consist of six players, with no restrictions or obligations in terms of a gender or age balance, and will play eleven matches.
The proposed dates and venues of these matches are:
6/7 November 2010: Barcelo Redworth Hall (nr Darlington)
15/16 January 2011: De Vere Wychwood Park (nr Crewe)
19/20 February 2011: Barcelo Majestic Hotel (Harrogate)
26/27 March 2011: De Vere Wychwood Park (nr Crewe).
30 April/1 May/2 May 2011: Barcelo Hinkley Island (between Coventry and Leicester)
We appreciate that not everyone can commit to all eleven rounds, and we therefore anticipate that we will need a squad of about twelve players to enable us to fulfil all of these fixtures.
The MCF expects the team to be self-
We see this as an excellent opportunity for local players to take a step towards achieving their FIDE rating as well being an interesting competition in its own right.
It is difficult to gauge just how strong this new competition will be, but we anticipate that we should be able to accommodate a wide range of strengths, so please don’t assume that we are only looking county Open Team standard players for our team.
If you are interested in playing for the MCF 4NCL team, or have any questions or comments, please email: president@manchesterchessfederation.co.uk .
M Pollard
February 2010.
