Into the Autumn, and the October committee meeting has taken place, examining how we can progress the league for our members. There was plenty of discussion, but the committee worked well to solve problems and plan out the tasks ahead of us. Here’s a lowdown for you all.

It can certainly be said that the objectives of our August meeting have been met. Steve has taken to the position of grading officer as if he was born for the role, and I think we can all say he’s fantastic with punctual updates and use of our new technologies. A big thanks to how much effort he is putting into the role. Another goal was to get the website up and running, and Adam Musson (with help from Donovan, in relation to document transfer) has done a superb job. Unfortunately, the league couldn’t afford beta testers to try out all scenarios before putting the website out, but Adam has ironed out the bumps and bruises to make sure we have an interactive site with no pop-ups or ads!

Going on, superb yearbooks were brought out, the cover designed and organisation of the printing carried out by Donovan. Their bargain price has even saved us a lot of money. Finally, our last aim was to bring the trophies out as quickly as we could and, after tracking down one of the missing giants, we’ve managed to save a good bit of money once again. For those who are using the soft back copy, rather than the online version, one slip up did manage to get through. Please do note that the team captain and secretary of De La Beche, Ken Huntley, has an email ending in gmail, not ymail, or you won’t be getting many replies!

Unfortunately, there was a slip up with the lightning tournament this year and some invites were sent out too late or were not received. I would like to offer a sincere apology to any members who missed out. The lightning tournament is part of the service we provide for you, and hopefully are tournaments will live up to the stand we want to provide from now on. The members who organise these events do so on a purely voluntarily basis and put work and elbow grease in that we often don’t see behind the scenes. I’m sure we can excuse the odd slip up.

Our next discussion was about the grading of the knockouts, and it should be clear that the system does not work with players' grades being raised this year. Thank you to Chris Daniels for raising this point. The current grading limits would not represent the same level as in previous years, so they have now been raised to 1650 (Nicholson Shield), 1900 (R.E. Jones Memorial) and Open (Stanley Fortt Memorial Cup). Have your teams at the ready!

We’ve been given a shout from Bill Hewitt that the Welsh Chess Union website is seriously outdated in places, and it would be helpful if we can get the links and data in relation to the West Wales Chess League updated. Whilst I will be going through the links (now on the list of jobs to do!) we’ve asked all committee members/club representatives to have a look through and see if they can find anything. Contact our secretary if you have found something and we’ll get the information passed along to the correct person.

One of the most important league issues was the new grading system introduced this year. The new system is an approximated grade for our newcomers to start with, followed by a re-calculation once their sixth game has taken place, particularly useful when newcomers are online veterans. This means that secretaries must still contact the grading officer to come up with a grading estimation before the newcomer plays. Registration fees will be covered for their first game, to encourage newcomers in, but you’ll need that initial grading approximation. Unfortunately, this has been missed by several clubs and can cause problems.

Secondly, if a newcomer plays less than six games before the end of the batch then the grade estimation will be used. Giving an official grade by three or four games would be much less accurate that the judgement of the grading officer and secretary. Should a player also lose all their games or win them all, again we will have to approximate. A run of six wins doesn’t make them the best player in the world! Once possible, more realistic grades will be calculated. Finally, we have addressed the issue of newcomers who are of a higher standard than nominated players. If these players are higher graded than a nominated player in a team, then they will have the same restrictions as a nominated player for that team.

There has been a lot of feedback about the website and, mostly, it’s been well received. We’re glad we can provide you with such a high standard. There have been a few hiccups, which Adam has dealt with very quickly, and there are a few more we discussed. Currently, the yearbook states that the match card must go to the division controller and, as the site automatically sends the result to the controller, this is not required. However, if the site is down you can still send by email. Please do this as a last resort as the site match card has been a great life saver so far.

Along the same lines, sometimes details must be sent in with the match card (e.g. players filling in for a default and putting the grades out of order). We’ll be adding this to our digital card, but for now could this information be sent via email to the controller. It doesn’t occur too often so shouldn’t be too much of a problem for now.

Although there are a few other matters we plan to address, the main issue was the ‘A walk over’ and ‘Default’ selections on the card. Unfortunately, the settings currently force you to use ‘a walk over’ if ‘default’ is select, and this could cause problems for the controllers as the player names are still needed. This is about to be changed so, if you can, contact us with the details of any games won by default that have been played so far and we’ll update results. These games are the Imps v Gremlins on the 4th of October, Centurions v Gladiators on the 24th of September, Imps v Legionnaires on the 20th of September and Legionnaires v Centurions on the 17th of September. If you can’t find the result, please do contact us anyway so we can get the matter corrected.

So, what about our future? Well, the search for sponsorship has begun to raise funding for our tournaments and junior chess. Much as we have saved on our expenses so far this year, other costs do arise. Donovan has come up with some ways in which we can provide for potential funders. If anyone knows someone who may be interested in advertising in our yearbooks, newsletters (yes, I said newsletters!), then give us a shout.

As stated, work has begun on a monthly newsletter that will be free for our members, and interest in advertising has already been found. The newsletter will be much like a smaller version of the yearbook, with articles about West Wales Chess, clubs in our areas, chess history and the like. We will be putting analysis in but certainly won’t be flooding the pages with chess moves. If captains do see a particularly interesting game that is played in the league, send it in and we’ll take a look.

We’ll be opening another league for junior newcomers to the world of chess. These will be the kids who are not up to league standard as of yet, and there’ll be no chess clocks or scoring of games (and plenty of slip ups too!). Glynneath library, Castell Nedd Barbarians, Crymlyn primary, St Joseph’s School and Clydach will all be entering teams and we’re seeing if a Llanelli school would like to take part. Currently, we’ll be holding it down in Cadoxton Community Centre but next year, if all goes well, we’ll probably look for a better mid-point for the clubs and schools that wish to take part. I’d like to give a thank you to Claire O’Connor Gunston who has offered to be a contact point for the league.

Finally, a friendly grading system is to be devised for our junior, non-league players. Club championship, UK Chess School challenge, even friendly games can be sent in, and it will hopefully provide something for the weaker children to aim for. Games are to be supervised by teachers and club members, so it’s going to be a very free flowing system rather than tightly regulated. Again, this is an easy going way of providing chess incentive for our kids.

And that’s about it, plenty done and plenty to do. If you have any questions to ask or want to find out more, the committee is always around and free to answer. We’ll do all that we can to help you and provide the best service for members. Until December, enjoy the league!

A quick note - remember that the West Wales Chess Congress is coming up, being held from the 15th to 17th of November by your ever friendly neighbourhood chess player, Les Philpin. If you're interested, either contact Les directly or the league secretary. (number can be found in the yearbook).