Recent Committee Decisions

In this blog I will report on decisions taken by the Committee at its recent meeting.

Firstly, the revised arrangements for the Ranked Masters were confirmed whereby green point awards will be given for matches won as well as for the top half of the final ranking list. These points will be decimalised so that victory in 2 board matches will earn an award, probably 0.1. Full details will be published as soon as they have been finalised. This is an experiment and, if successful, could be extended to other pairs events, provided they are scored by imps rather than match points. All the ranked master sections will continue to be butler scored. Additionally, as previously announced, the Committee has agreed to relax the regulations in the top categories to allow a player qualified for a particular rank to play with a partner of the rank immediately below. (i.e. a Premier Grand Master can play with a Grand Master in the Premier Grand Masters Pairs; a Grand Master with a Premier Life in the Grand Masters Pairs; and a Premier Life Master with a Life Master in the Premier Life Masters Pairs.)

Next, the Northern Easter Congress will be held at the Palace Hotel in Buxton. I expect many of you will remember it fondly from the BBL congresses held there. I understand that it has been refurbished and is now part of the Barcelo group, to which the Hinckley and Daventry hotels also belong. I’m afraid that single occupancy is expensive but I understand that there is plenty of cheaper accommodation nearby.

Finally, the Great Northern Swiss Pairs will be butler scored, and it and the Championship Pairs at the London Easter Festival, will be stratified. This means that while the event will be open to all (i.e. it will not be flighted) there will be green points and prizes for 3 categories of players, the top category containing at least one life master or above, the second category for pairs containing no Life Master or above, and the third category containing no Regional Master or above.