Martin Regan wrote:Rob Thompson Wrote
This Dominic Lawson:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic ... ation.html
That is literally the first article that appeared when googling his name. I somehow doubt that associating with this sort of person is really something that the ECF wants to be doing.
Are you for real? You had to Google him?
My thoughts precisely.
Dominic Lawson is potentially an excellent appointment. I will just mention the "but" and hope that nothing further needs to be said of it. He has had a very close working relationship with the well known chess journalist Ray Keene, who will no doubt be the first to tweet the success of his associate when he is elected, and who may well suggest ways to DL in which he (RDK) can return to the mainstream ECF or contribute behind the scenes.
Eg,
http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... -here.html
Now, it is possible that RDK is able to make positive contributions to English chess, and that having DL as President may encourage him to make them. So I am not speaking as one of those who would is shocked at the mere mention of Keene's name. But of course RDK is just as often, or more often, associated with calamity in English chess, and his associations with former President CJ were part of the whole disastrous story of the latter's Presidency.
I would like to think that DL, as ECF President, would learn the lessons from the CJ experience and treat any further ventures with Keene with caution and seek the agreement with senior figures in English chess, and the Board, before involving him in any way. But will he want to do that? Does anyone know, and has the Board asked? Further, I have some concern that there seems to be no one on the Board who has the knowledge, authority and inclination to have an open discussion with him about this. Virtually the whole of the rest of the ECF Board were largely unheard of just five years ago, let alone active in English chess in the 1980s when Keene found himself resigning from the BCF to ward off an inquiry into Tunis 1985.
So that is my caveat.
