Southern Ructions

While the 2005 NSW Grade Matches finds itself in an ugly controversy, at least we've managed to do it at the tail-end of the competition. Our Mexican neighbours (that's Victorians for the uninitiated), and always looking to do better, have got themselves in a tangle long before the season even began.

Box Hill Chess Club, happens to have a junior club called White Horse. Then, as if like in a fairy tale, along came a club called Dark Horse. Fair dinkum, I'm not joking!

Looking for some fast and early success, Dark Horse visited upon White Horse and "poached" a strong young gun, Chris Wallis. Well, what do you know? Wallis and his team of upstarts then proceeded to win the A Grade comp in 2004. Well done to them. The victory, in fact, vindicated the poacher's choice to promote Wallis to board 1 whereas the junior had previously played on board 4 for Box Hill.

As the Dark Horse team spread their wings in 2005, and possibly to entice more from White Horse, the Box Hill president was moved to say, "Enough is enough!" Box Hill lodge a formal dispute. The president invoked a little known clause requiring players to get a "transfer release" from a club that they had previously represented.

The relevant competition by-law reads:

6.4. A player whose Club refuses to grant a transfer shall have a right of appeal to the Executive and any Club refusing to grant application for a transfer shall be required to give a reason in writing to the player.

To settle the matter, Chess Victoria was required to appoint a formal disputes manager, Frank Meerbach.

More later.