Compulsory membership for rapidplays

[Roger de Coverly]

Should rapidplay organisers make ECF Silver membership compulsory for all entrants? At least one organiser thinks so.

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 04#p178423

[MartinCarpenter]

Surely just sane down south? Can't imagine anyone doing it in Yorkshire for the obvious reason.

[Sean Hewitt]

Should rapidplay organisers make ECF Silver membership compulsory for all entrants?

The alternative is for the organiser to get involved in collecting fees for playing on behalf of the federation. The reality is that this only affects players who player congress chess only, and only play one or two events per year. This is enough of an edge case to justify the stated policy.

[Brian Towers]

Should rapidplay organisers make ECF Silver membership compulsory for all entrants?

I think it depends what level competitions they're running.

For very young (say U8), weak juniors I think it doesn't make much sense to send games off for grading or to penalize them for illegal moves, for that matter. When they're a bit older and stronger it's another matter, although surely you would just surcharge them the fiver or whatever it is?

[Adam Raoof]

Personal answer: no. ECF Membership for rapid chess is not compulsory, and there is the marginal possibility that players who are new to the tournament scene might be put off.

Practical answer: some organisers (CCF) prefer to make it obligatory because it saves the hassle of collecting and passing on the pay-to-play fee, as Sean said.

Experience says: if you are likely to get a lot of new players and want to make them as welcome as possible, as well as maximising the number of entrants - do the paperwork!

[Andy_Stoker]

Despite having a reasonable theoretical strength (last quickplay grade was 192 - but that's a significant over-estimate of my strength) I play at most one or two tournaments a year (none since 2013) ... make me have to become an ECF member and it's not going to happen at all... and people won't start playing tournaments if they are penalized like that.