WCU Complaint

[Coral Bennett]

So sorry to hear of all your troubles. You were a fantastic coach for the Welsh Juniors in Prague and any nation would be lucky to have you.

Think carefully before jumping from the frying pan into the fire. The Welsh Chess Union are currently being sued after refusing to investigate our claim of Nepotism and Abuse of Power after they “re-allocated” money we paid for coaching at the World Junior Championships in Slovenia last November. After complaining we were told by the Junior Committee that if we can “put it behind” us then our children will “continue to represent Wales”. We have also been “warned” by other Directors that our children may be made to feel unwelcome at future Welsh Chess events unless we drop our complaint! Eight months on and they still refuse to investigate as they say it would be a “huge waste of resources” and would result in “blood on the carpet”. You would need to watch your back if you joined the WCU. There are probably bullies in every Federation.

Letting people know what is happening will show that you are not alone. You have more chess friends than you realise. Look forward to seeing you at future chess events.

[Geoff Chandler]

Incredible.

How on earth does one go about making a child feel unwelcome at a Chess Congress.
And why on earth would anyone want to?

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

So sorry to hear of all your troubles. You were a fantastic coach for the Welsh Juniors in Prague and any nation would be lucky to have you.

Think carefully before jumping from the frying pan into the fire. The Welsh Chess Union are currently being sued after refusing to investigate our claim of Nepotism and Abuse of Power after they “re-allocated” money we paid for coaching at the World Junior Championships in Slovenia last November. After complaining we were told by the Junior Committee that if we can “put it behind” us then our children will “continue to represent Wales”. We have also been “warned” by other Directors that our children may be made to feel unwelcome at future Welsh Chess events unless we drop our complaint! Eight months on and they still refuse to investigate as they say it would be a “huge waste of resources” and would result in “blood on the carpet”. You would need to watch your back if you joined the WCU. There are probably bullies in every Federation.

Letting people know what is happening will show that you are not alone. You have more chess friends than you realise. Look forward to seeing you at future chess events.

I think it's fair to say this would be news to most people outside of welsh junior chess. Maybe the welsh chess players need a forum to discuss our issues too
Coral, is there any more to this story that I can read somewhere

[Andrew Zigmond]

I've highlighted Coral Bennett's post to Carl with the suggestion it be split off into another thread. He may decide it doesn't belong here as it refers to another Union.

[Carl Hibbard]

I've highlighted Coral Bennett's post to Carl with the suggestion it be split off into another thread. He may decide it doesn't belong here as it refers to another Union.

I am letting the thread stand but it is clear the views are that of an individual without comments from the other side

[Peter D Williams]

Incredible.

How on earth does one go about making a child feel unwelcome at a Chess Congress.
And why on earth would anyone want to?

One could make the parents not feel welcome at a chess event.I know of one ex junior director of ECF who wanted to ban the parents from coming to his event for something they had wrote.I can not say who it is or what was wrote as i give my word to the parents that i would not go into details about the case.(I have all the emails letters that where wrote over this issue from the parent and the replies from various ECF officers)What i can say about the matter was the parent wrote something in haste with good reason but could have worded it better but the reaction from the Ex Junior Director was to ban the parents which would have prevented the child from going to the chess event.

Well i hope your all enjoying this hot weather we having.The tomato plants are growing well in this heat and i recommend spraying with a little water on the leafs of the plants.

[Joey Stewart]

Be careful of spraying them in direct sunlight - the water droplets can magnify the light rays and cause scorching of the leaves.

[Peter D Williams]

Be careful of spraying them in direct sunlight - the water droplets can magnify the light rays and cause scorching of the leaves.

Very good advice indeed.Tomato plants do not like any sudden shocks like this or root disturbance.

enjoy the sun every one

[Coral Bennett]

Incredible.

How on earth does one go about making a child feel unwelcome at a Chess Congress.
And why on earth would anyone want to?

How about when a child is on the way to the playing hall, clearly in considerable pain, that an adult laughs out loud at him and points out his discomfort to other adults so that they may join in?

Congratulations to the English Glorney, Gilbert and Robinson Cup teams and the Irish Stokes team.

[Andrew Bak]

Incredible.

How on earth does one go about making a child feel unwelcome at a Chess Congress.
And why on earth would anyone want to?

How about when a child is on the way to the playing hall, clearly in considerable pain, that an adult laughs out loud at him and points out his discomfort to other adults so that they may join in?

Congratulations to the English Glorney, Gilbert and Robinson Cup teams and the Irish Stokes team.

As told, this story doesn't give a good impression of the adults involved. However it is impossible to really comment constructively on such an event without hearing the other side of the story and/or letting people investigate if necessary etc.

[Greg Breed]

How about when a child is on the way to the playing hall, clearly in considerable pain, that an adult laughs out loud at him and points out his discomfort to other adults so that they may join in?

If I ever saw such behaviour I would never stand idly by. The adults in question would receive some of "my wisdom"!

[Coral Bennett]

Incredible.

How on earth does one go about making a child feel unwelcome at a Chess Congress.
And why on earth would anyone want to?

Easy to do if you are the Junior Director or the Home Director (who first made this comment)!
If you check the WCU website you’ll notice that although still organising events for all age groups up to the Under13s, they have now stopped organising events for Juniors aged Under14 – effectively making sure that our children are “not welcome” as the Home Director had promised. The Junior Director mentions on the website that older ages may be reintroduced “in future”. I presume this means that Under14 events will be reintroduced next year when my children will then be Under15. Why do those with power so often choose to abuse it?

[Michael Flatt]

I haven't been able to find anything relating to not running certain Junior competitions.

I did, however, find some minutes of meetings where your complaint was considered:

http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/wcu-b ... d-meetings

[Coral Bennett]

I haven't been able to find anything relating to not running certain Junior competitions.

I did, however, find some minutes of meetings where your complaint was considered:

http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/wcu-b ... d-meetings

See section 5 of http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/junio ... hamps-qual
U13 subsequently added at http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/juniors/771-u13

[Ian Thompson]

I haven't been able to find anything relating to not running certain Junior competitions.

I did, however, find some minutes of meetings where your complaint was considered:

http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/wcu-b ... d-meetings

See section 5 of http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/junio ... hamps-qual
U13 subsequently added at http://www.welshchessunion.org.uk/juniors/771-u13

I think you'll have to explain what's going on with this and what's wrong with it because I must be missing something. Having read it, it appears to be saying that the WCU wants to restrict the number of players taking part in the junior championships at the younger age groups to reduce the chances of "luck of the draw" determining the winner. This is being done by having championship qualification events to "weed out" the weaker players. At the older age groups there is no need to reduce the number of players taking part in the championship event, so there is no need to have qualification events.