Buililctnn a ASSOCIATION No 213 September 1982
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YORKST{IRE *v CHESS buililctnn A ASSOCIATION No 213 September 1982 EDITORIAL Yorkshire are Champions ! In an exclting match played ln Leeds on JuIy lrd, Yorkshire beat Lancashire 1'l-9 to win the Engllsh Countles Chess Championship. This is only the thircl tlme that Yorkshire has won thls championship, the previous occasions belng 1921, when a Yorkshire team headed by F.D.Yates and. H.E.Atkins beat warwickshire 11*-B* in the final, and i974, when Yorkshlre beat Cambridgeshlre ln the flna1. On paper lancashlre looked much the stronger on the top boards, wlth the current British Champlon (as he was then) paul littlewood on top board aad. Nigel Short on board. two. The Yorkshire players thus d.ld. well to keep the score fo 4t-5t on the first ten bbards. It was on the mitldle boards that the Yorkshire strength shoyed. itself and the mateh was decid.ed. Much credit for this vletory must go to the Ftrst rean captain, llerek Markham, who worked very hard to assemble what was almost the etrongest posslble team. tliie glve elsewhere in this lssue the ful1 results of thls match, and the top board game ln shicb John Hal1 defeated. paul Llttlewood. YORKSHIRE STAYS IN BRITAIN The main item on the agenda of the YCA Annual- General Meeti-ng in June was a proposal from Davitt Milton that the YL:A should secede fron the Britlsh Chess Federation. As the Secretazy reports ln his eolumn, thls proposal was carrled by one vote, but didntt get the two-thirds naJority needed for a change 1n the constitution. As Geoff Sunderland says there wasntt a single reason for thls vote, but whereas he seems to see mueh substaace in many of the critl-cisms oi the tsc-l', it seened to me that many of the complalnts were very petty, and that there was a eertain narrow minded.ness about mueh of the oppostlion to the BCF. A number of people came along with a stock of smarl resentments that have built up over the years, Geoff Sund.erland.ts own story of Ann Hoptonrs crlticisms of the BCF organi-sati-on shows how long memorLes are. No doubt it was only an overslght that caused hlm to omli the fact that desptte the alleged nstifling of adverse criticism'r, the BCF has responded to these crltieisms by completery refornlng its management strtrcture. continued on pa6e J CONTENTS page 'lhe Secretaryrs 2 County Match Results 9 !O Years Ago ) F:.nal league [ables 10 Congresses 4 Woodhouse. Cup Matches 1 1 Games Pages 5 1 . M..Browa Shf eld ilatches 1 1 Two New Books 7 A.G.Sund.erland Cup Matches rfBatti-ng 12 County Averages'r 8 Notlceboard 12 -2- THE SECRETARY'S PAGE Elsewhere my co-edltor gives a summarTr of the Yorkshire Chess Assoclatlon Annua1 General Meetlag but there is one area Itd Ii ke to touch upon whieh carrles more Lnterest than usual in that a resolution was proposed to seeede from the BCF, ancl it was lost only because a two-thlrds najority was needed.. the flgures being: for 1{, agalnst 11, abstentions 7. I dontt believe that there is a single cause to have warranted such a d,rastic motion but rather aa accumulation of factors such as, for example, the false clalm that the BCF provides the grading flgures which is patently untnre; the lneffectiveness of the policies over the raislng of ineome fron the rank and flle player; the grasping nature of the last three yearfs increase ln the levy rate of 25/,, 29% and ?5%; the elltlsm shown ln the red carpet treatment of the countryrs top players; the total dopendenee on the counties who are the workhorses of the BCF; the southeru bias ia BCF policy decistons etc. A11 these factors, to some extent, aIIled. to the generous support glven to the BCF over the years have played a part in the growlng dlsenchantment with the BCF, but where wB go from here is elouded. They appear to be pinning thelr flnanclal salvation more and Irore on sponsorship in common with other sports ancl lt may well be the way forward. Prior to our Annual General Meeting the county officials and club secretaries recelved a clrcular letter fron the BCF Presldent expressing hls disnay at our posslble secesslon, BesLdes ertolling the virtues and ad.vantages of BCF membershlp, errors of fact and mistaken assumpttons, there was an allusion to criticism from the sma1I band of critics w1thln the county who wrlte on these matters and whlch he appears to resent. I mention thLs because l-t remind.s me of the most vlrulent crlticlsu of the reglstration scheme that I can recall and lt came from their own secretarT, M:s Ann Hopton nas the newly appoi-ntetl seeretary Ia 197) and a very capable one too. In her flrst annual report she cond.emned. the registration scheme ia such terms that the question arose whether or not it should be published as lt didnrt represent official BCF poIlcy, Eventually 1t ras publish.ed after she added. a rider that the views.expressed. were her personal ones. The follor3"ng year she dropped the rlunatic state of affalrsfr blt but retalned. the "cumbersome, tlme wasting and expensiverr phrase. In her third annual report she waded in ;nabashed, with an attack on the excessive number of meetlngs which were considered necessary and she "couldntt und.erstand. how any group of grown men could continue to condone the systemn. She was rlght, of course, but frankness 1s not a quallty the BCF ad.mire and it was probably in mutual thankfulness that she aad they parted. company after her three year spe11. A pity. She had style. The BCF hierarchy should. have recovered by now but the stlfllng of adverse criticism is still hlgh on the agenda" With the "payment for grading'f seheme on its last legs the BCF have offlclally aclopted a new ldea known as the League Afflliatton Scheme 1n an endeavour to reverge the decline ln registrations. It ls to be 'rtreated as a propaganda warr which lmplies a straying from the whole t:rrth and nothing but the tmth, so bear in mind, gentremen, that they wonrt be on oath. trrom enquiries I have made wlthl-n the NCCU support for the scheme ls vlrtually non-existent. An iten from the BCI'annual accounts catches the eye. the Morecombe congress of last year shows a surplus of 02BBB.B1 compared. to a *55 surplus of the prevlous year at Brighton. No explanatlon was of,fered. at their July 1?th 19g2 neeti-ng though thelr new treasurer has probably not had tlme to analyse the figures following on the sudden resignation of peter Ezra. A. G. S. -)- Editorlal continued from page 1 It was agreed to invLte a BCF Offlcer to next yearrs AGU to listen to and respond to Yorkshlre crltleLsn of the BCF. Perhaps lt ts an 111 omen that even thls proposal had nany votes agalnst it. ADJUDICATIONS OR FAST FINISHES? Another proposal that stl-mulated a keea debate wag from Mr Butterworth of Dewsbury Chess Club. This was for fast flnlshes'.for games in the league prog?amme, to replace the present system of atlJudications of unflnlshed games. The argument here is largely one between the stronger and less strong players. AdJuttlcators have to be strong players, grading leve1 190 or hlgher. Bhere ls a slight absurdity in judglng games between much weaker players on the assumption that thereafter the play will be perfeet, or at least as perfect as the strong adJucticator ean manage. On the other haad, on the htgher boards of the Woodhouse Cup the standard of play ls very hlgh, and strouger players do not like the gamble of fast flnishes, whieh places a prernlum on rapid. superfleial chess. The adJudlcatlon system 1s not ldeal, but the neetlng clearly judgecl it to be the best of the avallable options for games unflnished after fou,r hours. fhe proposal for a change ln the rules was d.efeated by 10 votes to 17. FINANCIAL AFFAIRS After the proposal for secesslon from the BCF ras d.efeated., Mr Appleby wlthdrew hls proposal to replace the requirement for reglstratlon by a system of raising money by flxed. entry fees for the league conpetitlons. The treasurer explained. that slnce the obltgatlon to pay the BCF levy paymeat renained, thig proposal would requlre very hlgh club entr'5r fees. It ls unfortunate that this matter wssrrtt elarifiecl before the proposal was mad.e. The result is that a meeting which w&s on the whole hostile to the BCF has allowed, the present reglstratlon system, whereby we pay to the BCF more than we are obliged to cto by the levy system, to eontinue for another year. The treasurer was able to report a small surplus of e2O for the 1981-2 season, but he recoumend.ed an lncrease in fees, the flrst for two yearsrto take account of lncreased costs. Details of lnereases in club fees w111 be sent to club secretarles. The combl.ned registration fee goes up from 81.90 to fi2.14, the BUILETIN subscription is now e1.50, but there yas no increase in the Couaty Match board. fee of *2.5O. A. B. S. OBIIUARY We regret to have to record the death of Frank Warren, freasurer of the HuI1 YPI Club, who d.led on April 15th aged 4? after a heart attack. We offer our sympathies to the members of hls family.