Armstrong 2015/16

cdeb

So the league fixtures have been sent out to clubs. Time to get the new season threads open!

Guess we can start off with some predictions like last year.

1. Gonzaga - hard to see who'll stop them, especially if Henry Li has signed
2. St Benildus A - I think we underachieved last year, but a couple of players seem back in form, so maybe...!

11. St Benildus B - having not expected to get promoted in the first place, I think it'd be sticking my neck out to say we'll stay up! I think we can target staying off the bottom though.
12. Kilkenny - were 10th last year and if Curragh still have their top three boards, they should stay up. Doesn't seem to be anyone coming through for Kilkenny, so this might be their year to go down. Though they are up against Benildus B on the last day, so if they bring out the big guns, they could get a big score if needed!

League table is here

L1m1tless

I agree with your predictions for first and second.

I think the Curragh will stay up this time. It will he interesting to see how our rising starts fare against the elite. Our board one was only warming up last year after many years break from chess.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

It would be very very tough for benildus to both challenge for the title and keep their B team up. Absolutely no offence meant, it's just incredibly difficult to do, even with a large crop of promising juniors to bolster the ranks. Elm mount, Gonzaga, trinity will boast 1900s throughout the bottom boards with subs around that standard too

cdeb

Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: »

It would be very very tough for benildus to both challenge for the title and keep their B team up.

This is true - which is why I haven't predicted it to happen.

I'm hoping we'll have a stable team like last year - the Armstrong only needed 10 subs, three on the final day when we were out of the running. The Heidenfeld were almost all regulars after Christmas. That'll be key. If we start using lots of subs, we'll be in trouble.

Though I do think there's two or three clubs the B team can target. Which is of course different to saying we'll finish ahead of two or three!

Tim Harding

Since Trinity generally request to postpone any September match (because undergraduate term won't have started), this means their first match will be against Gonzaga, potentially one of the most decisive match-ups of the season.

Why have Gonzaga got home advantage for the second season in a row?

Also why are there yet again only five rounds before Christmas (instead of six as in previous years?). Instead of the league finishing in March, as it used to, there are now two rounds in April. Who decided this?

wine and final destination

The home and away fixtures change every two years generally!

mikhail

Tim Harding wrote: »

Also why are there yet again only five rounds before Christmas (instead of six as in previous years?). Instead of the league finishing in March, as it used to, there are now two rounds in April. Who decided this?

Didn't Bray or someone propose to ban matches in December?

From cdeb's LCU AGM report here:
Motion 4. The rule that no fixtures be held between 14 December and 25 December should be rescinded. (Inchicore)

4) Withdrawn on the basis it wasn’t a rule in the first place (it was passed last year as a recommendation)

I guess with round 5 creeping into December, there just wasn't room for another round. The fixture-generating software developed a couple of years ago (I regret to say I can't remember by whom) seems to do a decent job otherwise, so it's probably not worth the volume of work it'd take to fix that by hand. Maybe we could look at starting a week earlier next year.

EnPassant

Elm Mount 6 Dublin 2

cdeb

St Benildus B 2-6 St Benildus A

Was looking a lot worse for a long time!

Retd.LoyolaCpt

cdeb wrote: »

St Benildus B 2-6 St Benildus A

Was looking a lot worse for a long time!

Any wins for the Bs? or 4 draws?

cdeb

A win on the bottom board - a sub for us.

Draws on 1 and 7

L1m1tless

Curragh 0 Gonzaga 8 didn't help by missing two of our top boards, but it was only ever going to be an exhibition match.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

Neo_Ninja wrote: »

Curragh 0 Gonzaga 8 didn't help by missing two of our top boards, but it was only ever going to be an exhibition match.

... Good things happen when you drop me...

Gearoid MacGabhain

Balbriggan 6 Phibsbora 2

Gearoid MacGabhain

Uptodate table till I get access to the website
Team MP W D L Pts
1 Gonzaga 1 8 0 0 8
2 Elm Mount 1 5 2 1 6
3 St Benildus A 1 5 2 5 6
4 Balbriggan 1 4 4 0 6
5 St Benildus B 1 1 2 1 2
6 Dublin 1 1 2 5 2
7 Phibsboro 1 0 4 4 2
8 Bray / Greystones 0 0 0 0 0
9 Dublin University 0 0 0 0 0
10 Dun Laoghaire 0 0 0 0 0
11 Kilkenny 0 0 0 0 0
12 Curragh 1 0 0 8 0

sinbad68

Several incidences of games played in Armstrong this season in which players only got 1 hour 30 min each ( No increments ), This problem started after LCU decided to add The option of 90 mins + 30 secs increments to previous 2 hours per player for all the moves, which not only creates a problem for players using public transport late at night to get home if their game drags on, another problem is that alot of players are not familiar with using chess clocks and that's why mistakes happened . I've seen players who have been playing chess for decades and DO NOT know how to set the timer on their own club's chess clocks and constantly looking for others to help them !. If you are a player in a game or sports you should familiarise yourself with the equipment you need to use and clubs should make an effort in this field. Some chess clocks are unnecessarily complicated, they have functions like making sound or provide light, bootless functions which are disturbing to players and waste of battery but don't have the function of automatically switching off themselves after a few minutes if not being used and saving battery.

Couple of Armstrong games scheduled 9 days ago still do not appear in the league table. Why the delay, when reporting and updating is all done online ?.

mikhail

sinbad68 wrote: »

Couple of Armstrong games scheduled 9 days ago still do not appear in the league table. Why the delay, when reporting and updating is all done online ?.

The league software is kind of conservative. The division controllers have to copy emails from both teams into the league software, reconcile them, and report the result to the leagues controller, who later publishes it. It makes for a delay of at least a few days, and sometimes longer. (As for who's making the delay, it varies.) On the other hand, it does make for fewer errors.

Retd.LoyolaCpt

sinbad68 wrote: »

Couple of Armstrong games scheduled 9 days ago still do not appear in the league table. Why the delay, when reporting and updating is all done online ?.

Dublin University 3.5 - 1.5 Dun Laoghaire. 3 games rescheduled due to start of term.

Not sure about Kilkenny - Bray/Greystones.

mikhail

Which reminds me,

St Benildus 5.5-2.5 Balbriggan

cdeb

Ahem!

St Benildus A 5.5-2.5 Balbriggan

sinbad68

Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: »

Not sure about Kilkenny - Bray/Greystones.

kilkenny 1- Bray 6 and one game in dispute, apparently 3 of the games were played with 90 minutes each and NO increments( time frame)!, and one of those game is in dispute due to one person having winning position but shortage of time!.

mikhail wrote: »

The league software is kind of conservative. The division controllers have to copy emails from both teams into the league software, reconcile them, and report the result to the leagues controller, who later publishes it. It makes for a delay of at least a few days, and sometimes longer. (As for who's making the delay, it varies.) On the other hand, it does make for fewer errors.

Cut out the middleman and let captains report directly ( within 24 hours of match being played )to league controller as well as division guys, and the controller being someone who is prompt. The tables should be updated minimum once weekly.The icu rating site needs to be fixed as well, stephen brady played for st benildus last season and this and yet appears to be a phibsboro player according to icu rating site and didn't Alex byrne leave that club long time ago ?, too many examples, when people pay their annual icu fees they should state, which club (if any ) they are affiliated with or, is it joined with ?

As regarding chess clocks, if anyone asks you to set the clock for them, my advice is to teach them how to set the clock, because " Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish you feed him for life "

mikhail

sinbad68 wrote: »

Cut out the middleman and let captains report directly ( within 24 hours of match being played )to league controller as well as division guys, and the controller being someone who is prompt. The tables should be updated minimum once weekly.

You get to specify quality of service from people you pay to do something.

The icu rating site needs to be fixed as well, stephen brady played for st benildus last season and this and yet appears to be a phibsboro player according to icu rating site and didn't Alex byrne leave that club long time ago ?, too many examples, when people pay their annual icu fees they should state, which club (if any ) they are affiliated with or, is it joined with ?

No doubt you can suggest that the club field be mandatory for subscriptions to whoever is currently running it. Maybe it is. For all I know, Stephen is still a member of Phibsboro. I know several people who have some degree of assocaition with more than one club.

mikhail

cdeb wrote: »

Ahem!

St Benildus A 5.5-2.5 Balbriggan

Yet another reason to ban B teams from divisions.

sinbad68

mikhail wrote: »

You get to specify quality of service from people you pay to do something.

Are you telling me people providing the service are unpaid volunteers ?!! If so, they volunteered, then they love their job and should do it faster than reluctant paid individuals.

cdeb

sinbad68 wrote: »

kilkenny 1- Bray 6 and one game in dispute, apparently 3 of the games were played with 90 minutes each and NO increments( time frame)!, and one of those game is in dispute due to one person having winning position but shortage of time!

Interesting. I presume that final game has to go against the player who lost on time (or because of time)? It's surely incumbent on both players to make sure the clock is set up correctly, and you can hardly complain about it after the game, no more than you can claim a draw or call touch move after a game is over.

sinbad68

@ cdeb. I am not sure if a player lost on time or paused the clock and called the arbiter when low on time. unfortunately I am not as good in eavesdropping as I used to be.

Clubs pay LCU a fee ? for services , how much is it and what is spent on ?

FortKnox

Does this impact FIDE rating? The 1 1/2 hours only works if the increments bring the total time to 120 mins based on a 60 move game.

From Fide website
Rate of Play
1.1

For a game to be rated, each player must have the following minimum periods in which to complete all the moves, assuming the game lasts 60 moves.
Where at least one of the players in the tournament has a rating 2200 or higher, each player must have a minimum of 120 minutes.
Where at least one of the players in the tournament has a rating 1600 or higher, each player must have a minimum of 90 minutes.
Where all the players in the tournament are rated below 1600, each player must have a minimum of 60 minutes.

cdeb

sinbad68 wrote: »

@ cdeb. I am not sure if a player lost on time or paused the clock and called the arbiter when low on time.

I would have thought in either circumstance, the result over the board stands though. Both players were responsible for letting the game go on with the erroneous time control, so I don't see how either could claim a win.

sinbad68 wrote: »

Clubs pay LCU a fee ? for services , how much is it and what is spent on ?

Yes. Fee is detailed in the LCU rules. Accounts were presented at the AGM - your club rep should be able to fill you in. From memory, the main chunk is the last day of the leagues (venue hire and trophies) and a subsidy for the City of Dublin.

@FortKnox - I would presume the important bit is what the rules state the time control is, and if there's a mistake, that's outside of the rules and doesn't affect FIDE ratings.

But that's just a guess obviously.

Tim Harding

It should be possible to tell within a few moves that the clock is not applying a 30-second increment. FIDE rule 6.10 applies. The clock should be stopped and adjusted (by the team captains in the absence of the league arbiter).

IMHO if the player(s) didn't notice or chose to do nothing about it, then they cannot complain about time trouble later or appeal the result and rating of the game.

UpTheJunction

Armstrong should be scrapped maybe?

sinbad68

Tim Harding wrote: »

It should be possible to tell within a few moves that the clock is not applying a 30-second increment. FIDE rule 6.10 applies. The clock should be stopped and adjusted (by the team captains in the absence of the league arbiter).

IMHO if the player(s) didn't notice or chose to do nothing about it, then they cannot complain about time trouble later or appeal the result and rating of the game.

In the first few moves, players should notice if 30 seconds being added on , but some players get immersed into the game from the start and don't notice the clock till towards the end.

UpTheJunction wrote: »

Armstrong should be scrapped maybe?

No, Mustafa !