Search found 39 matches

by Dean Madden
Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:17 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Have Chess computers ruined the game?
Replies: 39
Views: 5552

Re: Have Chess computers ruined the game?

As someone who started playing chess just a few years ago, being able to analyse my games with a chess engine has helped my improvement a lot. If I couldn't use computer analysis, I'd still be making the same old mistakes without knowing I was making them. I guess this applies to juniors too, so hop...
by Dean Madden
Wed Feb 16, 2011 8:41 pm
Forum: Congress Results
Topic: 2011 Warwickshire Championship Results
Replies: 21
Views: 5410

Re: 2011 Warwickshire Championship Results

Sean Hewitt wrote:
Matthew Turner wrote:Why did so many players have a bye in round 3?
I assume there were three games on the Saturday?
Yes.
by Dean Madden
Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:55 pm
Forum: Congress Results
Topic: 2011 Warwickshire Championship Results
Replies: 21
Views: 5410

Re: 2011 Warwickshire Championship Results

Thanks for posting the results! I wish all congresses did the same.
by Dean Madden
Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:14 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Survey of league chess
Replies: 94
Views: 9692

Re: Survey of league chess

Great survey. A lot of useful information.
by Dean Madden
Fri Feb 04, 2011 12:19 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: This forum and the ECF
Replies: 23
Views: 3600

Re: This forum and the ECF

There is a link to this forum on the front page of the ECF site, in the links section on the left side. It makes it clear that the forum is independent of the ECF.
by Dean Madden
Thu Jun 24, 2010 5:05 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Congress Fees
Replies: 34
Views: 3573

Re: Congress Fees

Joey Stewart wrote:Some of the spectrum/castle congresses have fees upwards of £30 and only offer prizes of £60-70 I wonder where all the entry fees end up going when you only need to get three people playing to have covered the prize fund costs.
I guess quite a lot goes towards hiring the venues.
by Dean Madden
Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:40 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Mobile phone penalties.
Replies: 77
Views: 12870

Re: Mobile phone penalties.

I've voted immediate default. I think a player should have the right to claim the win, but in for example evening league chess, I doubt whether I would claim a win unless it was particularly distracting to me and my team mates. If my own phone went off I'd only have myself to blame and wouldn't have...
by Dean Madden
Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:25 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Players agreeing to their own time controls (part II)
Replies: 20
Views: 2325

Re: Players agreeing to their own time controls (part II)

I'm somewhere on the autistic spectrum, but have no problems writing notation from a board with no numbering. But as I've learnt using algebraic notation, I'd find it very distracting if the pieces were set up wrong way round, i.e. black on numbers 1&2, and white on 7&8. Much more distracting than w...
by Dean Madden
Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:43 pm
Forum: Rating Debate
Topic: What are the new conversion formulae?
Replies: 30
Views: 4752

Re: What are the new conversion formulae?

http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/help.php#elo

has

ECF x 8 + 650 = FIDE
ECF x 8 + 600 = National Elo
by Dean Madden
Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:10 am
Forum: Rating Debate
Topic: Grading Limits - Old -> New
Replies: 5
Views: 1971

Re: Grading Limits - Old -> New

The average increases are:
Adult New Grade = 0.81 x Old Grade + 43
Junior New Grade = 0.84 x Old Grade + 45
by Dean Madden
Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:00 am
Forum: Links
Topic: Derbyshire Individual tournament
Replies: 1
Views: 1396

Derbyshire Individual tournament

Season long 7 round swiss tournament for players resident in Derbyshire or playing for a club in the Derbyshire league:

http://www.derbyshirechess.org.uk/
by Dean Madden
Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:16 am
Forum: Rating Debate
Topic: When is the new grading list coming out?
Replies: 509
Views: 47644

Re: When is the new grading list coming out?

It looks like the main change is calculating from the last 20 games (including previous seasons) for juniors instead of last 9.
by Dean Madden
Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:19 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: What do you do for a living
Replies: 46
Views: 6269

Re: What do you do for a living

for the NHS. I don't wish to be pessimistic Dean, but.. You could replace NHS with MoD or BT or several other bloated and disconnected organisations! Don't expect to ever see it running live! lol. Unusually the projects I've worked on have actually seen the light of day. Worked on MoD software that...
by Dean Madden
Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:06 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: What do you do for a living
Replies: 46
Views: 6269

Re: What do you do for a living

Software developer, currently develop a web based patient record system for the NHS.
by Dean Madden
Sat Jun 06, 2009 2:53 pm
Forum: Junior Chess
Topic: Kick-starting chess
Replies: 18
Views: 4264

Re: Kick-starting chess

'How to Beat Your Dad at Chess' and 'Chess Tactics for Kids' are a couple of good books I'd recommend.