I've been concerned for some time at the way the actions, or should I say the lack of actions, of a tiny minority of members has negatively impacted upon the efforts of the rest of us in the Daily Matches. I am referring to those people who join a match and then lose on a time-out, often without bothering to make a move.

I have trawled through a large number of matches and find that they fall into the following categories:

a). people with a history of losing on a time-out

b). people who usually play bullet or rapid chess and who seem to join a match on a whim never having played daily before.

c) people who live far away and, as far as I can see, have no connection with the County

d) other bizarre individuals. For instance, we had one member, I write in the past tense as I have kicked him out, who would join whichever club his 'mother club' was playing and then lose two games on a time-out. He had come up with the wacky idea that it was easier to get two points this way than to play in the matches himself and, probably, lose. It takes all sorts, but you can see what we are up against and why we have to tighten up.

I therefore propose these two simple rules for those participating in the Daily Matches which should weed out miscreants. Other clubs I know use a similar filter.

1). Scrub from the match anyone with a time-out ratio of 25% or more in the last 90 days.

2). Scrub from the match anyone who has yet to play at least 10 Daily matches to demonstrate their commitment to the Daily format,

It's a long post I know but I hope you've made it to the end,

Cheers,

Rich (new Admin.)

Devon Chess

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