English Chess Forum

Chess & Bridge have withdrawn from sale Ray Keene's book on the Carlsen - Caruana World Championship Match. C & B Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/chessandbridge?lang=en. Review by Olimpiu G Urcan. which seems to have prompted C & B's action: https://www.patreon.com/posts/23138934. Blog post by Jus...

In assessing the suitability of an actual or would-be ECF director to hold office, I'd regard his or her politics as coming a long way down the list This is surely quite right in principle and an organisation like the ECF couldn't function unless we took that view. However, in a situation where a g...

Maybe just tell us the opinion you have in mind? I thought that Justin might agree that reducing the maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals to £2 was desirable. As for the contributors to Twitter above, if there had been no problem previously, then the change wouldn't have been necessary. It...

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:59 am

Did his sexism come over well?

Listen and judge for yourself, Justin.

One of the reasons which some of his opinions surprised me is that I thought that you might agree with at least one of them.

Yes, those regulations are truly awful. While not commenting on their merits, it is interesting that: - The tie-breaks are the same as they were for the World Rapid & Blitz; except that in the case where there was a tie for 1st place, the top 2 players in using the tie-breaks would playoff for the ...

Jonathan Rogers wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:52 am

Perhaps there were comments on Brexit or climate change instead?

On both actually.

It's worth listening to the programme. Some of Dominic Lawson's views surprised me.

J T Melsom wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 11, 2019 2:50 pm

None of this is anything to do with Div 4 South, nor are we actually discussing anything not previously expressed elsewhere on this forum.

This Forum has a long tradition of threads going wildly off topic and of posters making the same point in several threads.

Of course those who are repelled by modernisation of pairing and rating systems may gracefully retire, and hopefully have their efforts acknowledged with the gratitude of the chess community. And there is a general shortage of volunteers. But others may be attracted by the modernisation. There is a...

I think the whole misunderstanding has been caused by a failure to appreciate that you were in effect being self-deprecating, as the 154/1712 in question. I commend your effort to pour oil on troubled waters. Not all such efforts succeed. But there's no reason why every ECF-graded Rapidplay in Engl...

I had thought from the criticism directed at me last night by Nick Faulks that he was a champion of juniors and female chess players, yet both are absent from the Surbiton team for which he plays. Bizarre stuff. Twenty years ago Surbiton played on premises from which juniors were barred. Fortunatel...

To update this thread, I note that Joe has just been awarded the FM title. Congratulations to Joe (and my personal thanks to those who worked hard behind the scenes to deliver this). Thank you for spotting the announcement and for making your post above. Although the issue had never gone away, I ha...

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 08, 2019 7:25 pm

… I can think of at least one English arbiter who would gleefully default a player for drowning!

Quite right too. A player who drowns has almost certainly left the playing venue during play.

I cannot add anything to the comments of my Surrey colleagues in the four posts above, but I entirely concur with their sentiments.

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 03, 2019 1:32 am

(If you want a serious discussion on this matter of grass roots funding then start your own thread. I will not butt in.)

That is an attractive offer which I encourage Andrew to take up.

Question: am I a chess coach or a chess trainer or chess teacher or chess instructor? What is the difference? I don't think there is much difference, so you can call yourself whatever you like. Sohail, in terms of the English language, there is indeed not much difference. However, I note that you h...