English Chess Forum

Children often get cash prizes at chess congresses. So I ask them what they are going to do with the money. 'Oh, it will go into my savings account'. 'Who pays the entry fees?' They then start giggling. Silly little cash prizes do nothing. They don't encourage extra entries and nobody feels satisfie...

Richard.
You are correct, it was the Express on Sunday in which Luke had his chess column. Probably aged 15. The old YearBooks definitely have their uses.

Luke McShane first had a weekly chess column at a very, very young age. Indeed he may well have been thr youngest-ever regular columnist. It was in, I think, the Sunday Mail. Once at Hastings, the sub-editor rang urgently to make contact with Luke for him to give the blessing for the column. She sai...

At Eastbourn one year, Barry Wood awarded a bunny prize to somebody of mature years. Best swindle prizes have also been popular. But some work had to be done to decide the recipient. One of the value of prizes is that it validates your achievement. Talking to non-chesspayling friends. 'I won first p...

Alison You might have liked the Evening Standard London Chess Congress. There cash high prizes were offered plus a huge number of donated prizes by companies. The first year, 1972, there was no way we could distribute them all in time at the prizegiving. Players were sent packets of 4 chess books th...

Calling the event a Grand Prix brings the ECF into disrepute.

When you have a choice of motives, between cock-up and conspiracy; history tells us that it is usually the former.

Another matter. For non professional, non aspiring players, instead of having prize money, offer trophies. I only thought of that for the British Championships after I ceased to be in charge. It makes most sense for ECF events as 20% of the entry fees go to the government in VAT. The European Senior...

I am quite surprised this even is being accepted for grading. The two types of players are playing with different objectives. Michael Farthing >I'm of the view that prize money (and gradings) are two innovations that have spoilt the game.< Oh, absoluetly. That pesky Cutty Sark Grand Prix from 974 an...

I only had John's word for it. Since he did get silver and had no hope of gold, he was quite correct not to risk playing. After all, we won the match 4-0 anyway. In the end we got 3 board medals. Brian Ewart in the 65+ with 3.5/7 on the eve of his 80th birthday! Steve Ledger also got one in the 50+ ...

John Quinn is resting in round 9. His potential opponent is so low rated, that his Tournament Performance Rating would diminish, EVEN if he wins.

Soheil surely you discover talent by running chess tournament of various types and looking at the results and studying the games.
What is particularly interesting about St Paul's, is that the school offered very little support to their first 3 GMs.

In my younger days we did not shake hand before or after the game. I, and many others, learnt the practise of shaking hands before the game from foreign players. In 1966(?) in Bewewijk, the tournament was started and all 10 of us in the round robin did a simultaneously display, shaking hands with th...

St Paul's School in London has generated four GMS - so far. I believe this to be a world record for a non-specialst chess school. They are: Jon Speelman, Julian Hodgson, William Watson, Dharshan Kumaran. The first 3 won the British Championship at various times and Dharshan lost the playoff to Mchae...

After the Second World War, the Soviet Union sought to have Spain barred from FIDE. Barry Wood was the BCF Delegate at the time. He got up and mde a speech about Gens una Sumus. That was the last heard of the Soiet proposal. Thus Barry was always held in high esteem in Spain. He would arrive at the ...