English Chess Forum

Nevil Chan wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 23, 2026 1:53 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kt-cBa9L90

That's a really lovely and humane video. Thank you for posting it.

Player defaulted for wearing a WHOOP band during a game. (It's a fitness and health tracker.) ... If the anti-cheating checks were effective, I'd have thought the WHOOP band ought to have been found when the player entered the playing hall, even if it wasn't on his wrist and visible. This player wa...

I had a go at answering Alex' question based on teams for Samarkand vs FIDE rating lists. The Open team consists of 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 for any rating list Jun-Aug. The Women's team consists of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 no matter whether you look at June, July or August (and by September, the selections had been made...

In fairness to the current ECF team, there is a written policy on junior selection that anyone can read: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/junior-selection-policy/ There was an hour-long interview with Tim Wall on the subject here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8a8_8pApuw I'm not sufficient...

It's a very disappointing set of headlines when SPTW reaching the top division should be purely something to celebrate. My own feeling is a simple exemption would be the easiest thing in the short term, but of course chess leagues do run on their rules. I don't know why a consultation with the capta...

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 20, 2026 6:18 pm

Accommodation in Rhyl on the booking.com site seems to be a choice between caravans and mobile homes.

Worth noting that the congress website links to the budget hotels for the area, which don't appear on that site.

Whilst some leading chess players are or have been leading experts in mathematics and statistics, is it known what level of expertise Kramnik has in those fields? I think we can safely assume none. He's been at this topic since late 2023 and he has yet to express himself remotely coherently. At thi...

Personally, I don't think there'd be any issue at all with an "Official" online-to-OTB rating conversion chart, prominently featuring World Chess if you like, for use by organisers to determine tournament ratings only for new and unrated players. I don't think the output of this would need to reflec...

Fair enough - both chesscom and World Chess give me the creeps, both have a similar approach to publicity and facing out to market. I'm one of the users on World Chess who registered one day some years ago and haven't returned since. The chesscom leaderboards FWIW are based on minimum 1 game last 90...

Chesscom claims 267M "players" (registrations) Although those are two different things Well yes hence the quote marks and it's also clear from the numbers. At least half of the claimed "players" have not played a game on the platform in the period chesscom considers recent, and I wouldn't be surpri...

In and of itself, titles and ranks in online play seem quite reasonable to me. But of course there is the money-grab element, and the general consensus among the players I've spoken to is that it would be quite embarrassing to have an Arena title listed against one's name for an OTB tournament espec...

https://www.fide.com/fide-and-world-chess-agree-to-test-a-first-over-the-board-official-rating-earned-online/ https://x.com/i/status/2069391321375318018 For the first time in the history of chess, online play can lead to an official FIDE rating. Lausanne & London – June 23, 2026 – FIDE and World Che...

You can watch the interview clip that this snippet has (probably) come from here, with english subtitles https://onefootball.com/en/video/why-aston-villa-boss-unai-emery-plays-40-online-chess-games-a-day-42887496 I must confess that playing up to 40 3+0 games a day, admitting that losing hurts more ...

I'm sad to share the below. https://www.middlesexchess.com/news-and-views 13 January 2026 (updated) We are once again sorry to report, somewhat belatedly, a death in the Middlesex chess family. Andrew Costeloe, the long-serving Secretary of Muswell Hill Chess Club, died peacefully at his home in the...

"Please note our retail shop located at 44 Baker Street, London is now permanently closed. We will be moving to a new central London location this summer and full details will be released in the next issue of CHESS"

From the April edition of Chess magazine.