Not Sure Championship Relevance?

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John Upham
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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by John Upham » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:02 pm

I agree with Alex Ms comments entirely.

Each and every time a personal insult appears in this place (regardless of the thread) it reduces its credibility, increases its toxicity and leads to good people leaving.

I believe in the principle of this forum and remain here in the hope that playground taunting will desist and disappear.

It would appear to be part of the nature of some chess players to always want the last word in any argument (I use this word in its literal sense) rather like trying to flag their opponent in an otherwise lost position.

No wonder the ECF wanted to disconnect themselves with this place. :?

No doubt SG is composing his latest issue of Termite Watch! :D
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Brendan O'Gorman
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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Brendan O'Gorman » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:09 pm

Alex McFarlane wrote: …

I certainly agree that the sign "Some Rounds Start Late - Get Over It" was ill advised. It referred to the Blitz event organised by Adam Raoof and not to the FIDE Open but this was not made clear in the sign and certainly further confused by its position next to the result box for the Open.
…
Gosh! Is that all it was? I suppose another thing we must get over is that some people have no sense of humour.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:11 pm

Brendan O'Gorman wrote:
Alex McFarlane wrote: …

I certainly agree that the sign "Some Rounds Start Late - Get Over It" was ill advised. It referred to the Blitz event organised by Adam Raoof and not to the FIDE Open but this was not made clear in the sign and certainly further confused by its position next to the result box for the Open.
…
Gosh! Is that all it was? I suppose another thing we must get over is that some people have no sense of humour.
I quite genuinely fail to see how anybody could be "greatly upset" by that. Still, as ever, each to their own :lol:
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Roger de Coverly
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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:16 pm

John Upham wrote: No wonder the ECF wanted to disconnect themselves with this place. :?
The ECF has strange ideas on what it needs to be connected with

In recent months it has
(a) refused to involve itself in defence against persistent criticism of its officials from a national chess correspondent.
(b) involved itself with considering whether a sign intended as humour was in poor taste at an event it didn't run.
(c) not wished to comment on whether a tournament director/organiser has the power to overturn a mobile phone default.

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John Upham
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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by John Upham » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:18 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote: The ECF has strange ideas on what it needs to be connected with

In recent months it has
(a) refused to involve itself in defence against persistent criticism of its officials from a national chess correspondent.
(b) involved itself with considering whether a sign intended as humour was in poor taste at an event it didn't run.
(c) not wished to comment on whether a tournament director/organiser has the power to overturn a mobile phone default.
Should we add to the list ("Don't tell him Pike!")

(d) Not wishing to comment on the alleged ECF --> FIDE law suit? What is the state of play with this one? :wink:
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Alex McFarlane
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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Alex McFarlane » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:23 pm

Briefly since I'm just going on a 170 mile drive - and I'm already late!!!

I believe the sign was seen as being dismissive of players for expecting an event to be run on schedule. The player had genuine concerns regardless of how serious an offence you consider it to be. However, I think the main complaint concerned resulting conversations held between the players and others. By the time I was involved the situation had escalated considerably.

Add to the list above
e) Does not know if the meeting held was a Board Meeting or not. But I'm not going into that one now.

Justin Hadi

Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Justin Hadi » Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:40 pm

A brief comment before I leave the forum again -

The sign shows a lack of respect for players who have paid £10 plus to play in a six round blitz tournament. It's that simple.

For the list above, there's another one
f) No public comment on death threats made in an ECF sanctioned tournament.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Feb 29, 2012 2:58 pm

Justin Hadi wrote: The sign shows a lack of respect for players who have paid £10 plus to play in a six round blitz tournament. It's that simple.
That form of phrase has been something of a running theme in English chess over the past six months or more. Here's one of the earlier sightings http://extremelydistressingnews.blogspo ... aight.html

The need to involve the ECF in a disagreement between organisers of a Blitz tournament and the players taking part remains a small mystery.

Phil Makepeace
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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Phil Makepeace » Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:09 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:That form of phrase has been something of a running theme in English chess over the past six months or more. Here's one of the earlier sightings http://extremelydistressingnews.blogspo ... aight.html
We posted that within 12 hours of the event. The meme got tired very quickly after that.

Justin Hadi

Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Justin Hadi » Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:12 pm

OK it's not wholly simple, but there's a difference between a humorous blog and an ECF rated event.

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John Upham
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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by John Upham » Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:02 pm

Justin Hadi wrote:OK it's not wholly simple, but there's a difference between a humorous blog and an ECF rated event.
Are you sure? If so, name the differences...

As a starter for ten:

1. One of these involves interesting chess
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Roger de Coverly
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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:10 pm

Michael J R White wrote: In a football or any other sporting match, would the referee or St John's Ambulance guys / any other helpers be seen with a banner saying, "XXX . Get over it" and pointed in the general direction of players?
I seem to recall the President of the ECF wearing a tee-shirt with a message in that format as a spectator at the British Championships 2011. If he hadn't decided to wear it for the prize giving the next day, both this forum and Twitter would have been quieter over the last six months.

Justin Hadi

Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Justin Hadi » Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:29 pm

John Upham wrote:
Justin Hadi wrote:OK it's not wholly simple, but there's a difference between a humorous blog and an ECF rated event.
Are you sure? If so, name the differences...

As a starter for ten:

1. One of these involves interesting chess
I would expect certain standards of service from one, but not the other.
If we're getting down to naming differences I'll leave the argument there.

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Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Alex Holowczak » Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:26 pm

I'm increasingly confused by all this.

This started off as Michael having a go at me writing about how players hadn't read the notice I had put up telling them where the toilet was located. This preceded a general slur at arbiters. Given I was the organiser, and didn't do a shred of arbiting all weekend, this was wide of the mark.

Furthermore, my notice was on a flipchart which contained all sorts of useful bits of information, such as the location of the playing rooms, analysis room, nearest toilet, the round times, the time dinner was served until... All the questions that the organiser/arbiter tends to get asked on many occasions. So I wrote a notice to provide all the answers without them having to go so far as to ask us.

I don't see how this was in any way disrespectful. :?

Justin Hadi

Re: Not Sure Championship Relevance?

Post by Justin Hadi » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:28 pm

Hi Alex,

I wasn't referring to your event if that helps. I do think it is disrespectful to players to have a sign saying 'Some rounds are late, get over it', especially if they have paid around £100 to enter what is supposed to be a professionally run event.