U100 Rapidplay sections please

[Antoine Clarke]

I'm having trouble finding any U100 Rapidplay sections in tournaments. My current rapidplay grade has dropped to 82 which puts me against 115 to 120 opponents in the 1st round of any tournament I enter at the moment.

I'm thinking of creating a calendar by grading sections. Anyone have info about U100s or interested in my calendar idea?

[Andrew Camp]

Leyland Rapidplay has an U100. February I think.

[David Clayton]

Leyland Rapidplay has an U100. February I think.

Correct Andrew, well remembered. The date is Sunday 23 February 2014.

I have just updated the index page: http://www.leylandchess.org.uk/rapid

In the Under 100 tournament, we have an under 80 grading prize as well.

Regards

David

[Roger de Coverly]

The main calendar is at

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/calendar ... -calendar/

but setting the highest grade for the lowest section at 119 or 120 seems universal, in the London area at least.

[Bruce Holland]

Antoine,

In the mid 1990's I took a not dissimilar view to yours about the need to try and give the lower graded players in the Minor Sections of congresses a more sporting chance, by developing opportunities and sections for those graded well below 100. My efforts were based on the evidence available from the data in the Grading System. Four events with which I was involved at the time benefitted. The Warwickshire Open Chess Championships, the Leamington RapidPlay Tournament, The Midland Individual Championship, and the Midland Open Championship. I was Congress Director for two of these, and the co-founder of another. The Leamington RapidPlay had five sections for a number of years, the lowest of which was the Under 70, which we labelled the Enthusiasts Section. The Midland Open had four sections with an Under 100, which I made sure grew our of a three tiered event that had been revived in 1989 by Neil Graham.

Neil was the leader of the pack for the Midland Individual, and one year I assisted the late John Robinson, who was the lead arbiter of the Minor Section. This had grown unwieldy and in the year in question had an entry of 131. Given that Neil, who as Tournament Director insisted that we wrote out by hand the pairing for each round, rather than displaying the pairing boards, we were hard pushed to get all the work done between rounds where there was only 40 minutes available. Both John and I rebelled. At the next planning meeting John and I set forth the case for breaking down the Minor into two sections, which we suggested would mean the lowest section should be an Under 90. This was based upon the characteristics of the entries of the previous two or three years. Boy, did we meet resistance. Eventually we won the argument and the Under 90 section became a reality. The two Midland events subsequently disappeared from the Tournament Calendar because nobody could be found to run them, as both Neil and I bowed out.

The Leamington and Warwickshire continue to exist to this day, but in the meantime the competition has squeezed the entry for both events, making it hard to make ends meet financially. And, there's the rub. There are insufficient numbers to run an Under 70 Section, or even an Under 100. In fact the minor sections which are either Under 120 or 115, are barely economic, with each being the smallest section in both events. That is in contrast to them being the largest sections in the 1980s, and 1990s.

You might be pleased to know that today Guy Greenland (Congress Director) and I (in my role as Congress Entries Secretary) took the decision to divvy up the extra £100 prize fund we had available, and devote it to the money available for Grading Prizes. We effectively doubled the Grading Prize fund to £60 for the Major, Intermediate, and Minor Sections. The Open Section was increased from £40 to £50.

Here is the final draft of the Congress Brochure:

[Bruce Holland]

ps

Read my blog (wearing my hat as Manager for Congress Chess,) and you'll see that I am attempting to develop the existing ECF English Tournament Calendar. I have noted your comments and I shall take this into account along with any other responses I receive to the basic idea of developing the Calendar. Nothing is set in stone as yet, but I do hope that all the various interested parties in the Calendar gain something from the further development and evolution of one of the success stories of English Chess, namely the Congress circuit.

[Roger de Coverly]

There are insufficient numbers to run an Under 70 Section, or even an Under 100.

Surely the ECF are to blame for this? They moved the average player from around 115 to around 140 with even greater increases for below average players. Counting Juniors as new players every year means that their grades reflect or indeed overtake their strength, which is another explanation for a shortage of sub 100 players.

[Mick Norris]

We had an U100 section at the Manchester Rapidplay in March