Graham,Graham Borrowdale wrote:A great deal of common sense written there by Kevin, in my view. While it might be acceptable to refuse to grade the odd game which has been adjudicated, a method of completion both players will have agreed on, it can not be right to refuse to grade the whole league because that fairly remote possibility exists.Kevin Thurlow wrote:"The issue immediately before your discussion, abolition of adjudications, may well overrun and overlap. If leagues are desperate to retain adjudication even at the risk of opting out of ECF grading, their players have no need to be forced into ECF membership."
Surrey has a system which works well for nearly all players, that there is a choice of adjudication (of which there are very few), adjournment, QP (30 moves in an hour plus 20 minutes)and Fischer timing for league matches. SCCA has contacted Alex H explaining this and asking for a re-think. I pointed out to SCCA that Alex was obsessed with QP and wanted it installed no matter how much damage it did to chess. I favour QP/Fischer timing myself, but understand (and care) that lots of people don't. It might leave SCCA with a difficult choice next AGM. Do you drive away those players who don't want to play speed chess? I think SCCA is big enough to have its own grading system- most players only play in the league and internal club competitions anyway and many club players do not care about gradings. Unless there's a sizeable majority for QP finish, it is just possible that a counter-proposal, saying "we carry on as before, run our own grading system, and by the way, you don't have to be ECF members" might just win...
ECF should be encouraging people to play chess. I hope the ECF meeting throws out the proposal to stop grading games in leagues where someone else might have opted for adjudication!
On the subject of dropping game fee so that players have to join the ECF before they can play a single league game, that is most likely to discourage newcomers from playing. My own league already has that rule, and is quite literally dying from lack of new players. There might not be a connection, but we should do as much as we can not to discourage newcomers.
Your final point about new members is vital...but, its not just about not discouraging newcomers....its about positively encouraging newcomers.
One of the classic problems for league chess is that newcomers can find it difficult to get on the ladder, because the bottom rung is too high..
By this, I mean that leagues and clubs must cater more effectly for novice level players, ie..those in the ungraded and U80 range..
They must set up leagues that specifically cater for this group of players, and run internal club competitions that cater also for these people...
They must also make more concerted efforts to attact such novice players to local clubs and welcome such players..
Adverts in the local Press `Forthcoming Entertainments` section can help...if they can get the papers to publish..
Also, to establish networks with local Secondary schools and colleges, to encourage youngsters to join up, or even to start there own clubs and enter teams in `novice leagues`....