More musings on the Leagues

To postpone or not to postpone
And what should the penalty be?

Fisherwick still go on their imperious way in Division 1, but Lindores continue to dog their footsteps. Their recent drawn encounter at the East Belfast coffee house still leaves everything to play for. Lindores are definitely pulling out all the stops - not content with dragging former Williamson Shield winner Fred MacDonald from retirement to fill Board 3, they then found another person to fill that space - no less than 2012 Ulster Masters champion Alan Delaney, who seems to have been carelessly left unattended by another Belfast club.

Still, to get back to the question at the top: a little of the momentum has gone out of the top tier with the recent postponements of Muldoon's v. Lindores and Fisherwick v. Ballynafeigh 2. Our local players are not professionals and there will be occasions when ordinary life gets in the way and a team captain is left scrambling about for players. However the default position ought to be that if you can get 5 bodies out, whatever their standard, the match must go ahead.

There will be occasions when a team captain really can't get a full squad out, and the Controller will consider it reasonable to grant a postponement. However, just to make sure these occasions are few and far between, should there not be some sort of penalty for an "offending" team? Might I suggest that the team responsible for the postponement shall not be entitled to any bonus match points when the match is eventually played.

One more suggestion: if the Controller agrees to a match postponement, in the spirit of openness and transparency, he should place the reason for it on the official UCU website.

Pictures from the Williamson Shield

Rumours before the event suggested that this weekend's Williamson Shield was headed for a good turnout. I decided to head over to the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion, home of the Civil Service Chess Club, just in time to catch the beginning of Round 5 and found a packed playing-room. Add this to the extra numbers seen in this season's Leagues and it seems clear that the local chess scene is on the up.

45 players had entered the lists, ten more than 2012' s successful centenary edition, and the organisers decided to separate off the top ten (unfortunately later reduced by two) to compete for the Shield itself, while the remaining 35 formed a second section for Intermediate and Junior players. Look out for the results soon at the usual sources.

Click on the images below to view full size pictures

Waiting to start

Games underway

Opening moves

Top boards

Butterflies And Hurricanes

Change everything you are
And everything you were
Your number has been called
Fights and battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead

Best,
You've got to be the best
You've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now

Some musings on the League's floating players

The perennial underdogs of Ballynafeigh 3 recorded their first ever victory this week. Just in case you might have missed this important occasion, it was trumpeted on both the Ballynafeigh and UCU websites. A source close to the League Controller had the following to say:

"The entire Ballynafeigh 3 team is a by-product of the Ulster Chess Union's floating system where players under 1350 can gain valuable match experience by being permitted to play for different teams within the same club in the same week, thus effectively doubling their opportunities of a seat at a board under competition conditions. This has meant inexperienced and novice players get the over-the-board match practice they need to progress at a much faster rate than would have been possible under a more rigid system. One of the better ideas to come out of the UCU in many a year."

As the man in the Marmite advert says, this attempt to foster new growth "must be applauded. Literally." However the system is actually a little more rigid than the League Controller realises. Let's have a quick look at the Rules:

"4.f. The Secretary of each club must submit to the League Controller 7 days in advance of the start of the League season a list of players (to be called the squad list) who will play for the club. Any team failing to do so before League fixtures begin will be penalised 5 League points.

4.g. If a club enters more than one team, the Secretary of that club must also specifically allocate 5 named players from the club's squad list for each team. Players specifically allocated to a particular team within a club shall not represent any other team of that club.

4.i. No player with a rating over 1350 may play for more than one team within the competition. Junior players, not specifically allocated to a particular team under 4g., are permitted to float and this permission is granted solely on a players rating (i.e. less than 1351) and not age."

The "junior floaters" of Ballynafeigh 3 have been playing for their 1 and 2 sister teams throughout the season in such an indiscriminate manner that it seems that the League Controller must have forgotten about the rule that junior players are only allowed to float if they are not specifically allocated to a particular team. I would be very surprised if a list of designated players for Ballynafeigh 3 could be produced without breaching the Rules or otherwise failing to produce 5 eligible players each week.

Moreover, the plot thickens. Now Ballynafeigh 4 have entered the fray and another 5 players should be designated. Even allowing for the frequency of new member uptake at Ballynafeigh, they'll be very hard-pressed to do that. Its newly-appointed supremo Dennis Wilkinson (a warm welcome back to one of the great captain/managers), had a busy first week because he also turned out for Ballynafeigh 2s, so even he can't be part of any list.

So, under this laissez-faire system, can we expect the Division 2 teams to live in a fantasy world, where, like Alice, they can't distinguish between the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of Ulster chess.

Ballynafeigh 3 and 4 with Alice

Civil Service Rapidplay 2

The second in the series of Civil Service Rapidplays took place at the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion in the Stormont estate today. "Intensive" is the buzzword for this series (translating to plenty of games within a short time frame) but this second edition also sported the paradoxical "lackadaisical" in its title.

The idea this time was to allow intending participants a lie-in on a Sunday morning, a leisurely breakfast and time to read the newspapers before setting forth to battle over the chessboard. An alternative suggested by the organisers was to turn up early at the venue and make use of its facilities to prepare for the games ahead. No, not a quick trip to the fitness suite, but something instead designed to take in calories. When I arrived at the venue, a number of players were taking this option, availing of the Sunday lunch in the Whistles Restaurant.

During a rapidplay there is usually very little time to observe what your rivals are up to, but what was abundantly clear was that top seed Michael Waters was cutting a swathe throught the opposition. After the penultimate round he had a perfect 100% score having dispatched Alan Burns, Calum Leitch, Nicholas Pilkiewicz, Damien Lavery and Ian Woodfield along the way. At that stage Michael and his victims filled the top seven positions in the standings with one interloper in the shape of yours truly.

My reward was a final round top-board pairing with the leader. In a Queens Indian, while pursuing as White an apparently logical positional path, I was suddenly subjected to a small tactical demonstration and had to resign immediately. Waters thus finished with a perfect 6 out of 6 and overall victory. Meanwhile on board 2, second place was decided in the game between Leitch and Pilkiewicz with the former prevailing in a hard-fought struggle by weaving a mating net in a Rook and minor piece endgame which forced the win of a Rook.

The Civil Service Club hope to run their next rapidplay towards the end of March with the finale of the series probably late May/early June (depending on exactly when the UCU organise the City of Belfast Championships and the rumoured revival of a Cup competition).

Groundhog day

About a month and a half ago, the League Controller woke up one morning and decided it was time for him to make a decision about the "Divisional Split". Something along the lines of doing something unexpected, like 7-4. The next morning he woke up to find himself reliving the day again, and it kept happening, morning after morning. So he reckoned this must be occurring because of his decision on the composition of the Leagues after the preliminaries. So one morning he decided to change his mind and offer up a different scenario, but he was still stuck the next day, and the next day.....So he made another different decision, and then another. He tried everything, adding an extra team, then two, then three. However, nothing could get his League Controlling life going forward from that fateful day in early December 2013.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the chess players of Belfast and its environs were getting on with their lives. League matches were played, Christmas came and went and the New Year was welcomed in. League matches resumed, getting ever closer to the end of the preliminaries. Throughout all this, they were receiving the League Controller's increasingly desperate attempts to find his route into the future. The most recent announcement that permeated into the real world was the confusingly titled "7+7=12" - the poor lad must be in a terrible state by now.

Anyway ("Final answer?"), apparently it's to be the Magnificent Seven in Division 1 (he always did hanker after that) and a different, slightly less magnificent, seven in Division 2, with 3 of those starting from zero. However, I'd keep checking the Ballynafeigh blog, just in case the League Controller is still having trouble rejoining us in 2014.

The greater good

My last two posts had focussed on the divisional split in the Belfast and District League. Since then there has been a dizzying sequence of events apparently orchestrated by the League Controller. Like a music-hall conjurer producing rabbits out of a hat, he has foreshadowed and then announced the arrival of extra teams into the League. Well done to him for not merely adminstering the League, but going out of his way to expand the number of teams. Muldoons and Belfast South have each sprouted a second team and the Controller's own Ballynafeigh has gone as far as reaching a number 4.

Rumour has it (and seeing it emanates from the Controller himself, presumably it will come to pass) that there will be 8 teams in Division 1 after the split. So it seems, after all, that the Magnificent Seven will compete for the Silver King, along with plucky Bangor. This will then leave Division 2 populated by the bottom three from the preliminares plus the three "newbies".

The greater good may well be served by this increase in teams for the second part of the season. In recent years the League has diminished in size as clubs have shied away from entering more than one team. With his recent efforts the Controller has decisively reversed this trend and hopefully the future will see increased levels of competition in the League.

However, someone concerned with process (and your correspondent confesses to being such a person) cannot help point out that the League Controller (and/or the UCU Board) has driven a coach and horses through the League protocols. When a query was raised earlier ths season as to when the rules governing the League would be published the Controller trenchantly pointed out that they remained those propogated by the UCU Board on the 22nd October 2011. The assumptions underlying those rules no longer seem to apply and the bold step to jettison certain parts of them has been taken to what seems to be large-scale approval. Obviously a re-write will be needed next season.

However, it doesn't stop there. The revival of interest in team chess is bringing forward new ideas. The Champ (over at Off the Chest) has floated an interesting suggestion for an experimental half-hour League at the end of the regular season. At the same forum the League Controller has unveiled a few radical ideas for a Cup competition. I'm not sure about these: 3-player teams - sorry, no; genetically engineered line-ups - a bit too Brave New World for me. Still, the return of a Cup competition is definitely to be applauded, but my own view is that the emphasis here should not be so much on gimmicks (though I'm not against a sensible handicapping system) but in achieving a greater geographical spread with matches (or at least some of them) played at the weekend to facilitate this.

Anyway, seems like we live in interesting times!

An early morning Christmas present

The local chess population has been waiting with bated breath for the big decision. Where would the axe fall in the divisional split?

Well, very early on Christmas Day, Santa Claus (aka the League Controller) announced to the team captains that it is to be a 6-6 split. So one of the Magnificent Seven is to lose out on the kudos of playing for the Silver King but will then inevitably become the favourite for Division 2 glory. Looks like my previous blog hoping for that decider between Lagan and Ballynafeigh 2 will come to pass.

Hey, but hold on a minute, what's this about 6-6? Surely only 11 teams entered the League. There had been a few rumours, fuelled by some teasing by the League Controller over at the Ballynafeigh blog, that an extra team could be on the cards. So where's this mystery team coming from. The best clue appears at the Belfast South blog and so it looks like a second team from that quarter is entering the fray. Considering the number of players that have flocked there recently, they have the spare capacity.

From that blog we also learn that Belfast South teams will now be named BSI 1, BSI 2 etc. The "I" apparently stands for International. Still it seems a shame to go for an abbreviation that sounds like some disease found in cows or sheep. Much friendlier to my ear would have been Belfast South and Malone - after all their blog has the words "malonechessteam" in its web address. Maybe the émigrés don't want a copyright war with the team across the road!

One final point is how Division 2 will accommodate the newbie. League points gained from the preliminary all-play-all are carried over into the divisions. So does the new team start from scratch, effectively giving it no chance of winning Division 2 (admittedly that's probably the same hope that NICS and Ballynafeigh 3 have) or will the League Controller have come up with an imaginative solution?

Is a 7-4 League split coming?

This is now the fourth season in which the Belfast & District Leagues have had a preliminary section in which all teams compete, followed by a split into separate Divisions to decide the League titles. For the first two seasons, there was a 4-4-3 split while last season the Controller went for 2 Division 6-5 separation.

Whether the split was into 2 or 3 Divisions, there seemed to be a mathematical validity to it - equal sized Divisions, in so far as that can be managed with 11 competing teams. Your correspondent had assumed, albeit without any official word on it, that we would get something similar this year. 6-5 seemed the more likely with "newbies" Muldoons and Lindores, and a strengthened Belfast South, adding a greater competitive edge to the top of the preliminary section.

Everybody seems to agree that this is the most exciting League for some time with a number of teams keen to have a crack at Fisherwick, the Red Bull Racing of Ulster chess. However, with a 6-5 split could perhaps a genuine title contender find itself in Division 2, come separation-time? Seems this thought is doing the rounds in Belfast chess circles.

Nick at "Off the Chest" at the Ballynafeigh CC website raises this issue:

"Can the league split of either 7 4 or 6 5 be decided before the league season starts? It isnt fair to be decided in january."

Seems the League Controller, aka Ballynafeigh Chess, has already seen all this coming - here's an excerpt from his reply to Nick at "Off the Chest."

"the league controller must be allowed discretion to decide the separation line between teams that are or are not in contention, the controller must evaluate the prospects of team considering their points tally and proximity to the team above them if you want an exciting and competitive competition."

So, reading between the lines, 7-4 looks to be on the cards, particularly after Lagan, who were perhaps the most likely of the Magnificent Seven to miss out under 6-5, drew their match last night with Ballynafeigh 1.

Still a couple of points might be raised.

• How much more "exciting and competitive competition" could you have than the final week preliminary section match-up between Lagan and Ballynafeigh, 2 if sixth place and entry into Division 1 depended on it? 
• What about plucky Bangor and a possible 8-3 split - is the reward for the seasiders in being the only team this season to even share the points with Fisherwick to be a favourite's chance to win the silverware in Division 2 rather than have a few more shots at the big stars in Division 1?

Martin on the move - Rookie reports

Four days - eight games. That was the unlikely scenario for Martin Kelly, chess captain of Belfast South. Last Thursday, his team stormed to a 5.5-1.5 victory over Muldoons, with Rev. Ray Devenney "collaring" Gareth Annesley and Flying Dutchman Siebren Westra "nicking" a point from Nicholas Pilkiewicz. Martin lost in a friendly on board 6 against Rodney Orr - "orr" did he?

Last weekend, Martin won the Ulster Masters Junior title with 3.5/6, including draws with Damien Cunningham, Mark Newman and Robert Lavery. He also beat Stephen "Scarborough fair" and square! Some people wonder why Martin's rating is still only 1335 and they are quite right to wonder!

On Monday, Belfast South played champions Fisherwick with a second Dutchman, Maxim Le Clercq, "thrown into the deep end" against Michael Waters. With the Fisherwick big two top boards both winning and the other boards drawing, they won 5.5-1.5. Where was Martin? Across the road in the Belfast South Monday Tournament, drawing with Chris Armstrong. No rest for the wicked, as he heads off this weekend with Cathal Murphy and Philip Morrison - The Three Musketeers - to Kilkenny. A report will follow.

League begins, intensity and flexibility beckon

Monday night saw the Belfast and District League get underway with defending champions Fisherwick just getting the better of one of the three Ballynafeigh entrants. On Tuesday another Ballynafeigh team lost at home to Belfast South, the latter boosted by the acquisition of Bruce MacLean and with webmaster Sam Flanagan finally making his debut, Hat tip to the latter for alerting us to the presence of two new club websites - newbies Lindores and the imperious Fisherwick.

On Wednesday Lindores put out a strong line-up and thumped Fruithill 5-0 while on Thursday the revived Civil Service suffered a heavy 1-4 home defeat to Lagan. The third Ballynafeigh team was also in action on Thursday night against Bangor, but no word yet on the result from the furthest reaches of the League (err, that's Groomsport). One piece of good news from the grapevine is that despite my earlier concerns, it appears the seasiders will be putting out a very decent side this season. Further reaction to opening week coming here soon.

So the 2013-2014 season is now in full swing and tournaments are coming thick and fast. The intensity bit is this Sunday's (20th October) Civil Service Rapidplay and the flexibility is Belfast South's so-called "Autumn Tournament" which stretches a marathon 20 weeks from Monday 21st October until (and here's an intriguing choice for the finale) St Patrick's Day 2014.