Armstrong Cup 2018-19

Trinity home venue is room 1.18b in the Biosciences building (only about 2 years old) on 152-160 Pearse Street. This is a better room than last season.
I believe there is free parking on Saturdays in the area; another regular poster may clarify. Looking at an old message in our Whatsapp group, somebody said it's behind Goldsmith Hall; take turn by the Ginger Man pub. But don't take my word for it as I go by bus.

In my opinion far too many postponements are being permitted by the League and games played in advance are not ideal either as it's a much better experience playing the whole match on the same (scheduled) day.

In any other league I ever played in, clubs just fielded whoever they could on the day and if somebody was away, too bad. In the Armstrong in the 1980s, postponements were allowed for people representing Ireland in olympiads and that was it. I am not sure when or why the present lax system developed.

The rule says:

7.7 Subject to agreement between the respective team captains, games may be played in advance of the scheduled date. If a team wishes to postpone games in a match, the approval of the divisional controller must be obtained in advance, which approval shall be given only in extenuating circumstances.

For the second year in a row, we are in danger of the ICU being unable to submit the Armstrong round 1 and 2 results to FIDE in time for inclusion in the November list. This affects anyone from Ireland who plays in the league and will be playing a rated game abroad in November.
All outstanding games would need to be played this Saturday, at latest,and the results promptly confirmed by both captains to the division controller, so that he can pass on the results to the ICU rating officer not later than Tuesday 30 October.

Let's take a look at the games still not reported on the LCU site.

Round 1 (supposed to be played on 29 Sept.), one missing result from the Kilkenny-Bray match: Quinn v De Verdier. Neither of them were at either the olympiad or the ECC.
So has this game been played or not? What were the "extenuating circumstances" that meant the division controller agreed for it to be postponed?

Gonzaga A v B was affected by the Millfield junior event and two players being away for the Olympiad, but the match has been completed now and the result is on the LCU site.

Round 2. St Benildus v Balbriggan. John Healy v Sean Nolan. Healy was at the ECC so fair enough - but if not played yet, it should be played at latest this Saturday. (Balbriggan matches are always on Saturday.) Benildus were at the ECC but still managed to play seven of the games as scheduled.

Round 2. Gonzaga A v Trinity. This match has finished 4-4 after the board 2 game was played last Saturday. That was delayed because Ioana Miller was at the Olympiad as women's captain, fair enough.

Round 2. Kilkenny v Dublin. Scheduled for 13 October but five of Dublin's ten declared players were at the ECC; so postponement is reasonable - but to what date? We are told unofficially that three games have been played. So teams must have been declared before that could happen. There is no information online so we don't know which games were played or which ones are outstanding. Will they play on Saturday?

In all, Kilkenny have 9 results holding up the rating. Does anybody from that club read this board and can help out here? Or one of the Dublin players?

sodacat11 wrote: »

Another annoying trend is this dubious practice of players agreeing draws in the Armstrong without playing a game at all. One Kilkenny player used to draw an amazing amount of games every season and I'm not even sure if he was even in the country for half of them. Another I.M , who shall remain nameless, is also guilty of this carry on which not only distorts the league table but also gives completely unmerited rating points to lower rated players. One player I heard about has gained at least 20 rating points in the past twelve months through these "non games".

That of course is another abuse arising from allowing advance or postponed games. I regret I have allowed my name to be used in this way a couple of times to save my club from fielding a weakened team against Gonzaga (not this year) - but the second time I only regained a few rating points I had conceded the first time.

Trinity 6 Rathmines 2