Present: Jim Burnett, Jon Griffith, Noel Stewart, Andrew Zigmond, Stephen Burton, Steve Mann, David Mills, Jeremy Hamm, Steve Westmoreland, Peter Cloudsdale, Rupert Jones, Dave Colledge, Tony Slinger, Paul Johnson, Peter Shaw, Simon Watson, Paul Gelder, Leo Keely, Brendan Briggs, Joe Varley

1. Apologies for Absence: Dan Staples, David Baren, Peter Catt, David Patrick, Peter Ackley, Neville Pearce, Andrew Daley

2. Minutes from 2018 AGM were agreed.

3. Matters arising from AGM 2018 are covered in these minutes.

4. Matters arising from Executive Committee meeting 25.4.19 are also covered here.

5. Officers’ Reports: These will be found on Steve Mann’s website – the official website of YCA.

NB. When it came to the report on Correspondence Chess, Steve Westmoreland raised a matter on behalf of the English Federation for Correspondence Chess Inter-Nation Secretary, concerning two Yorkshire teams being entered into a Welsh International organised event as Red Rose A and B. They should be under White Rose, not Lancashire. It was requested that this be resolved.

Matter to be taken this up with the Controller for Correspondence Chess.
[Post-meeting it was found the teams were entered as “White Rose”, which was erroneously set up on the server by the organiser as “Red Rose” which supposedly could not then be edited on the server.]

6. Other Reports, ie. White Rose Junior Chess Academy, Yorkshire Junior Chess League, and Chess in Schools and Communities, will also be found on Steve Mann’s website.

7. Presentation of Trophies:

Woodhouse Cup went to York RI A team, accepted by Paul Johnson

IM Brown Shield went to Calderdale A, accepted by Dave Colledge

Silver Rook Trophy went to Pontefract, accepted by Stephen Burton

The Hardcastle Shield (for services to Yorkshire Chess), went to David Baren, accepted on his behalf by Peter Cloudsdale

The Avison and Kitchin trophies weren’t presented at the meeting.

The Yorkshire Individual Championship Trophy went to Jim Burnett, amusingly presented by Jim Burnett (as President) to Jim Burnett (as winner), and then presented for the second time, slightly more formally by Jon Griffith to Jim Burnett.

8. Election of Officers:

PRESIDENT: Jim Burnett

DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Rupert Jones

SECRETARY & MINUTES SECRETARY: Dale Cullum

TREASURER: Stephen Burton

COMPETITIONS CONTROLLER: Andrew Zigmond

SECRETARY FOR JUNIOR CHESS: Noel Stewart

CONTROLLER FOR CORRESPONDENCE CHESS: Phill Beckett

GRADER: Steve Mann

9. County Captains:

a) Open: Peter Ackley

b) U180: not decided as yet

c) U160: Rupert Jones

d) U140: David Mills

e) U120: David Mills

f) U100: Harry Feather

NB. Some interesting stories were told about the various adventures of our county teams, but the most noteworthy fact was that the U120 team won the Northern Counties Championship beating Nottinghamshire (a stronger team on grades) by a whopping 10.5 to 1.5.

There was also a suggestion by David Mills that, in contrast to the present situation, an official ECF arbiter should be present at county matches, and that our ECF delegate should bring this up at the next ECF meeting. But no vote, and no decision was made on this.

10. Other Appointments:

a) Delegates to NCCU: David Mills; Rupert Jones; Steve Mann (reserve)

b) Delegate to ECF: Steve Mann

c) Yearbook Editor: Steve Mann

d) Website Manager: Steve Mann

e) Auditor: Steve Watson

f) Honorary Life Members: Stephen Burton elected.

11. Fees and Subscriptions:

Recommendation:

i) That county match fee be set at £4, and £2 for concessions

(This was carried with no objections)

NB. To clarify:- the match fee is to cover the cost of entry fee, venue, and buffet. Petrol costs are assumed to be shared by passengers and driver, but there is no official ruling on this. YCA makes no contribution towards petrol costs.

ii) That Affiliation fee – formerly known as “Registration fee” be set at £1 instead of zero.

(This was carried with no objections)

NB. Paul Gelder proposed an amendment to ii), namely that the £1 was to be paid only after 4 games had been played by the player in question.

(This was not carried)

12. NB. There were no proposals to amend the YCA Constitution.

13. YCA Competitions Rules:

Proposals:

1. New rule A22: All games in the Woodhouse Cup shall be played at the rate of all moves in 110 minutes with a ten second increment per move being added from the start. In all other divisions a time control of 42 moves in one and three quarter hours plus a quarter of an hour to complete the game. The specified Woodhouse Cup time control may be used in other divisions by mutual agreement between the captains of the teams concerned.

The vote was 11 for; 5 against; 4 abstentions: CARRIED

2. a) Rule A12: Delete the final sentence.

NB. The final sentence reads: “In the event of a CM having more than one team in the same division they are to be paired against each other before Christmas.”

The vote was 10 for; 7 against; 3 abstentions: CARRIED

b) NB. This proposal was to do with pairing said teams before the final three matches of the season.

No vote taken as the choice was between EITHER a) OR b) but NOT BOTH, and since a) was chosen, b) became redundant.

3. Rule A16: Amend as follows: “At the start of the match, captains shall exchange lists of their respective team members, listed in descending order of playing strength and players will be paired in accordance with these lists. Playing strength will be determined by the grade on the August grading list as published by the ECF prior to the start of that season and this grade will be recorded on the match card. A captain does not have to order their team strictly in accordance with their grade provided that a player does not have a grade more than twenty points above that of a player on a higher board. If this occurs, the board concerned will be deemed a violation. The penalty for infringement of this rule will be the deduction of a game point. Following the publication of the ECF January grading list, captains may opt to use this list instead. However they must stick to a single list for the purposes of this rule.”

The vote was 19 for; 1 against. CARRIED

4. Rule A14: Delete the second sentence that reads, “In its last match of the season a team may not field a player who has played in a higher division for the same CM in the same season unless the player has played for the team in a previous match in the same season.”

Vote was 19 for; 1 against. CARRIED

5. Rule A17: Delete the final sentence that begins, “When considering...”

Vote was unanimously for. CARRIED

14. Format of the Yorkshire League:

Proposals

1. To reduce teams in the Silver Rook to 6 boards

Vote was 6 for; 5 against; 9 abstentions. CARRIED

NB. Executive Committee may need to meet soon to review this if concern expressed from Silver Rook teams.

2. To change the structure of the Woodhouse Cup and IM Brown competitions as follows – The above divisions to trial for one season the method used for playing the annual 4NCL competition. That is that the 12 teams split into 2 seeded groups of 6. Each group of 6 then plays each other. That is a total of 5 matches. The top 3 in each group go through to a championship pool where they carry the points through, which they have achieved against the other 3 teams that they have played. They then play the 3 teams from the other pool with the 2 favourites playing each other in the last match. The bottom 3 teams do likewise in playing the bottom 3 teams from the other pool, with the 2 teams finishing bottom of the demotion pool getting relegated.

NB. A preliminary vote was taken on whether to amend this to be confined to the Woodhouse Cup alone. This amendment was CARRIED.

The vote for the amended proposal no.2 was 7 for; 7 against; 6 abstentions. Thus the President had a casting vote.

In accordance with practice elsewhere, when, in the absence of a majority voting for a significant change, the status quo remains, the President voted against. Therefore: NOT CARRIED

15. Congress to host Yorkshire Champion 2020 is DONCASTER.

16. AOB:

Paul Gelder commented on the sometimes harsh consequence of defaulted matches, but no vote was taken on what to do about this.

Paul Johnson has created a new control program for pairing players in competitions using the Swiss System. He has offered to help out with chess congresses using this new program, so contact Paul if you're interested.

David Mills suggested that perhaps there should be a set quota of attendees to AGM from the same CM or club to avoid the possibility of skewed voting. No vote was taken on this.

Noel Stewart suggested that in future, those attending AGM should be expected to either simply read the reports posted on Steve Mann's website, or read and print these off to bring to the meeting. This would save on copying costs for hundreds of hard copies of reports, agenda, previous AGM minutes. NB. Some few would still be done by the Secretary and Treasurer, eg. Financial report, and agenda.

Rupert Jones asked that secretaries of clubs gauge their club's need/desire for digital clocks – probably DGT2010s -(especially in light of the change to incremental timing in the Woodhouse), and email Rupert with the number required. He in turn will contact the manufacturer to see about getting bargain prices.

END

Noel Stewart: Secretary of YCA.