GETTING READY FOR WARWICK - ARE YOU?

[John Upham]

David,

By "entries"

do you mean the number of individuals who are entering at least one event

OR

do you mean the sum of (each unique event x the number of persons entering that unique event)?

Comparing the figure for the latter on a year by year basis is likely to flatter the congress offering more events rather than the congress that attracts more individual persons?

Do we have a comparative listing for each year on many individual persons were attracted to enter at least one event?

The measure of a congress is largely how many persons it attracts I would suggest.

Hard facts can be somewhat of a downer for the writer of The Sun type headlines.

[Alex McFarlane]

By "entries"

do you mean the number of individuals who are entering at least one event

OR

do you mean the sum of (each unique event x the number of persons entering that unique event)?

Hi John,

I believe the answer is neither!!

I kept the figures from '89 until a couple of years ago. Those figures represent unique event x number who actually played (excluding fillers)
So not the number of entries which would be higher.
Nor the number of unique participants which would be smaller.

I only occasionally had the data to make it possible to calculate the number of people playing. In the earlier years this would have required sifting through much paperwork whereas the figure given simply involved looking at the charts for each event.

[David Gilbert]

Hard facts can be somewhat of a downer for the writer of The Sun type headlines.

We all need a day job. I’ve only one data set to have a dialogue with and that’s the one Alex started. At the moment entries are a proxy for played (and paid, I think Alex or Lara told me). Final figures won't be available until the end of the Championships. But the important thing is that people come out to play chess and enjoy themselves. Come and play, you might enjoy it! Holidays are coming!

[David Gilbert]

Today’s entry list moved up to 866. We could be heading for a final figure close to the 1,187 record set at the 100th British Championships at Torquay in 2013. Whatever happens there’ll be a new high number of Seniors this year (109 entries so far compared to the previous biggest 107). That’s largely due to the modification of the definition of Senior and the division between young Seniors (50+) and older Seniors (+65). At a time when people are living longer and retirement age is moving upwards, it’s difficult to fathom how being 50 makes someone a senior, but that’s where we are.

2013 Torquay 1187
2003 Edinburgh 1009
1997 Hove 1001
1999 Scarborough 986
1989 Plymouth 989
2002 Torquay 973
1998 Torquay 963
2001 Scarborough 960
2011 Sheffield 951
2004 Scarborough 940
2009 Torquay 935
1994 Norwich 933
1992 Plymouth 933
1990 Eastbourne 926
1995 Swansea 923
1991 Eastbourne 921
2010 Canterbury 891
1996 Nottingham 877
2015 University of Warwick 866 (with more than 2 weeks to go!)
2012 North Shields 854
2007 Great Yarmouth 824
2014 Aberystwyth 819
2006 Swansea 768
1993 Dundee 773
2008 Liverpool 742
2000 Street 711
2005 Isle of Man 503

Bob Wade was the last winner of the British Championships when they came here in 1970, when Mungo Jerry topped the charts with the catchy In the Summertime. Makes one feel.....

Chh chh-chh, uh, Chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, Chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, Chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, Chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, Chh chh-chh, uh
Chh chh-chh, uh, Chh chh-chh

[James Pratt]

Mungo Jerry are appearing today in Basingstoke Live, I gather ...

[JustinHorton]

Must be summertime.

[David Gilbert]

Legs! Aaron Summerscale’s name popped up on the entry list this afternoon, bringing the total of GMs to eleven. Very tasty. Ten days to go and entries have reached an impressive 906. It could easily become one of the biggest turnouts on record. Who would have thought that? Well me actually!

[Jon Mahony]

Rather than messing with busses with all my bags, I’m thinking of just getting a taxi to the Uni from Coventry train station on the Saturday morning, is this feasible or will it be a £30.00 job?

[Matt Fletcher]

Rather than messing with busses with all my bags, I’m thinking of just getting a taxi to the Uni from Coventry train station on the Saturday morning, is this feasible or will it be a £30.00 job?

Cov station to Warwick Uni is only about 4 miles - should set you back about a tenner.

[David Gilbert]

Looks like most of the student accommodation at the University of Warwick has been booked. The website is reporting that only rooms with shared washing facilities are left, and these won’t be available after midnight on Monday, 20 July 2015.

The main drawback of staying in student accommodation is often the bed. Most male students tend to be about seven feet tall nowadays, they’d never fit into one of those. On the positive front the rooms are relatively cheap, generally well equipped with a lavish desk, plenty of electric sockets and an abundance of shelf space. A chess player’s Shangri-la.

Depending on who you’re sharing with, the best thing about student accommodation can be the communal kitchen, that doubles as the social hub of the flat. A chance to hang out with a glass of wine and exchange stories with a GM, an under-100 or a stray arbiter. In recent times I’ve taken to home cooking, freezing, and microwaving. Last year one of my flat mates shared a curry and complained that the 40 chilli strength was a bit on the fiery side, so this year’s version - just emerged from the furnace - measures a measly 25 chilli points on the thermograph. Next week I'll be getting ready the bolognese for the spaghetti and maybe a beef stew and dumplings to end the week. Greenhouses? Pish!

[Jon Mahony]

Rather than messing with busses with all my bags, I’m thinking of just getting a taxi to the Uni from Coventry train station on the Saturday morning, is this feasible or will it be a £30.00 job?

Cov station to Warwick Uni is only about 4 miles - should set you back about a tenner.

Ah that's not too bad, beats lugging 3 sports bags on a bus!

Looks like most of the student accommodation at the University of Warwick has been booked. The website is reporting that only rooms with shared washing facilities are left, and these won’t be available after midnight on Monday, 20 July 2015.

The main drawback of staying in student accommodation is often the bed. Most male students tend to be about seven feet tall nowadays, they’d never fit into one of those. On the positive front the rooms are relatively cheap, generally well equipped with a lavish desk, plenty of electric sockets and an abundance of shelf space. A chess player’s Shangri-la.


Depending on who you’re sharing with, the best thing about student accommodation can be the communal kitchen, that doubles as the social hub of the flat. A chance to hang out with a glass of wine and exchange stories with a GM, an under-100 or a stray arbiter. In recent times I’ve taken to home cooking, freezing, and microwaving. Last year one of my flat mates shared a curry and complained that the 40 chilli strength was a bit on the fiery side, so this year’s version - just emerged from the furnace - measures a measly 25 chilli points on the thermograph. Next week I'll be getting ready the bolognese for the spaghetti and maybe a beef stew and dumplings to end the week. Greenhouses? Pish!

Yeah I know from experience (the Manchester congress) that student accommodation can have a bit of a prison cell motif (complete with 5 foot rack of a bed) I went for en suite for the British back in Jan (though Yorkshire tightness nearly prevailed!)

A slight niggle is no telly for a week! But no problem, when I'm not studying Chess, I shall be watching the Game of Thrones box set on my laptop which I have been meaning to try and get into for the past year. Hadn't really crossed my mind about cooking, was intending to live off of whatever is available on the campus, but a trip to the local super market may well be in order

[Roger de Coverly]

Hadn't really crossed my mind about cooking, was intending to live off of whatever is available on the campus, but a trip to the local super market may well be in order

Reading the small print seems to imply that unless you bring your own cooking and eating utensils and equipment, that you won't have any more than a typical hotel with a cup/mug, teaspoon, coffee/tea, sachet milk and sugar/sweetener.

[Jon Mahony]

Hadn't really crossed my mind about cooking, was intending to live off of whatever is available on the campus, but a trip to the local super market may well be in order

Reading the small print seems to imply that unless you bring your own cooking and eating utensils and equipment, that you won't have any more than a typical hotel with a cup/mug, teaspoon, coffee/tea, sachet milk and sugar/sweetener.

Supermarket paper plates may be in order - I can get by on just a fork, don't really fancy clanking all the way from Leeds

Would I be living in a fools paradise to hope for a Wifi signal? Couldn't find anything about it on the website, but expectations aren't high on that one.

[Jon Mahony]

Hadn't really crossed my mind about cooking, was intending to live off of whatever is available on the campus, but a trip to the local super market may well be in order

Reading the small print seems to imply that unless you bring your own cooking and eating utensils and equipment, that you won't have any more than a typical hotel with a cup/mug, teaspoon, coffee/tea, sachet milk and sugar/sweetener.

Supermarket paper plates may be in order - I can get by on just a fork and microwavable Tupperware, don't really fancy clanking all the way from Leeds

Would I be living in a fools paradise to hope for a Wifi signal? Couldn't find anything about it on the website, but expectations aren't high on that one.

[Roger de Coverly]

Would I be living in a fools paradise to hope for a Wifi signal? Couldn't find anything about it on the website, but expectations aren't high on that one.

Variable policies on this. I didn't book it through or in any way part of the ECF, but Sheffield University in 2011 offered an Ethernet cable. I'm not too bothered, as I've configured the mobile phone to act as a Data Hotspot. There's almost certainly going to be a wireless network, the question being whether they allow "conference delegates" the use of it. There might also be an Ethernet socket, but like cooking equipment, "bring your own wire".

A statement by someone in the ECF who understood the question might be welcome. ECF stupidity might prevent them from posting (here).