CHESS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 89, 12 October 1923, Page 4

CHESS

NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION

A quarterly council meeting of the New Zealand Chess Association was held in the chess-room of the Working Men's Club on Wednesday evening, when the following delegates were present:—T. Fouhy (Auckland C.C.), F. K. Kelling (Auckland W.M. Club and Timaru), C. W. Tanner (Napier), G. A. Jones (Masterton), H. Jessup (Wanganui), H. G. Lee (Palmerston North), W. Toomath (Wellington CO.), S. Faulknor and H. E. Long (Wellington W.M. Club), D. Purchas (Wellington South C.C.), E. E. Hicks (Ngaio C.C.), G. H. Clutten (Nelson C.C.), F. J. Brooker (Canterbury C.C.), and H. Douglas (Otago C.C.). Mr. Brooker was elected chairman.

Mr. C. W. Tanner (hon. secretary) read the correspondence on hand. Mr. F. Kummer, of Mauriceville, a North Island vice-president, forwarded a donation of £2 2s, and expressed pleasure at the proposal to hold a minor tourney simultaneously with the annual championship event. Mr. S. Crackanthorp, the well-known champion of New South Wales, wrote stating that he would be a competitor for the New Zealand championship, and forwarded the required entrance fee, viz., £1 Is. An unofficial letter from Mr. G. Gundersen, eleven times champion of Victoria, indicates that he also hopes to be a competitor. The Auckland and Otago Clubs wrote asking for details of the proposed minor tournament. The Wellington Chess League presented a report showing that it is not in favour of the proposal to make telegraphic contests interprovincial (instead of inter-club, as at present). It was unanimously, decided to alter the time limit from 18 to 20 moves per hour, as recommended by the competitors who took part in the last congress. The entrance fee for the minor tourney was fixed at 10s 6d for each competitor nominated by an affiliated club, and £1 1b for each private entry. The entries for this tourney, and also for the championship event, must reach the hon. secretary, Mr. O. W. Tanner, by the Ist proximo. The Congress Committee reserves power to classify any entrant as " major " or " minor." In view of the fact that one or two Australian champions are taking part, it was decided to follow the precedents of 1906 and 1913 and ask affiliated clubs to circulate a one-shilling list amongst their members, in order to specially increase the first two prizes. It was decided, by a majority vote of the financial clubs, to abandon the Sieger system of prize distribution, which has been in operation ever since 1911, and which gives a prize to every competitor who scores over 50 per cent, of his games, the prizes being in proportion to the excess scored over the 50 per cent. This system, which is used in European tourneys, has the advantage of frequently providing a competitor with the incentive, in the later rounds, of " gaining a place," and consequently honours for his club, an incentive that would be lacking under the earlier method of having four fixed prizes. The drawback of the Sieger system is that, in the opinion of come delegates, too large a, proportion of competitors figure as prize winners. After considerable discussion, Mr. Faulknor moved that a prize offered for every four competitors, or fraction of four, the maximum number of prizes to be four. .This was : carriedMjy" 25 "votes" Vto" 17. (Each senior club has five votes and each junior club three). Proposals for allowing a fixed sum to each Sieger, or in the alternative, for rewarding each game scored by a non-prize winner from a prize winner, were rejected. Mr. Fouhy's suggestion to allot the prize fund in the ratio of 8, 4, 2, and 1 found considerable favour, but no formal recommendation was moved. It was decided to hold a further meeting of the association "on the 7th proximo, when Mr. Kelling proposes to again press for the granting of some small recognition to nonprize winning Siegers, his reason being that the Sieger system was introduced twelve years ago at the direct mandate of the affiliated clubs, not one of whom, so far as he can learn, has expressed a wish to have it abandoned. He therefore urges that it would be advisable, in the absence of a. reversing mandate from the clubs, to preserve the principle that they insisted on introducing in 1911. The cost, he estimates, would not exceed two guineas.

A vote of thanks to Mr. Brooker for presiding closed the meeting.