Why are the Scots absent from British chess championship?

[Adam Raoof]

"Less than a fortnight after the Scottish chess championship ended in Hamilton, the British equivalent is underway in Canterbury. It’s a much larger and more complex event than the Scottish, lasting 14 days with a wide range of tournaments for players of all strengths and ages..."

(Dave Hewitt - http://sport.caledonianmercury.com/2010 ... ship/00501)

[Paul McKeown]

A more salient question might be, "Why are the contenders absent?"

The British has been gradually eroded for several decades with a longer and more farcical tail as years go by, but this year, the tail is nigh on three-quarters of the tournament.

Time to return to the round robin format abandoned in 1949. Young, ambitious players have a vast array of opportunities that were not present in the immediate post-war years, they don't need to play the British to meet strong opposition. Time to return some dignity to the title.

[Alan Walton]

Paul,

It is all economics, the more players under 2200 the more money from entry fees. The British is the most uneconomical tournament to enter, but people do because it is the British Championship, until people realise they are being taken for mugs, then nothing will change.

[Adam Raoof]

I quote from the email I sent in response to Dave Hewitt's intial enquiry;

"I hope that you will accept that the British is Open to all who qualify, and at the moment there is no funding for any of the players - in other words, it's a level playing field. I can't say for sure why there are not more Scottish players at the Championships,

Many top Scots did not turn out for the Scottish Championships either. As you have identified in your excellent piece [http://sport.caledonianmercury.com/2010 ... hips/00480], the problem is not that they are not playing at the British, but they are not playing much at all. It's economics. They make more money publishing chess books.

I can't speak for Andrew Greet about his reasons for not wanting to play in the Olympiad, but I suspect it would be an expensive trip for all who particpate, and the Scots are self-funding. That is no good for a professional chess player. At the lower level many players who take one long annual chess holiday probably already did that at the Scottish Championships!

Without sponsorship in the region of £50k we are largely guided by the ability to find very large venues for next to nothing, and that's what determines the location of the venue.

The ECF may organise the event, but this is not a factor in determining who plays. We organise it on behalf of the British Isles Coordinating Committee, made up of all the home nations incuding Scotland.

I am very passionate about the need to make the British as representative as possible, and I can assure you that if funding were available for GM appearance fees a Scottish grandmaster would be considered as important to the tournament as an English grandmaster. However, we need to attract all our top players back to the Championships, and steps are being taken to ensure that we get funding to allow that to happen.

I'm a great admirer of the way chess is run in Scotland, and it's a model we at the ECF could learn a lot from. Alex McFarlane and Andie Howie know that if there is anything I could do to encourage more Scots to play at the British, that didn't cost money - I would do it!"

[LozCooper]

[quote="Adam Raoof"]

I can't speak for Andrew Greet about his reasons for not wanting to play in the Olympiad, but I suspect it would be an expensive trip for all who particpate, and the Scots are self-funding. That is no good for a professional chess player. At the lower level many players who take one long annual chess holiday probably already did that at the Scottish Championships!

I can speak for Andrew, he's English! He is also the captain of the England women's team. It is therefore safe to assume that he was eligible for selection for the country he was born in and is registered for on the FIDE rating list.

[Gavin Strachan]

Andrew McGreet is scottish

He is from about as far away from Scotland you can get in England. Cornwall.

[Nick Murphy]

Read the original article folks!

"Arguably, the line-up does include one Scot, in the form of Andrew Greet. English by upbringing, Greet qualifies as Scottish through residence, having worked in Glasgow for the past couple of years. He remains registered with the English federation, however, and his recent capturing of the Scottish title sparked online chatter"

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The ECF may organise the event, but this is not a factor in determining who plays. We organise it on behalf of the British Isles Coordinating Committee, made up of all the home nations incuding Scotland.

<snip>

Is it possible to have a bit of a run-down on what the British Isles Coordinating Committee is and what it does? And whether it has some page on the internet somewhere explaining what it does?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The ECF may organise the event, but this is not a factor in determining who plays. We organise it on behalf of the British Isles Coordinating Committee, made up of all the home nations incuding Scotland.

<snip>

Is it possible to have a bit of a run-down on what the British Isles Coordinating Committee is and what it does? And whether it has some page on the internet somewhere explaining what it does?

I get eight hits when I Google it, the top hit being threads in this forum. The best of the rest are:

http://www.chessscotland.com/csinfo/britelig.htm
http://www.bcmchess.co.uk/news/bcf2003.html
http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/malcbrit03.html
http://www.chessbase.com/columns/column.asp?pid=171
http://www.midsussexchess.org.uk/news/2002-3.htm
http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/0809/bcf.htm

[David Sedgwick]

The ECF may organise the event, but this is not a factor in determining who plays. We organise it on behalf of the British Isles Coordinating Committee, made up of all the home nations incuding Scotland.

<snip>

Is it possible to have a bit of a run-down on what the British Isles Coordinating Committee is and what it does? And whether it has some page on the internet somewhere explaining what it does?

I'll do my best.

Adam's statement is not strictly correct. The British Championships are an ECF event and were previously a BCF event.

There are eight members of the BICC: English Chess Federation, Chess Scotland, Welsh Chess Union, Irish Chess Union, Ulster Chess Union, Jersey Chess Federation, Guernsey Chess Federation and Isle of Man Chess Association.

Under the terms of the BICC Agreement, the other seven (besides England) recognise as British Champions the winners of the various British Championships held at the Congress. In return they are entitled to nominate varying numbers of players for the British Championship itself. The eligibility requirements (nationality or residence) are set out in the Agreement, as are some aspects of the qualification rules.

I've uploaded the Agreement to the Forum previously, but I'll do so again here.

The BICC has no formal responsibilities beyond those set out in the Agreement. It does meet from time to time to discuss matters of common interest, but such meetings are infrequent. The last such meeting was in July 2007.