Indeed the word 'forced' may have been a bit of artistic license, but as it stands, the pay-to-play fee can not be compared to Bronze Membership, and I think that is the issue... we have a membership structure for people know only want to play league chess, but not an equivalent membership structure for those who just want to play Congress chess.Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑Sat Apr 28, 2018 12:23 pmThat's factually incorrect. You are NOT required to pay an annual fee to play in Congresses. Instead you get a sort of temporary membership or the duration of the Congress, although it's termed as "pay to play" rather than temporary membership. Bronze members make that payment as well because their membership rights don't extend to Congresses.Hok Yin Stephen Chiu wrote: ↑Sat Apr 28, 2018 6:27 am
In danger of repeating the same point, if you only want to play in tournaments, but not League chess, you are forced to pay Silver
You could go the other way and have a "League membership" and a "Congress membership" without overlap. Expensive yes for those wanting to take part in both and only marginally so in one, but that's the consequence of adopting flat rate per head per year schemes for raising money for the ECF.
Anyhow i m running 1.5 hours late!