News from 2010-11 for Oxfordshire Chess

Town v Gown match 2011

The annual Town versus Gown match was played this afternoon at St 
Hugh's College. The match was played over nine boards, and the Town 
team won for the second year in succession, this time by a margin of 
7.5-1.5. Details of individual game results are as follows: 

1. Jason McKenna (Cowley)           1   Richard Lobo          0         
2. Jon D'Souza-Eva (Cowley)         1   Daniel Rey            0
3. Karlmarx Rajangam (Oxford City)  1   Sam Woolacott         0   
4. Matthew Daggitt (MCS/Blackbirds) 1   Ren Zhang             0
5. Will Burt (Cowley)               0.5 Thomas Lessinnes      0.5
6. Simon King (Oxford City)         0   Erik Thornblad        1
7. Ruby Marsden (Cowley)            1   Adam Bailey           0
8. David Sayers (MCS/Blackbirds)    1   Noam Finkelstein      0
9. Kelly Riley (Oxford City)        1   Stephen Belding       0

I would like to express my thanks to the University Chess Club, and 
especially to Erik Thornblad, for hosting and organizing the event so 
efficiently and courteously. 

Gerard O'Reilly 
(non-playing captain, 'Town' team) 
				

AGM Report - new rules, constitution and guidance

We had another very successful AGM of the Oxford Chess Association. I am pleased to say that there were no contentious issues, and there was encouraging progress in several areas.

The AGM approved revisions to the Constitution, the League Rules, and a new document of guidance for clubs and captains.

Highlights of the changes include:

(i) There is now a more sensible approach to mobile phones in that you now get one warning before a loss (Rule 7.11.2);

(ii) Under the revised Rule 7.6, the starting time for matches in Divisions 1-3 is now uniformly 7.30pm (thanks to Cowley and MCS for changing their times), although Division 4 matches are allowed to start at 7.15pm  we decided on this to encourage juniors.

(iii) There is a more flexible approach to the eligibility of members of the same club to play for teams in the same division (the rules are now the same as for teams in different divisions: see Rule 2.5, esp. 2.5.1).

(iv) We now list together in Rule 7.11 all the areas where we depart from FIDE rules  for example it is now legal for OCA players to write down moves in descriptive rather than algebraic notation!

(v) A fair play provision is explained in a new document (OCA League Rules: Guidance for Clubs and Captains), and the Committee given appropriate powers of enforcement (paragraph 4.1 of the Constitution), with the aim of stopping, for example, manipulation of board order or loading teams with ringers and higher graded players just to avoid relegation (not, I hasten to add, that this has been a problem in the past).

The new Guidance is a very useful document and helps with some difficult and contentious issues, particularly relating to time scrambles and claiming a draw when your opponent is not playing for a win. I suggest you all read it.

(vi) A new safeguarding children policy brought in last year was ratified and documents are now online. Clubs are reminded to make sure that their members have the appropriate child protection clearances.

An enormous thank you is due to Mike Truran and Gerard OReilly who put in hours of work on these documents.

On the chess playing front the League and Cup was largely successful with new teams consolidating their position in the League.

Congratulations to Oxford City who seemed to win almost everything and also to several Juniors, particularly Marcus Harvey and the Wang sisters, who did extremely well at the British Championships.

The George vs Stephen epic continues on and on  well done to Stephen for winning series 18  the crucial game is on the games section of this website. At the end of this season we plan to have the awards and cups presented at the Cowley Blitz in June rather than waiting to the following season. It should mean more people attend. As always the committee hope you enjoy your season and wish all of you well.

If you have any queries it is probably best to email me on alan.kennedy@smithkennedy.co.uk

Games on OCA website

I would like to see an increasing number of games published on the OCA website (with a possible view to the best game prize.) To this end I have posted Marcus Harvey's crucial game in the recent British Under 14 Championships and will also post the winning game of the recent George vs Stephen encounter. If you would like to add more please send me a pgn. Alan Kennedy Chairman OCA