The founding meeting for the "Garden State Chess League" (not Essex; as erroneously reported in #408) has been re-scheduled to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 18th at the Kenilworth Chess Club.
Last night, John Hagerty of the West Orange CC and Charles Miller of the Hamilton CC stopped by the KCC for a fact-finding discussion and the following, initial league-framework was agreed to :
1. Play will commence in late February or early March 2009 (shortly after the U.S. Amateur Team tournament) and run thru June.
2. Teams will play 1 match per month unless the later starting date is used. In that instance, an additional match would have to be squeezed into one of the months.
3. The West Orange CC will be the host-site for league matches; as it was for the old North Jersey league.
4. Teams have the option of playing at another venue to reduce travel. For example, if Hamilton was slated to play Kenilworth, they could go there, instead of making the longer trip.
5. Once a player competes for a team, he is bound to them for the season. One could not, for example, play for the West Orange's B team in March & get promoted to the West Orange A team.
6. Games will not be USCF-rated.
7. The time control will be G/90.
8. A club may field more than 1 team.
Items to be finalized on 12/18 include :
- The official name of the league. "New Jersey Chess League" was suggested but while preparing this article I discovered that there is a high-school association using the moniker.
- Admitting charter clubs. West Orange, Kenilworth, Hamilton, Dumont and the Newark Sleepless Knights have expressed serious interest. Roselle is also a candidate. Others will be actively sought in the next 2 weeks.
- Number of boards per match. It will be 4 or 6.
- A per-board rating average for the teams. Perhaps U2000.
Additional topics to address are :
- Choosing league officials & drafting a constitution.
- Entry fees for trophies and/or administrative costs.
- Pairing format. For example if there are 8 teams, would there be a 5-round swiss or two 4-team divisions?
- Roster Size/Protected Lists. Would we have teams designate the 4-6 boards plus 4-6 substitutes and let all others in a club sign elsewhere as free agents?
- Setting deadlines for submitting rosters & making schedules.
- Deciding if the team entry-window should be extended to Presidents' Day 2008.
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