Liverpool Quadrangular Junior International Tournament

[Gareth T Ellis]

This took place 5th/6th December.

http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/junio ... -quad-2015

http://www.chessscotland.com/news/?p=5508

[John McKenna]

This took place 5th/6th December.

http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/junio ... -quad-2015

http://www.chessscotland.com/news/?p=5508

http://englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/quad ... l-college/

[Coral Bennett]

This took place 5th/6th December.

http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/junio ... -quad-2015

You cannot believe everything you read on the Welsh Chess Union website.
They claim that their under 16 team was "ravaged by illness and injury, and led to the fielding of just three players for this team of six match".
Two children (higher graded than those who did play and top 3 Welsh U16s according to both WCU and FIDE ratings) were deliberately excluded. They were neither ill nor injured. They received no invitation. This was victimisation of children whose parents dared to expose misappropriation, lying and bullying by Directors of the WCU.
Exclusion from this team event was further deliberate targeted bullying and the lie on the website - to blame the size of the team purely on illness and injury - was an unsuccessful attempt to hide the latest bullying from the membership.
I will continue to speak out to expose lies which attempt to cover up the bullying of my children.

[NickFaulks]

You cannot believe everything you read on the Welsh Chess Union website.

Coral Bennett ( whom I do not know ) is scathing about the WCU. I have nothing to contribute regarding her personal complaints, but can report that when the ACP President publicly accused one of Wales' greatest players, IM John Cooper, of having sold a crucial game in an Olympiad for $100, I wrote to every WCU official whose details I could find to ask whether they wished to rebut this outrageous claim. I received no reply, and was not impressed.

[Gareth T Ellis]

Coral Bennett » Wed Dec 23, 2015 11:43 am

Gareth T Ellis wrote:
This took place 5th/6th December.

http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/junio ... -quad-2015

You cannot believe everything you read on the Welsh Chess Union website.
They claim that their under 16 team was "ravaged by illness and injury, and led to the fielding of just three players for this team of six match".
Two children (higher graded than those who did play and top 3 Welsh U16s according to both WCU and FIDE ratings) were deliberately excluded. They were neither ill nor injured. They received no invitation. This was victimisation of children whose parents dared to expose misappropriation, lying and bullying by Directors of the WCU.
Exclusion from this team event was further deliberate targeted bullying and the lie on the website - to blame the size of the team purely on illness and injury - was an unsuccessful attempt to hide the latest bullying from the membership.
I will continue to speak out to expose lies which attempt to cover up the bullying of my children.

Coral, as the WCU Committee probably don't read this forum wouldn't it be more appropriate to raise any issues regarding the WCU at their AGM, as far as I know any member can attend it.

Coral Bennett » Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:16 pm

I did not sue until July 2013.

Any individual,company or organisation that has been sued will reasonably avoid future transactions with the person that sued them, that isn't bullying or victimisation it's common sense.

[Gareth T Ellis]

NickFaulks » Wed Dec 23, 2015 2:06 pm

Coral Bennett wrote:
You cannot believe everything you read on the Welsh Chess Union website.

Coral Bennett ( whom I do not know ) is scathing about the WCU. I have nothing to contribute regarding her personal complaints, but can report that when the ACP President publicly accused one of Wales' greatest players, IM John Cooper, of having sold a crucial game in an Olympiad for $100, I wrote to every WCU official whose details I could find to ask whether they wished to rebut this outrageous claim. I received no reply, and was not impressed.

Nick, when was this ? Should the post have been in the Chess History section of the forum ?

[Roger de Coverly]

Nick, when was this ? Should the post have been in the Chess History section of the forum ?

It was in 1976. The allegations had been made at the time, so I don't know why they should reappear nearly forty years later.

http://www.olimpbase.org/1976/1976in.html#review

from which

Some of the Dutch seemed to blame the Welsh Cooper for their failure in hunt for gold, and an article by Jules Welling appeared in the official Dutch magazine "Schakend Nederland" (Dec '76) where the author suggested Cooper had been bribed to give a draw in a winning position. Actually the final position of the games is slightly better for White yet without any simple winning methods and Cooper was also short of time.

/Based on R. Keene & D. Levy, "Haifa Chess Olympiad 1976"/

This was the position with White to move
[FEN "7r/4k3/p6p/5R2/2pKP3/6P1/r4PP1/7R w - - 13 42"]

Engines score the position as a decent White advantage with candidate moves the obvious Kxc4 and the less obvious Rh1-h5 and I'd suspect most of today's players, accustomed as they are to increments and quick play finishes would have played on.

In the context of the time, the move rate would have been 40 in two and a half hours, with an adjournment after five hours play and then 16 moves per hour. It's at move 42, so presumably Cooper had to seal his next move. The "short of time" comment would suggest that he used up a lot of time on this. Perhaps it had been a serious error?

(edit) There's more about this game at http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1471683 . It appears that White's 41st was the sealed move and the draw was agreed on seeing Black's reply. (/edit)

(edit) and also
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 69#p146969 (/edit)

[Coral Bennett]

I wrote to every WCU official whose details I could find to ask whether they wished to rebut this outrageous claim. I received no reply

WCU Directors do not answer questions when they know that they are in the wrong. Many of my questions have been unanswered for three years.

any member can attend it.

Probably one of the reasons why the Management Board banned us from being members!

that isn't bullying

Vindictively preventing specific children from representing their country by introducing new, retrospective & unpublished rules IS bullying.

it's common sense.

Common sense would have been to quietly refund the misappropriated money as agreed by the Investigation Committee, rather than placing the matter on the internet as the Development Director unilaterally did against the wishes of the Executive Director - who subsequently apologised for her actions before resigning.

[Gareth T Ellis]

Coral Bennett » Thu Dec 24, 2015 2:00 pm

who subsequently apologised for her actions before resigning.

Not standing for re-election isn't resigning.

Coral, whatever your problem with the WCU was/is I hope unlike Nick you don't continue it for the next 40 years

[NickFaulks]

I hope unlike Nick you don't continue it for the next 40 years

You are confused. Do you really believe that the ACP was around forty years ago?

Like everyone else, I assumed that this nonsense was long forgotten until the ACP President, for reasons of his own, chose to disinter it earlier this year, presenting the accusations as indisputable facts. It is easy to dismiss these comments as the ravings of an idiot, but Sutovsky has influence in the chess world and, as shown in the Sandu case, many of his members will seize any opportunity to assume guilt even in the absence of evidence.

The Anti-Cheating Commission has made it very clear that malicious accusations of cheating will be taken very seriously and must be punished, but it is difficult for them to act when no complaint is made. The fact that the WCU chose not to make a complaint only lends support to those spreading these untruths.

[Coral Bennett]

Not standing for re-election isn't resigning

True - just a coincidence that the two Directors who supported my complaint in writing didn’t stand for re-election!? This then prevented one of the Directors from drawing up selection proposals to “avoid continual changes to accommodate or eliminate specific players” (Ref: 1/5/2013 Board minutes) – indicating that selection discrimination has been a regular occurrence in the WCU.
The two Investigation Committee members who only confirmed the refund verbally “changed their mind” and remained on the Board.

Before “Not standing for re-election” the Finance Director wrote to us to say: “I am not suggesting you ‘withdraw’ your complaint as that may imply that you accept that it was ill-founded (which, for good reasons in my view, you clearly don’t).”

One month after he and the Executive Director left office, the Management Board (including three employees of the accused) voted to overrule the Investigation Committee.

I hope unlike Nick you don't continue it for the next 40 years

I will continue to speak out to expose lies which attempt to cover up the bullying of my children.

[Michael Flatt]

If we can put aside your longstanding dispute with the WCU for the moment, your current complaint seems to comprise at least two parts:
1. You dispute the accuracy of the WCU statement given in the news report of the recent Quadrangular match: "The under 16 team ravaged by illness and injury, and led to the fielding of just three players for this team of six match."
2. Your sons appear to have been unfairly excluded from the team.

1. If you believe that the statement on the WCU website is factually wrong you should draw it to the attention of the WCU Secretary or Chairman and request information on which players had been excluded through "illness or injury".

2. The constitution of the WCU is available on its website: http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/wcu-b ... nstitution from which it can be determined that Junior Teams representing Wales are selected by the Junior Committee.

6. OFFICERS & COMMITTEES
iv) COMMITTEES
c) The Junior Committee shall comprise the Director of Junior Chess, one delegate from each zone and a delegate nominated by the Welsh Ladies Committee.

You could contact your representative on the selection committee to clarify the Junior Selection Policy and determine the reason for your sons exclusion.

I suggest that it would help your cause if you could gain support from Senior Officers of your chess club and allow them to act on your behalf.

Although in some circumstances exclusion might to interpreted as bullying, I don't think that applies in this case. The exclusion may be associated with your previous complaint which appears not to have been resolved satisfactorily.

[Coral Bennett]

Dear Mr Flatt,
Thank you for trying to be helpful.

1) I know the information on the WCU website to be factually wrong but I do not need to know which children, if any, were ill and which, if any, were injured. The Management Board have already been made aware of the inaccuracy but I have received no response.
2) By excluding my - higher rated - children, the Junior Director was bullying not only my children, but also the three Welsh children who performed poorly after being forced to play two boards higher. Had they played on lower boards then the Welsh Under 16 team may have scored more than 2 points out of a possible 18.

I am aware of the Junior Selection policy and of who is on the Junior Selection Committee. Most are also Management Board members who vetoed the findings of their Investigation Committee in 2013.
In 2014 I wrote to my children's representative on the Junior Selection Committee querying the retrospective new rule which the Junior Director wrote to tell me had been introduced in order to justify not selecting them that year. I have not yet received a reply.

Officers at our local chess club informed us in 2013 that the Cardiff and West Wales "Mafia" had a long history of bullying players from our area. Although many people are sympathetic, they tell us that they do not get involved in chess "politics". No-one else Welsh wants to risk getting bullied - as our family have publicly been. In particular our Representative to the Management Board has warned us that after he made a complaint some years ago he was "bullied for years". As his father likes to play abroad for the Seniors team he could be anxious that he may jeopardise this by getting involved.

Our "previous complaint" was regarding the return of our money after it was spent by a Director on coaching for her own daughter. As we had paid the money to the WCU by bank transfer, it was legally them who misappropriated our money. We sued and received a full refund plus court costs in 2013. It is the WCU who appear to not accept this as a resolution as it is nearly 2016 and our children are still being bullied.

Exclusion is a recognised form of bullying.

[Michael Flatt]

Mrs Bennett,

Thank you for clarifying details of the previous dispute. The court judgement should have been the end of that particular matter and the fact that you won the case is a clear point in your favour.

It is a problem that many voluntary organisations do suffer these types of disputes as so few people are prepared to serve on the Board or contest an election with an incumbent.

I note that GM Nigel Davies, who appears to have an interest in developing Junior chess players, is now registered with Wales and that someone of his standing might be able to influence Junior selection policy.

[Mick Norris]

Mrs Bennett,

Thank you for clarifying details of the previous dispute. The court judgement should have been the end of that particular matter and the fact that you won the case is a clear point in your favour.

It is a problem that many voluntary organisations do suffer these types of disputes as so few people are prepared to serve on the Board or contest an election with an incumbent.

I'd have thought the problem was actual failing to deal with complaints properly, trying to pretend that bad behaviou is ok, and particularly failing to learn from complaints were the issue

I note that GM Nigel Davies, who appears to have an interest in developing Junior chess players, is now registered with Wales and that someone of his standing might be able to influence Junior selection policy.

Nigel is an adult coach not a junior one, and I'd be surprised if he wanted to get embroiled in junior policy