English Chess Forum

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http://www.yorkshirechess.org

This was a September Congress presumably?

How did the Silver membership/ £ 6 pay to play fee work out in practice?

I'm not really sure what you're wanting to know from this question - but I'll have a go!

Numbers of entries were very similar, perhaps even slightly up on previous years. At various local events and meetings there was a concerted effort to encourage people to join the ECF, which I believe was largely successful.

I had no involvement with the running of the congress so I can't give you any numbers or tell you how the Congress did financially.

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http://www.yorkshirechess.org

Finance was iirc the main worry that various people had last summer - with the combination of the changes to fees and the previous levels of membership in Yorkshire there was some very real potential for problems with the early season congresses like Bradford.

It's early enough in the season that many people who might be going to join before the start of the Woodhouse say, might not have done so yet. So it's very positive going forwards if it managed to run well. Entries staying roughly stable a very good start of course.

Bradford presented the entry fee / membership question in an interesting way. They did not say that you had to be an ECF member to play. They did not mention Gold / Silver / Bronze. They quoted a gross entry fee, and then gave a £4 discount for ECF members. They say that "games will go to the ECF for grading".

It sounds like they are paying the £6 for each player who is not a silver level or above and gambled that this would be affordable from the entry fees. If they had lots of bronze members play though, this could be a killer.

It will be a test of the ECF's organisational skills as to whether it invoices the Bradford Congress successfully and handles upgrades from Bronze to Silver. Paignton presents potentially the same problem.

From what I could tell they just essentially copied and pasted the entry form from 2011 without really factoring the new membership scheme into their pricing.

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http://www.yorkshirechess.org

I would stick with "they took a calculated risk"!