Forum history and dynamics

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.
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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Forum history and dynamics

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Sun Aug 05, 2012 11:57 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
John Philpott wrote:Christopher Kreuzer wrote
Thanks. I recognise the name Chris Majer (was that before or after Martin Regan?), but not some of the other names
Chris became CEO after Martin Regan resigned. If you let me know the other names that you are unfamiliar with I will do my best to give you a steer as to their background.
Er. Peter Wilson, Charles Woods, Robert Richmond? Those are the only ones I remember from reading that thread. I think some of the thread suffers from some posts having been removed, possibly when some people closed down their accounts? There are certainly some quoted bits that don't seem to appear anywhere in the thread, though as I started reading it at the point halfway through that you (correctly) pointed me too, I may be misreading that. It was interesting reading, but at a remove of 4 years, difficult to get a real handle on how much it meant at the time and now.
Peter JB Wilson - then Director of Marketing.
Charles W Wood - big promoter of the Chess for Schools project. Has disappeared from the forum with the collapse of said project.
Robert Richmond - former Finance Director.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Forum history and dynamics

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Aug 06, 2012 12:04 am

As regards the sponsor allegation, the ECF appointed one Charles W Wood as manager of the Chess Sets in Schools project. One of the issues around this project was that the sponsor was only promising to manufacture chess sets rather than deliver them. Therefore provided the chess sets were actually manufactured, distribution became an issue.

CWW to my mind set up a strategy where the appeal to potential sponsors was to look at the internet footprint for "Chess Sets for Schools". The problem became that such a search just uncovered CWW debating issues on this forum of which he had little practical knowledge and getting involved in flame wars as a consequence. There were boasts that major logistics operations were on the verge of being signed up. Whether this was true is another matter, but the blaming the forum was a convenient excuse for failure.

Going back to the sponsor issue, is it helpful to British chess that a prolific author and columnist uses his blog both to refer to the English Chess Federation as the Egregious Chess Federation and to invent silly names for both its officials and other personalities?

I would have thought this more damaging than individuals attempting to subject the plans and opinions of the ECF and its directors to scrutiny.

John Philpott

Re: Forum history and dynamics

Post by John Philpott » Mon Aug 06, 2012 12:06 am

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Er. Peter Wilson, Charles Woods, Robert Richmond? Those are the only ones I remember from reading that thread.
Peter Wilson was Director of Marketing until he stood down in 2009. He remains a Direct Members' Representative.

Charles Wood (not Woods) was for a time Manager of the Chess Sets for Schools Project.

Robert Richmond was the Finance Director until he stood down in 2008 (but continued on an acting basis into 2009). He remains the Representative Member for Nottinghamshire.

William Metcalfe
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Re: Forum history and dynamics

Post by William Metcalfe » Mon Aug 06, 2012 12:07 am

Charles Wood also had a chess for schools project in Bradford that has since collapsed
I am speaking here for myself and not the NCCU which i am now president of

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Forum history and dynamics

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Aug 06, 2012 12:43 am

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Is anyone able to go into more details or point to where this is documented?
As always, the SCCU site has a reliable commentary

http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/0809/bcf.htm

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Forum history and dynamics

Post by Geoff Chandler » Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:09 am

Hi Chris.

It's a blog. A wee silly blog.
Sometimes he's funny. other times he's just silly.
' Andrew "Aintwortha" Farthing. ' wow that's a deep one I bet Andrew has
never hear of that before.
(never make a joke about people names, they have heard all before).
Sometimes he gets nasty and very offensive and goes (IMO) OTT.

I also read his bit about wanting the team to pull out of the Olympiad.
I agree.
I know nothing about the lawsuits or the other reasons but the
idea of boycotting the Olympics appeals.

Also appealing is boycotting any future mention of Steve's gibberings.
(damn I've made a joke about someone's name. I told myself not to do that.)

But then again no.
What else would we talk about and who would read what we write about?
The 'we' in this case is us and SG.
We need each other.

Andrew Zigmond
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Location: Harrogate

Re: Forum history and dynamics

Post by Andrew Zigmond » Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:48 pm

William Metcalfe wrote:Charles Wood also had a chess for schools project in Bradford that has since collapsed
Charles Wood had a chess academy in Bradford a few years ago that had local authority funding which he lost. Choosing my words carefully, he was regarded as something of a joke on this forum but locally his achievements were very real if short lived - he did have a whole league of young people playing chess which is not to be sniffed at. He also tried to attract the late teens, early twenties demographic which is often missing from chess these days. He deserves a bit more respect than he's generally been awarded.

On another matter, following mention of the old Atticus forum recently, I checked it out. One of the more prominent posters was a Stevegchess. Anybody we know?
Controller - Yorkshire League
Chairman - Harrogate Chess Club
All views expressed entirely my own