3rd Pimlico Chess Tournament

[David Gilbert]

News for all you London-based players as the League season draws to an end. The 3rd Pimlico Chess Tournament takes place over five successive Thursday evenings, starting at 6.30pm on Thursday, 30 May 2013 through to Thursday, 27 June 2013. Entry details are here http://pcc1.net/3psct.html

There are three sections - Open, Major (Under-150) and a Minor (Under-120). The tournament is open to all, but this year it combines the three Civil Service individual trophies - the Barstow Cup, the Star Trophy and the James Curtis Trophy. Anyone who has ever been a UK civil servant is also eligible to win one of these.

Numbers are restricted to 60 overall, so worth entering early to be sure of a place.

[David Gilbert]

Oh! By the way. The Star Trophy was presented by the London Star newspaper. It is said The Star coined the term "Jack the Ripper" in the so-called "Dear Boss" letter and I noticed the other day that the posters advertising the London Dungeon include a Star headline "Ripper Strikes Again".

[Ian Thompson]

The tournament is open to all, but this year it combines the three Civil Service individual trophies - the Barstow Cup, the Star Trophy and the James Curtis Trophy. Anyone who has ever been a UK civil servant is also eligible to win one of these.

It says on the entry form that, to be eligible to win one of these trophies, you have to be eligible to play in the Civil Service [Chess] League. That, as far as I can tell, is very different from "anyone who has ever been a UK civil servant". It excludes any Civil Servant who doesn't belong to a chess club that plays in the Civil Service League, but includes any non-Civil Servant who has been a member of a chess club that plays in the Civil Service League for at least 2 years.

[David Gilbert]

The tournament is open to all, but this year it combines the three Civil Service individual trophies - the Barstow Cup, the Star Trophy and the James Curtis Trophy. Anyone who has ever been a UK civil servant is also eligible to win one of these.

It says on the entry form that, to be eligible to win one of these trophies, you have to be eligible to play in the Civil Service [Chess] League. That, as far as I can tell, is very different from "anyone who has ever been a UK civil servant". It excludes any Civil Servant who doesn't belong to a chess club that plays in the Civil Service League, but includes any non-Civil Servant who has been a member of a chess club that plays in the Civil Service League for at least 2 years.

Ian. Good Question. Well the Answer is anyone who has ever been a Civil Servant is qualified to play in the Civil Service League. For example, there are already two entries, one from a former member of the Admiralty and another from a player who worked for British Telecom in the 1980s. Although the Admiralty and BT no longer have teams in the Civil Service League both players are qualified to play for UNATS (unattached) Chess Club, as is anyone else who works, or has worked, as a Civil Servant in a Government Department that no longer exists, or does not have a team in the League.

The event of course is open to anyone - you don't have to have a Civil Service background. But you do need be a current or past Civil Servant to qualify to win one of the Trophies. There are currently 20 entries and we have space for just 60, so anyone stuck with nothing to do on the five Thursday evenings starting on 30 May 2013, get your entry in before it's too late.

[Ian Thompson]

Well the Answer is anyone who has ever been a Civil Servant is qualified to play in the Civil Service League. For example, there are already two entries, one from a former member of the Admiralty and another from a player who worked for British Telecom in the 1980s. Although the Admiralty and BT no longer have teams in the Civil Service League both players are qualified to play for UNATS (unattached) Chess Club, as is anyone else who works, or has worked, as a Civil Servant in a Government Department that no longer exists, or does not have a team in the League.

I've been playing for Pimlico this season in the Central London Chess League. I haven't played for them in the Civil Service League because I didn't think I was eligible, not having been a club member for the required 2 years. From what you're saying, it seems that I could have played by dint of having had two summer vacation jobs in the Civil Service while a student, many years ago.

[David Gilbert]

Well the Answer is anyone who has ever been a Civil Servant is qualified to play in the Civil Service League. For example, there are already two entries, one from a former member of the Admiralty and another from a player who worked for British Telecom in the 1980s. Although the Admiralty and BT no longer have teams in the Civil Service League both players are qualified to play for UNATS (unattached) Chess Club, as is anyone else who works, or has worked, as a Civil Servant in a Government Department that no longer exists, or does not have a team in the League.

I've been playing for Pimlico this season in the Central London Chess League. I haven't played for them in the Civil Service League because I didn't think I was eligible, not having been a club member for the required 2 years. From what you're saying, it seems that I could have played by dint of having had two summer vacation jobs in the Civil Service while a student, many years ago.

It depends where you worked. You would have needed to have been in the Home Office or the Ministry of Justice to have played for Pimlico in the Civil Service League, but you are eligible to play for the Government Department you worked for, and if they do not have a Club in the League you would be eligible to play for UNATS. So the Question now is are you going to enter the competition?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

From what you're saying, it seems that I could have played by dint of having had two summer vacation jobs in the Civil Service while a student, many years ago.

Ooh! I did work experience at 16 at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist for a couple of weeks. Am I eligible!

[David Gilbert]

From what you're saying, it seems that I could have played by dint of having had two summer vacation jobs in the Civil Service while a student, many years ago.

Ooh! I did work experience at 16 at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist for a couple of weeks. Am I eligible!

Happy days! Of course the current holder of the Barstow Trophy was a member of the Government Chemist Chess Club (no doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong).

[David Gilbert]

On a historical point, the Barstow Trophy was presented to the Civil Service League by Sir George Barstow, a Treasury Civil Servant and a keen chess player. By the time he left the Treasury he had been in the civil service for nearly thirty years, but his resignation may have been hastened by a clash of personalities with Winston Churchill, who was chancellor of the exchequer in 1924-9. Churchill was often impatient in his search for new ideas and methods, and Neville Chamberlain observed that he treated 'the older Treasury men like Barstow' with such 'marked discourtesy' that they 'eventually resigned'.  (Source M. Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, 5: 1922-1939 (1976)).

[James Toon]

I've been playing for Pimlico this season in the Central London Chess League. I haven't played for them in the Civil Service League because I didn't think I was eligible, not having been a club member for the required 2 years. From what you're saying, it seems that I could have played by dint of having had two summer vacation jobs in the Civil Service while a student, many years ago.

The relevant Civil Service League rules are as follows:

1. The League shall be open to all bona fide Civil Service Clubs and to those Municipal and other Clubs who were affiliated to the Civil Service Chess Association as at 31 December 1993.

2. Only past or present bona fide members of their Clubs shall be eligible to play in League matches, and no player shall be eligible to represent more than one Club in the League during the same season. The words 'bona fide' in this rule are intended to convey that the members shall be serving or have served in the Department or Departments represented by their Clubs, and includes those former officers transferred direct to an organization providing services within any Civil Service Department; it also includes those who have been members of an affiliated club continuously for a period of at least two calendar years from the date of notification to the Senior Recorder.

The League is open to all civil servants past and present, so once you're in you stay in, even if your service took place many years ago. The issue, of course, is what the League means by a "bona fide" member. This isn't defined anywhere. I would expect it to exclude short casual jobs in the Civil Service, but I don't think the League's executive committee has discussed this recently.

The other way in is via two years' membership of a club that plays in the Civil Service League. This was introduced in (I think) 2007 at the request of the Greater London Chess Club (GLCC), whose members were drawn from the former Greater London Council. The GLC was abolished in 1986, but the chess club continued in existence. (At that time it was very strong – the club won six league titles in seven years in the 1980s.) Although at least some of its functions continue to be carried out by other bodies (first the London Residuary Body, now the Mayor of London), it was very difficult for GLCC to recruit new members. So for the first time the League agreed that non-civil servants could take part. The membership test was initially three years but was later reduced to two.

Following the rule change, GLCC opened its doors to external players and, through having a regular club night (Tuesdays), and an open venue (i.e. a church hall rather than a secure government building, so that anyone could drop in and play chess), and an outlet for its members to play competitive chess in another league with no restrictions on eligibility (the London League), its membership increased and I understand is now around 50. The club's future seems secure. The turnover of players seems quite rapid as they attract many students who are only passing through London, but the inflow does at least seem to be matching the outflow.

One other Civil Service League followed the same path as GLCC. The Home Office Chess Club, which from 2007 was the Home Office and Justice Chess Club (HOJCC), went public in 2011 as Pimlico Chess Club. Unlike the GLC, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice are very much part of the governmental structure, and new civil service members have come through from time to time, so that wasn't the main driver. HOJCC decided to become an open, community-based chess club for the following reasons: (1) The consolidation of the HOJ estate in recent years (fitting more civil servants into fewer buildings in order to save money) left the club with no storage space for its equipment, and most of the club's equipment disappeared when contractors moved in to reconstruct part of the office; (2) Most of the club's members are now ex-civil servants and very few people had access to the secure government building in which home matches were played; (3) The club wanted to start a new venture (the Central London League) where all games of chess would be finished on the night, in frustration at the continued use of adjudication as the default method of finishing games of chess in the Civil Service League – a proposal at the 2011 Civil Service League AGM produced a majority for making finishing on the night the default option, but this did not gain the two-thirds majority required for a rule change. The issue is back on the agenda for the forthcoming 2013 AGM; (4) the club wanted to take advantage of a recent change in charity law that opened the way for chess clubs and similar organisations to attain charitable status, and this required an open membership policy. The club was the first and as far as I know remains the only chess club in the UK to have attained charitable status.

In the past two years, the Central London League has been in operation and seems to be establishing itself. Pimlico's membership has more than doubled, with many of the new members living locally and wanting to join a local club. The club also has a team in the London League Minor Division A, and is organising an open summer tournament for the third year running, and is starting a series of open blitz tournaments, so it's certainly a happening place.

The seven other clubs in the Civil Service League do not have an open venue with a club night, or, as far as I know, an open membership policy, so have not been able to attract new members in the same way as GLCC or Pimlico. Overall, numbers in the League are in steady decline – 170 in 2012/13, down from 176 in 2011/12, 187 in 2010/11, and 200 in 2009/10. It is possible that some clubs will continue to lose members and become uncompetitive or even cease to exist in a few years.

This poses an existential problem for the Civil Service League. It needs to attract new members, but finds it increasingly hard to do so from within the Civil Service itself, given the continued fragmentation of the civil service centre and the steady transfer of many of its functions to the private sector. Removing all eligibility restrictions would be an option, but would mean losing the separate identity of the League as an employment-based chess organisation. It would be just another chess league competing for attention in an overcrowded London market, and would have to base its appeal to outsiders on its own attractiveness as a chess-playing environment. Clinging to adjudication as the default option for finishing games doesn't seem the best way to start given that almost everywhere else in the UK uses a finish on the night as the default option.

The League's executive committee are aware of the problem and will need to address it very soon. In the meantime, we have the difficult situation whereby a significant proportion of the members in two of the clubs in the League are not yet eligible to play in the League. You have to ask how long this uneasy compromise can hold.

[Peter Ackley]

James

The situation (ie the danger of the CSCL folding) is not just specific to the CSCL (I do appreciate you know this!). The LCCL (London Commercial Chess League) is also now down to two divisions, dwindling clubs and shrinking board numbers per match (not to mention increasing defaults). There's even a piece on the website detailing how the league has dwindled.

Probably not one for this thread but are we reaching a situation where the LCCL and the CSCL might consider merging? I appreciate some teams play in both leagues, but not all.

The rules of membership are broadly similar (if anyone has the time please post) - offhand I think you need to work for, or have worked for (and maintain a pension scheme with) an organisation with a team based in London. Those qualifying, but without clubs, play for HMC (Honorary Members Club).

It would be a shame to see leagues such as this fold.

Peter

[James Toon]

These are the eligibility criteria for the London Commercial League:

2. Membership of the League shall be open to Clubs attached to and representing a Commercial, Public Utility, an Educational Establishment or Public Service organisation within the Metropolitan Area, and to individual persons, who shall be known as "Honorary Members". Honorary Membership is available to individuals from any such organisation which has not a Club affiliated to the League and such Honorary Members will be regarded as being members of the H.M.C. (Honorary Members Club), which may enter a team or teams in any of the League events…

3. The qualification for a player to represent a Club in any competition shall be the receipt of a regular salary for employment, or pension entitlement, or their equivalent, from the affiliated organisation, or a contractor to that organisation. In addition , for the season 2012/13 only, each Club may select one player not otherwise eligible (a guest player) to represent it in the League's competitions, provided the guest player is nominated to the Match Secretary before the start of the season.

Both the London Commercial League and the Civil Service League are drawing from the same pool of employment-based public service organisations. Not surprisingly, a number of teams play in both leagues. There is an obvious case for merging the two leagues. It would ease fixture congestion and remove the duplication of opponents. A single enlarged league would be able to keep going for longer.

Against that, the leagues have their own different cultures and there a number of differences in the playing rules (although the default of adjudication is one thing they share in common – at the moment). Since each would approach the merger as an independent party, there would need to be compromise on a number of points in order for them to reach agreement. I doubt it would be easy. But it should at least be investigated.

I ought to point out that Pimlico Chess Club was a member of both Leagues but has just withdrawn from the London Commercial League.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"The League is open to all civil servants past and present, so once you're in you stay in, even if your service took place many years ago. The issue, of course, is what the League means by a "bona fide" member. This isn't defined anywhere. I would expect it to exclude short casual jobs in the Civil Service, but I don't think the League's executive committee has discussed this recently."

When it was last discussed, we decided it meant anyone who had ever worked in CS (or for a member club), so a short casual job would do. It even included a player who had been paid to deliver a lecture for the department in question, and he produced evidence that the department had paid him. It would probably not include DHSS claimants or Police informants etc...

The CS League and Commercial League had one meeting about a merger fairly recently, but nothing came of it.

I am the current holder of the Barstow Cup and have been for about 30 years, although I only actually won it twice, then the competition stopped. I was then a member of Government Chemists Chess Club, if we still had a club, we would be the LGC (Limited) Chess Club.

[James Toon]

Kevin has been around for longer than me, so I defer to his recollection of the previous EC discussion. If the matter came up now, the EC would debate the policy and might want to make a recommendation to the AGM to clarify the point. The London Commercial League model is one option. Personally I would expect something more permanent than the examples quoted by Kevin.

The idea of a merger between the Civil Service League and the London Commercial League was raised a few years ago, but it wasn't pursued. Probably neither League felt sufficiently threatened and therefore didn't give it serious consideration at the time.

Kevin won the Barstow Cup on the last two occasions it was contested, in 1993 and 1994. No-one else has held the trophy since the last time it was contested before that, in 1985.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Yes I meant 20 years not 30, and I have just been talking to colleagues about memory loss!