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This was held at the Midland Hotel, Derby,
Click here to
download the games from the top boards.
It
was with some relief that, when we walked into the Hallmark
Hotel, [formerly the Midland hotel], Derby, we found that the
refurbishment, which had caused us such disruption and inconvenience
in November, was completed.
Service
was getting back to normal, but there is still a way to go before
it is back to the standard we have come to expect from that
hotel.
In all, there were 26 competitors, 14 in the open and 12 in
the minor. We were pleased to welcome Jan Boer and Gerard De
Lange from the Netherlands and a new member,
Andy Smith in his first B.C.A. event.
Our Arbiters, Julie Leonard and Peter Gibbs, as always,
managed to run the tournament with the minimum of fuss.
The
first two rounds of the open event went to form and in round
3 Graham Lilley and Tyson Mordue played out a draw, while Chris
Ross clinched a win against Steve Burnell, leaving him half
a point ahead of the field. David Hodgkins scored a credible
draw against his higher rated opponent, Steve Hilton.
In
the minor, Phil Smith was forging ahead with three wins having
beaten George Phillips and seen his other main rival, Steve
Brown loose to Jim Cuthbert. 
Before the start of round
4, we learned Tyson Mordue had withdrawn from the tournament
having scored 2,5 from 3. In
round 4 of the open Chris Ross and Graham Lilley were drawn
against each other and the result was a draw.
This allowed Gerard de Lange, who was coming up on the
rails to draw level with Graham, just half a point behind Chris.
In
the minor, Phil Smith clinched top spot with a game in hand
when he defeated Steve Brown. Geoff Patching, who was recovering from
a major operation, scored a fine win against Jim Cuthbert. Our new member, Andy Smith, had cause for
celebration when he scored his first win in a B.C.A. event.
In the final round of the open, Graham Lilley and Gerard De
Lange agreed a draw, allowing Chris Ross to offer a draw against
tristram Cole, who accepted, leaving Chris the clear winner
with 4/5, half a point ahead of Graham Lilley, Gerard De Lange
and Steve Burnell. Gerard De Lange was the winner of grading
group a and David Hodgkins won grading group b.
 In the Minor, Phil Smith drew with
Voldi Gailans in the final round, which gave him a clear win
a point ahead of George Phillips. Voldi Gailans and Geoff Patching
shared the grading prize a and Dorothy Hodges won grading prize
b.
As
usual, we benefited greatly from the generous assistance of
our helpers and associates. Moira Whittle raised £181 from a
raffle which she organised during the weekend, which was a tremendous
effort.
Below
are a few notes from the annual general meeting of the Brail
Chess Association.
Click
here to download the minutes of the A.G.M. 2009
More
pictures from 2009 AGM Additions to committee
reports.
The B.C.A. Gazette.
We've
received sponsorship for the costs of the gazette for the next
2 years, this year from the Primary Club and next year from
Sean O'brien.
Publications.
Mark
Kirkahm (audio resource coordinator) was to raise the matter
of production of Braille chess books with the RNIB and possibly
Scottish Braille Press. He was commended for putting the reports
to the website and making things available online, which many
had found useful.
Fund-raising.
Fundraising
was going exceptionally well again this year.
Braille
chess clocks and sets.A new Braille chess clock is possibly
being produced in Germany, so we had suspended our project with
the RNIB to have clocks adapted. Production of chess sets in
the UK was about to begin.
Publicity.
We'd
had a good response from advertising the association with societies
for the blind, we just had to wait and see if members of those
societies would join.
Membership.
David
Hodgkins (membership secretary) reported we had one new member.
The
Grass-roots project.
The
grass roots scheme had got off to an excellent start. It would
be expanded to include first time trips to events abroad put on
by other chess associations for the blind, this was partly to
make up for our inability to organise “B internationals”
due to cost. The
4 Nations Chess League.
The
team was doing well, especially since the first weekend had
clashed with the Olympiad, meaning that Chris Ross (4NCL captain)
had lost nearly all of his top players.
Correspondence
chess.
The
team in the British correspondence chess league had done very
well last year, and Alec Crombie (chairman) had got the team
off to an excellent start this year with 1.5-2 points. He was
to take on the captaincy from David Hodkins.
Motions.
A. The Steve Eastwick-Field memorial tournament would be played
over 7 rounds not 6. What used to be the rest day would now
consist of an outing and a game in the evening. If someone didn't
want to play that day they could have a half-point bye.
B.
Two clauses of the constitution were amended, one to allow associate
junior members free subscriptions to the association until they
were 18, one to allow remuneration to officers in special cases
allowed under the charities act. It was stressed this last amendment
was not a charter for all the committee to receive payment,
only to cover emergency situations where semi-professional posts
could not be filled by members and where those who did step
in effectively provided a professional level of service.
Elections.
The
Committee was unchanged except for Gary Wickett becoming postal
tournament director and Gill Smith becoming treasurer. Stan
Lovell takes on junior development work. Mark Hague had retired
from the post of tournament director to help out with organising
over the board events.
Any other business.
A
new member Andy Smith spoke about coaching by Skype and John
Gallagher offered to help out anyone who wanted to find out
about this and any other matters relating to chess software
and accessibility.
B.C.A. A.G.M. Tournament 2009
Final
placings:
Open:
1st place (and trophy): Chris Ross with 4/5.
2-4 place: Graham Lilley, Gerard De Lange and Steve Burnell
with 3.5.
5-8 place: Les Whittle, Tristram Cole, Steve Hilton and David
Hodgkins with 2.5/5.
9-10 place: Richard Murphy and John Gallagher with 2.
11-12 place: Jan Boer and Philip Gordon with 1.5.
13 place: Roger Waters with 1.
Tyson Mordue 2,5 from 3.
Minor:
1st place: Phil
Smith ,with 4.5/5.
2nd place: George Phillips with 3.5/5.
3-6 place: Orlando Sobers, Steve Brown, Voldi Gailans and Geoff
Patching with 3/5.
7-8 place: Jim Cuthbert and Gary Wickett with 2.5/5.
9-10 place: John Osborne and Dorothy Hodges with 2/5.
11 place: Andy Smith with 1/5..
12 place: Richard Harrington 0/5.
B.C.A. Publicity officer. |