Sussex Chess League 2024 AGM     

Tuesday 11th June 2024 at 7.45pm: Lewes Chess Club, St Mary’s Supporters Club, Christie Road, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1PL

AGENDA   
1.         Chairman’s opening remarks, apologies for absence
2.         Minutes of last year’s AGM
3.         Secretary’s Report and Matters Arising
4.         Treasurer’s Report and Matters Arising                       League fees for 2024-25
5.         Fixtures Secretary’s Report and Matters Arising        Timing of entries
6.         Tournament Controller’s Report and Matters Arising 
7.         Presentation of Trophies 
8.         Election of Officers                         Vacancy - Secretary 
9.         County Adjudication Secretary’s Report and Matters Arising 
10.        SCCA Matters Relating to the League
11.        Proposed Rule Changes   
a.  Proposal (Crowborough) 
Rule 4 Nominated players Add 4.1.3 For the purpose of declaring nominations the strongest players are determined by their playing strength as defined in 5.2 
(the intention is to remove any ambiguity regarding the determination of players strength in selecting nominated players) 
Rule 8 The playing session Add 8.1.2 Where the FIDE Laws of Chess require the intervention of an arbiter the clock should be stopped and the players should quietly resolve the issue between themselves. If this is not possible then they should retire from the playing area and consult an appropriate member of the home club.         
( the intention is to avoid the disturbance to other players caused by any dispute regarding the Laws of Chess. By appropriate member I mean an experienced player who knows the rules or can look them up and preferably someone who is not currently playing a game in the match.)    
12. Location for 2025 AGM 
13. Any Other Business

May 2024

An extremely competitive season comes to a close with 5 different clubs picking up the Champion's Trophies.
Congratulations go to ;

Division 1 Champions Horsham 1
Division 2 Champions East Grinstead 1
Division 3 Champions Brighton & Hove 3
Junior Rapidplay Champions EG Bookshop
Knock-out Winners - Lewes

See FINAL TABLES

April 2024

The Committee is seeking a new Secretary as Mark Attree has stepped down after several years great service. 
Volunteers are invited to contact any member of the Committee to discuss the role....the first duty of the new Secretary will be to prepare for and minute the AGM should the post be filled before the AGM itself.

Clubs to submit proposals to the Committee by 11th May 2024 Agenda for the AGM on 11th June.  

February 2024

Saturday 24th February 2024 - Crowborough Chess Congress see all details and entry https://crowborough.org/club/39th-Congress.html 
Please support this local tournament. Two sections a Championship Section and a Challengers Under 1600 Section

December 2023

In addition to players nominated for a particular team at the start of the season, Rule 4.2.2 stipulates that a player becomes ineligible for a lower team after appearing 4 times for higher teams.

See list on LMS 

November 2023

East Grinstead Bookshop have withdrawn their First Team from Division 2
The two matches already played have been expunged from the results
A new event called League Withdrawals has been created on LMS to retain individuals results and ratings

Peter Farr has retired as Fixtures Secretary after 6 years of service to the league and the rest of the Committee and we are sure everyone involved with the League either as Team Captains or Players would like to thank Peter for his great work over this period.

The Management Committee are pleased to welcome back Julie Denning who has kindly offered to step in as Fixtures Secretary. 
As usual all Committee posts are subject to annual election at the AGM

October 2023

Team Nominations 
Bexhill 1 - Mark Rich, Andrew Fleming, Anh Nguyen
Bexhill 2 - Janis Petersons, Leo Woning, Steve Blewitt
Bexhill 3- William Luxton, Steve Merchant, Bill Tracey Brighton & Hove 1 - Luke Rutherford, Callum Brewer, Geoffrey James
Brighton & Hove 2 - Kit Blades, Ian Kelly, Chris Lake 
Crowborough 1 - Arjun Kolani, Arran Airlie, David Fryer, Jon Lawrance 
Eastbourne 1 - Maks Rozman, Rasa Norinkeviciute, Oli Froom,
Eastbourne 2 - Adrian Pickersgill, Jim O'Dell, Laurence Butt
Eastbourne 3 - Mick Reddie, Paul Carpenter, Matt Pannett
Eastbourne 4 - Anthony Giles, Dejan Lekic, Colin Clark 
East Grinstead 1 - Chris Baker, Peter Kemp, Carlos Cambon 
Hastings & St.Leonards 1 - Daniel Lowe, Francis Rayner, John Sugden
Hastings & St.Leonards 2 - Brendan Ruane, Henry Cove, Mark Brougham 
Haywards Heath 1 - Feliks Kwiatkowski, Jeffrey Boardman, Viv Cole
Haywards Heath 2 - Julian Clark, Graham Ewens, Lucas Renshaw
Horsham 1 - Gavin Lock, Mark Broom, Michael Forster
Horsham 2 - James Mansson, Anthony Higgs, Phil Stimpson
Horsham 3 - Peter Harbott, Ian Comley, Roy Page
Horsham 4 - Chris Heath, Bob Lanzer, Robert McDonald 
Worthing 1 - Russell Granat, Matthew Payne, Chris Jones 

Club Venue Changes 
Bexhill venue is now St Mark's Church Hall, Green lane, Bexhill TN39 4BZ. There is a free car park on site, and the playing venue is upstairs 
Brighton & Hove venue is now The Queens Hotel, 1-3 Kings Rd., Brighton BN1 1NS (in the Sandringham Suite). There is a pay car park in Black Lion Street
Horsham venue has a name change to the Cornerstone Methodist Church, but at the same location
East Grinstead home matches are now on Mondays

Monday 25th September 2023​ 

The league fixture list for 2023-24 is now available on the LMS here: HERE
(see the tab on the left hand side; after clicking on division, clicking on any team name followed by the "fixtures" tab will display all of the fixtures for a team).  

There are tabs on the system to enable download of an individual team's fixture list. or a whole divisional list, into excel or pdf.    

I will shortly write separately to those teams that have entered the Knock-Out with the draw.    

A few notes on the divisional splits and the fixture making process:    
1) There are 3 divisions of 12,11 and 11 teams respectively, plus the Junior Rapidplay League.  The junior league has the same teams and structure as for 2022-23.  There are 6 new teams in the main league, and 2 teams have withdrawn.  The divisional splits have been created by firstly taking the closing positions from 2022-23, then ranking the teams by applying promotion and relegation as if the divisions had remained at 10 teams each, then adding new teams to Division 3 and removing the withdrawn teams.  There are then one or two exceptions where teams have been swapped on grounds of known strength.    

2) As usual, for the fixture list, where possible I have tried as far as possible to follow these considerations:  
a) recognizing club-requested  black-out dates and other specific requests 
b) avoiding / limiting  venue clashes where requested for clubs with multiple teams 
c) avoiding adjacent teams of a club playing on the same night 
d) spacing fixtures reasonably - no teams should have more than one fixture in a week - there are however, some cases where teams play matches 6 days apart.
e) where teams have played away against another team last year, to reverse the fixture this year - again, with a fair amount of change between divisions, this has not always been achievable 
f) where clubs have more than one team in a division, opponents should play one of those teams at home and the other away 
g) reasonable alternation of home and away matches - this is surprisingly hard to achieve, particularly given the constraints of a)-c) above, and there are some instances of teams playing 3 home or 3 away matches in succession.    

The last fixture date on the list is 3rd May.  This gives 7th - 14th May as contingency.  Do bear in mind that some of this contingency may be taken up by weather related events, and also that with more teams in the league this year, there is less room for manoeuvre in re-arranging dates.
If you do  wish to alter any fixtures, please bear in mind league rule 2.6:

"Fixture changes: Upon receipt of the fixture lists, clubs should check their viability. Changes may be made (including mutually agreed weekend arrangements):• by mutual agreement concluded up to 14 days after the date of issue of the fixture lists for matches scheduled to be played in October or November; or• by mutual agreement concluded 28 days prior to the originally scheduled date for matches scheduled to be played in December or later; or• under exceptional circumstances. 

All fixture changes, and any resulting disputes, must be notified by both clubs within 7 days to the Fixtures Secretary. Failure to do so will incur 4 default points (see 6.1). The Management Committee shall consider the circumstances and may default any team found to have changed or withdrawn from a fixture otherwise than in accordance with this rule."

The league is likely to be stricter in enforcing rule 2.6 this year, given the limited ability to change fixtures without causing some disruption. A number of clubs still need to give details of team captains and player nominations, and I will need these before the start of the season please. 

The nomination rule is rule 4 here: HERE 

I will also need to arrange LMS IDs and relevant access rights for new captains.   League fees should also be sent before any matches are played.

PETER FARR fixtures secretary

1st September 2023

Time again to think about team entries for the new Sussex Chess League season.
The entry deadline set in the rules is 14th September.

It would be appreciated if you could provide your entries as soon as possible so that we can start planning the divisional splits and fixture lists.

An updated version of the league rules following the June 2023 AGM is available.
Please note that matches will continue to be of 4 players a side for each competition.
I would also draw your attention to the amended rule 5.2 concerning Team Order.  

For the coming season, please advise: 
- Entries for the main league
- Entries for the junior / rapidplay competition
- Knock-out entries

I need the following information:
·  Number of teams you are entering for each competition
·  "Blackout" dates when you want me to avoid scheduling matches for a particular team (up to a maximum of 15 dates per team) 
·  Where a club has multiple teams, please advise if you need to avoid home venue fixture clashes (and for which specific teams, if applicable). Alternatively, please advise if you actively prefer to have multiple home matches on the same evenings, and for which teams. 
·  Any changes to your club night(s) and / or venue.  Note that the venue information we currently hold for clubs is on the website here: under the clubs section.  Also please remind me of the weeks to avoid home matches if you don't meet every week during the season; (e.g. Uckfield, Eastbourne.) 
·  Nominated players if you are entering more than 1 team.  Three players are required to be nominated for each relevant team (i.e. for all but the lowest rated team).  I don't need this by 14th September, but must have the names ahead of matches starting, so please ensure I have them by 7th October at the latest.
·    Please also let me know the team captains for each team and the club secretary where this has changed.

Entry fees are £4 per team: 
the fee of £4.00 per team is only for the main league; the KO and junior rapidplay are free to enter.

In making payments by transfer, the payment reference should be name of club and number of teams entered

Any clubs not able to pay by direct transfer into the league’s bank account, should contact the treasurer, Robert Wall by email for alternative arrangements. 
Please note that Robert Wall will be undertaking an exercise in September to identify unpaid fees from the last 2-3 years and entry to this years’ league is subject to payment of any unpaid fees and charges from the last 2-3 years.

Following previous practice, I will not specifically try to avoid school half-term dates, except for the rapidplay league, so please check with your players if these might influence blackout dates you want. 

The playing sessions I am proposing for the season are:    
·  9th October - 8th December 
·  8th January – 28th March  (Good Friday is 29th March; 
both East and West Sussex state schools have their Easter holidays starting then). 
·  15th April – 3rd May 
·  7th May – 13th May – contingency    

Fixtures between teams that are from the same club within a division will be played before any other fixtures for those teams    

The split into divisions for the season will be determined once we have all entries in.