Dear Mago,
I see large and important letter. Now I do not understand one. Why an experienced admin sent it in public? When you need the result, it is better to talk privately.
I know that my English is bad. I tried many times to explain to you the simple things and had no success. So here's the picture.
Best regsrds
qaxkir mm
oslo, Norway
said that he`ll play only for Team Azerbaijan.
Diletantus, I'd agree completely with that sentiment, in principle.
In this case, however, the "open letter" model seems appropriate, since it pertains to something that will almost certainly be dismissed out-of-hand if sent privately (and, in reality, stands a good chance of being dismissed out-of-hand even when posted openly with full transparency).
How very unfortunate that Team Iceland could foster in 2014 players with lower ratings while in 2015 they could foster only players higher than 1500 ...
Decision as of 2015-04-19
Team Malta haven't started any of their matches for this season yet.
Unfortunately seem very hard to get players enough aboard to the matches.
5 weeks ago their received their second warning, and were notifed receive yet a next warning if not get any match starting within a month. (Comment #8)
Hereby unfortunately have to announce that Team Malta now get their third warning, and thereby become disqualified for this season.
Any matches still open for registration against Team Malta can be cancelled. And then no more matches for Team Malta in EL2015.
No matches will be counted into the results for Team Malta in EL2015.
I wish Team Malta better luck next season.
BR Johan P
Tourney Manager
thank you Johan for clearing the situation with Team Malta, good luck to them in the next season
Johan, do you realize that you are punishing far too many people here, giving out far too heavy punishments?
Your punishment for Team Moldova makes no sense. They are punished for trying to defend themselves against unfair play against them, and for agreeing with all the experienced admins here.
Your punishment for Team Belarus is far too sharp. By giving them two warnings for only one match, you immediately put them only one single step away from your maximum imaginable penalty --- total exclusion from the league's actively playing divisions for more than an entire season.
If they take seriously what you have done to Team Moldova on this occasion, then during all the rest of this season, should they really need to fear that in any scenario in which another team does something unfair in a match against them, they will not really be able to defend themselves against the unfair play because they would risk to get another warning just as you gave one to Team Moldova?
Thirdly, do you realize how much you are punishing all the experienced admins here, by what you do and, mostly, by what you do not do?
We all very much want this to be a fun and friendly league. Of course one of the most basic things for making it fun and friendly is seeing that the tournament direction is able to keep it fair, to the standards established in the numerous team matches played here on chess.com, in several really big leagues over many years.
Johan, most other big leagues by now have a team of experienced directors, and a special group for that team to discuss in. The European League is an exception in this respect, making it more susceptible to things one person alone may not be able to see and do, and making it more likely to be behind in the development of standards that have become second nature in other leagues.
Please do not think that it is normal that each time there is a problem in a league, there necessarily is an ugly public discussion.
A weak director often does nothing at all, because he fears he is not going to be able to find an appropriate measure. Another kind of weak director makes the biggest threats, hoping that his one and only draconical maximum penalty is too big for anyone to risk it.
Unfortunately this rather unsuccessfully tries to avoid dealing with problems rather than just solving them in a moderate and appropriately medium way.
The biggest problem with this is that it creates many situations in which people are at high risk of automatically starting to believe that they do not like each other, they risk to start thinking that the mutually other side is unfriendly, or unfair, or hateful. This is a big misunderstanding, they all are just unhappy with the situation of having a weak tournament direction when it does not manage to resolve problems --- problems that normally can be dealt with very reasonably and according to already established standards.