English Chess Forum

Today I received a fundamentally flawed ruling by the Complaints Panel, and I intend to appeal. This matter is not over by a long chalk. There is not enough facepalm in the world. Tim, your involvement with chess has been a draw for Forest Hall*, a draw for the North East**, and at this rate will b...

Rule of thumb, a competition that has an attack named after it is prestigious enough to not have the wrong person win it

I tried it. (Well, if it got a harrumph out of Lord Robertson...) When it says it's pairing you with a human player, it isn't. It's pairing you with a rock-stupid AI. If you've got a queen in your hand, you can go all-in without a second thought. For all the thought they put into the hand mechanics,...

I do have complete confidence in the highly qualified panel of Gareth Pearce, Suzzane Wood and Roger Emerson. Best regards, Tim Wall" If, after arguing at length about the procedure adopted to appoint a panel, someone states that he has "complete confidence" in the "highly qualified panel" then tha...

So we've learnt that Tim doesn't want to replace Carl Portman, supports the work of the ECF, and doesn't have a problem with the panel appointed to hear his complaint. But he's still "extremely unhappy". Down with this sort of thing.

Having said all that, if there was a satisfactory explanation as to the date of that letter, this whole matter could have been killed off a long time ago. The absence of any explanation does, I have to say, leave me a little uneasy. Suppose Carl walked out of the interview having been told that the...

Coming back to the central issue, while my sympathy for Tim Wall is somewhat limited, I note [and I have said this before and so apologise for the repetition] that the dating of Carl Portman's communication remains unexplained. To that extent, I feel Tim has a fair point. He makes assorted fair poi...

I have received a reply from Non-Executive Chairman Julian Clissold today. It is breathtaking in its blatant misrepresentation of my complaint, and the way he ignores the Elephant in the Boardroom: That the directors who consider the complaint (or appoint a complaints panel) should not be the same ...

I read today the article in CHESS by Tim Wall about the history of the Northumbria Masters. It is a good article. Made me think it would be nice if chess organisers could all get along a bit more, though that may be a naive attitude. :( No man ever needs to be convinced, either of the need for ever...

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 28, 2019 5:41 pm

On the other hand, if he's not happy either with the panel or with the manner of its appointment (I have no opinion on the matter either way, for the record) what is he supposed to do, if not say so?

Blog about it for everyone else's entertainment, obviously

[Yes, fair enough. Though there is still the issue of the decision to appoint an independent panel (which isn't in the procedure). I appreciate he has stopped short of saying he doesn't wish this particular panel to hear the dispute but there already seems to be an element of a defensive fallback i...

David Robertson wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 28, 2019 12:53 pm

Is any of this that important? I mean, really - is it?

Chess is not that important, David. Go fix the climate or something.

I think Tim has a point. The type of complaint - against the CEO and possibly other Board members - isn't one that's currently envisaged by the Complaints Procedure so arguably Tim, as the complainant, ought to have been consulted about the appointment of an outside adjudication panel. Without comm...

Tim. Take your journalist hat off and put your legal hat on. Never in the history of journalism has there been a "list of unanswered questions" that got answered to the satisfaction of the questioner. If there was a chance of the ECF answering them, it has now gone, because they know that you're fis...

It is unwise to assume that iterating until you reach a steady state will produce grades where most of the results align with the model probabilities. There is more than one set of probabilities to retain each steady state; changing the model probabilities each year might produce a closer alignment...