Mid Sussex League Rep
comments on the MSL AGM. I am sure the details of the discussion on the changes to the default time will be reported and discussed elsewhere. For my part, I attended the AGM with an open mind, having sought the opinions of the players. My own personal view was: I would be happy with an incremental control of 80 mins + 10 secs as I find adjudication somewhat artificial, and the majority of the feedback I received was along the same lines. However, a distinct schism became apparent at the AGM: lower graded players (dare I say like myself), the vast majority of the attendees, were pushing through the motion, where as “stronger” players, grossly under represented at the meeting, were strongly opposed to such a small increment. One comment made to me on the evening sharpened my view, from a long time regular top board, div 1 player: he would not play in the league with only a 10 sec increment.

The manner in which the meeting was conducted was poor: before any real discussion had taken place, the chair forced through a vote on the principle of an incremental time controls being the default across all divisions. What should (in my view) have been a better outcome (different default time controls between Div 1 and the other divisions) was no longer possible. The end result is based on the proposal by Adrian Pickersgill of HSL, but made through the Eastbourne Club, of all the moves in 65 minutes with a 30 sec increment from the beginning, ought to be considered in this light. If it had not been passed, 80 + 10 would have been imposed on Div 1, with the high likelihood that the division would fragment. As Div 1 champions, the club representatives at the AGM collectively chose to steer and influence the decision in the 65 + 30 direction. It is to be “trialled” for one year, and is to be discussed again and reconsidered at the next AGM.

Gary Willson
Team Captain 2017/18 HSL 3

Stevenson report
We took part in the Stevenson Cup in the Kent league again this year playing 8 matches of which we lost 2 both to Tunbridge Wells home and away. We reached the semi final and played away to Lewisham, we won 2-4 which came as a nice surprise to us. We had reached the finals along with the En Passant and County Cups but all 3 teams were a victim of our own success as we had to field weaker teams so lost all 3 finals in Dartford on May 13th without winning a single game but had a nice day out!

Adrian Cload

Kent league

The Harvey the Kent league
This is a six-player tournament played in a round robin for teams averaging under an average grade of 125.1
We had a solid season this year in the Harvey finishing just outside the qualifying places for the semi-final we won matches against Maidstone and Tun/wells drew two matches against Medway and Swale in both went on to the semi-final and lost Weald of Kent and the bottom placed side snodlands here is across table of the final positions
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Team Play Won Draw Lost For Against Points SP MP IM
Team Play Won Draw Lost For Against Points SP MP IM
Medway 1
6 3 3 0 20½ 15½ 9 0 0 0
Swale 2
6 3 2 1 21 15 8 0 0 0
Hastings & St Leonards 4
6 2 2 2 17½ 18 6 0 ½ 0
Weald of Kent 2
6 3 0 3 17½ 18½ 6 0 0 0
Tunbridge Wells 4
6 2 2 2 17 19 6 0 0 0
Maidstone 4
6 2 0 4 19 17 4 0 0 0
Snodlands 2
6 1 1 4 13 22½ 3 0 0 0

in the course of the season we use 17 club players

And a special mention Umberto Joziak played five times for this team scoring fourth from five and remained undefeated

M.A Bryant

En Passant tournament
This is a sixth player tournament in the Kent league for teams averaging 140 or under
The first round was all play all league with the top two teams qualify for the semi-final
we started the season off with a win against WOK 4…2
we then lost to Snodlands 4.2 we then have too draws against Swale and Tunbridge wells
we now had to win our last two matches to qualify for the semi-finals which we did
winning 4 2 at Rainham and 3.5 2.5 at Maidstone this put us in to the semi-finals in second place
eam Play Won Draw Lost For Against Points SP MP IM
Team Play Won Draw Lost For Against Points SP MP IM
Tunbridge Wells 3
6 4 1 1 23½ 12½ 9
Hastings & St Leonards 3
6 3 2 1 19½ 16½ 8
Maidstone 3
6 3 1 2 20 16 7
Rainham (Kent) 3
6 2 2 2 18 18 6
Swale 1
6 2 1 3 16 20 5
Snodlands 1
6 2 0 4 14 22 4
Weald of Kent 1
6 1 1 4 15 21 3
In the semi-final we play pets wood this was an extremely close match going down to the very last game with Jim Wheeler playing a very accurate game to draw to get us through to the final on tie break
In the final we loss 4.5 1.5 to Gravesend 2 it should be said with three teams in the finals we were limit to the players we had available
we used 21 players in this tournament mason Woodhams played six times losing only one game
Jim Wheeler scored 4.5 out of 5
Marc A Bryant

Tom Fuller Cup .

We had a promising first half in the tournament putting us at the top of the table.

Unfortunately some poor results in the second half , placed at the bottom of the table on 5 points,

1 point behind 3 other teams.

Umberto

Team captain

Kent Summer Quickplay 2017
A team was entered in the Kent Summer Quickplay for the first time in several years. Teams of four play against each of the opposing team on a time handicap system with 30 minutes for the whole game; time divided between the relative strength of players as follows:

The four matches in our group stage were all won as follows:
Tunbridge Wells 6.5 Hastings 9.5
Hastings 10 Folkestone 6
Eynsford 4 Hastings 12
Hastings 11 Maidstone 5

However, we lost narrowly in the semi-final away to Rainham:
Rainham 8.5 Hastings 7.5

Players who took part were:
Daniel Lowe (1 match) 4/4 (100.00%)
Paul Kelly (5 matches) 14/20 (70.00%)
Jim Wheeler (5 matches) 13.5/20 (67.50%)
Steve Blewitt (4 matches) 9/16 (56.25%)
Marc Bryant (4 matches) 8/16 (50.00%)
Howard Tebbs (1 match) 1.5/4 (37.50%)

Many thanks to all those who played in this enjoyable competition.
Jim Wheeler

Friendly matches
During the course of the season we play 3 friendly matches against Wanstead Woodford insurance and the Greater London chess club of these matches we have played 2 at the time of writing in these matches we do not go necessarily pick our strongest team but try to make the matches competitive off the two matches we have played we lost the insurance 2.5 5.5 and against the Greater London chess club we lost 4.5
Marc A Bryant

Hastings Congress Report

017/8 Congress had 365 competitors which is 53 more than 2016/7

And it made a small loss.

The new pairing system [Swiss Manager] worked well and made life easier for the controllers.

For 2018/9 HICC will have its own clocks [60]

It has borrowed clocks in the past

Tradewise and Hastings Council funding continues but more sponsors are needed

Robert Elliston HCC representative

Shadforth-Boger Trophy (merit in matches)

This trophy is generally very hard to award as it is very subjective, players play at different strength against players of different strengths and in different tournaments therefore is not always awarded to the player that does best in matches but to players that it is considered have done best relative to his grade and strength

This year in matches the club played total of 364 games at the time of writing with 139 wins 122 draws and losing 101 38 of the draws came from only three players

32 players represented, the club this year

Of them players only 5 players who played more than 3 games remained undefeated

The shortlist, for the trophy year has been narrowed down to 6 players who are for the second year running John Sugden Howard Tebbs Brendan Ruane also James Wheeler Francis Rayner and New Member Nicolas Varley

John Sugden record was played 18 Won 4 Drew 12 and loss 2 this gave him a percentage rating of 55.5% and -3 performances against his grade four

Howard Tebbs played 15 games for the club winning 9 drawing 5 and only losing 1 this gave him a percentage rating 76.6 and +8 against his grade Howard also came second as the best performing player in the mid Sussex league division one with 51/2 out of 7 with 79% performance

Brendan Ruane played 11 games for the club winning 7 drawing 2 and losing 2 his percentage performance was 72.2 with a +16-rating performance

James Wheeler played 33 times for the club winning 14 drawing16 and only losing 3 his percentage performance was 66.6% with a +20-grading performance

Nicolas Varley played 16 games for the club winning 10 drawing 6 and no lost 1 his percentage performances was 81.2% and grading performance was +4

Francis Rayner played 9 games for the club winning 5 drawing 2 and losing 2 his percentage performances was 66.6% and grading performance was +11
Francis also won the mid Sussex league division 1 tankard for best performances scoring five points from six games the percentage performance of 83%

It is worth noting also that Steve Blewitt and Henry Cove shared the tankard for best performance in division two of the mid Sussex league

The Winner of this trophy will be decided by a vote at the AGM by the members attending

Marc A Bryant

Many thanks to you all for your feedback. Below is an update on the meeting itself (scroll to the bottom for the outcome)

Shortly after sending you my original note, I received the actual agenda, which showed 4 separate proposals for time changes, which I paraphrase here:

(a) From Francis Rayner (Hastings): default is 50 moves in 100 minutes for Div 1, same for other divs if time available, if not, then similar to the current time control
(b) From Lewes: default is all moves in 80 minutes + 10 secs for all divs
(c) From Brighton: Default for Div 1 as present, other divs 80/10
(d) From Eastbourne: Default for all divs, all moves in 65 minutes with 30 secs from move 1.

The meeting was fairly well attended. From Hastings we had myself, PK, MW as 3 team captains, along with Howard Tebbs (late replacement from Marc who was unwell), and Francis who attended to speak for his own motion.

The item opened with the chair (surprisingly in my view) having an opening vote to essentially do away with adjudication, and move towards an incremental time control as the default time. This was passed overwhelmingly with very little debate, meaning option (a) and (c) fell immediately.

There followed a lengthy discussion, at which I concluded whilst the majority of people present wanted to move away from adjudication and go to 80/10, little thought had been given to the bigger picture. In particular, what happens if (as happens at some venues) play needs to stop at a given time because the venue closes. The only solution (other than the preposterous suggestions “captains getting together and decide” and “the players will work it out”) was to ensure the rules included a provision for adjudication.

Moreover, the feedback I received and read elsewhere from stronger, experienced div 1 players indicated a severe dislike of 80/10 because it would affect the quality of the game. It was quite possible that many strong players would refuse to play under such a time control, risking the credibility and unity of the league.

At the meeting itself, it was clear to me that 80/10 was being pushed by “weaker” players at the disregard of stronger players, so we ensured the proposal from Eastbourne (formally lodged by Adrian Pickersgill, but presented by Oliver Froom, both what I consider to be strong div 1 players) was given a proper airing. When it came to the vote, 80/10 achieved 12 votes, whilst 65/30 achieved 14 votes (including all Hastings votes).

. There was no competition for places at the actual election, A number of matters arising from last year’s AGM (eg lack of a child safeguarding policy) had not been addressed in the intervening 12 months.

OUTCOME: next season, the MSL will trial a default time control for all divisions of all the moves in 65 minutes with an increment of 30 seconds from the beginning. Players will therefore need to write down all the moves for the entire game. Players can agree at the start to a stop at 60 moves (the equivalent to a maximum 3 hours 10 minutes). Other optional time controls will be available by agreement of the 2 players (80/10, 42 in 90, quick play finish).

Gary
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