Search found 1298 matches

by Neill Cooper
Sat Feb 24, 2024 10:14 am
Forum: Not Chess!
Topic: Pedants United
Replies: 478
Views: 50449

Re: Pedants United

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Fri Feb 23, 2024 7:03 pm
John Upham wrote:
Fri Feb 23, 2024 1:49 pm
Is there mince in Mars?
Well we have something called mincemeat that contains no actual meat, so who knows?
It contains suet, which is a meat product.
by Neill Cooper
Fri Feb 09, 2024 10:44 pm
Forum: Rating Debate
Topic: Active/Inactive/Deceased/Merged ?
Replies: 20
Views: 1587

Re: Active/Inactive/Deceased/Merged ?

Deceased is for cases where a results officer has informed us of the player's death May I take this opportunity to inform you of the passing of Ron Crow and Gordon Ironside, Peter Davey, Cyril Winter, John Purkiss and Martin Harvey all of whom are shown as "Active". The most recent of these was Cyr...
by Neill Cooper
Fri Oct 13, 2023 1:49 pm
Forum: Junior Chess
Topic: ECF English Schools Chess Championships 2023/24
Replies: 0
Views: 658

ECF English Schools Chess Championships 2023/24

The ECF English Schools Chess Championships are somewhat changed for this year, as it is now limited to English schools. Even so entries have been pouring in with 266 teams from 172 schools so far having entered. Another change, of having 38 regional qualifying events has proved popular and some qui...
by Neill Cooper
Sun Sep 10, 2023 8:31 pm
Forum: Junior Chess
Topic: Online Secondary School Chess Events 2023/24
Replies: 0
Views: 541

Online Secondary School Chess Events 2023/24

There are three online chess events that secondary schools might like to take part in: Ivan Gromov Online Schools Chess League This is a fortnightly inter-school league played online on Thursday evenings. Matches consist of 6 boards and each player plays one game in the evening with a rate of play o...
by Neill Cooper
Wed Aug 23, 2023 1:49 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Major investment to transform future of English chess announced
Replies: 134
Views: 12449

Re: Major investment to transform future of English chess announced

Neill, how would you spend the money on secondary school chess? It strikes me that primary school chess is well catered for by CSC Thanks for the question Mick. I think the two main strands would be competitions and equipment: Funding for inter-school competitions would be useful, paying for arbite...
by Neill Cooper
Wed Aug 23, 2023 8:36 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Major investment to transform future of English chess announced
Replies: 134
Views: 12449

Re: Major investment to transform future of English chess announced

What would help is if each table (or group of tables) were to be adopted by a chess club. Many club members would be delighted to play at the table from time to time and engage with members of the public. There is nothing worse than putting a table in an out-of-the-way corner with few passers-by. L...
by Neill Cooper
Wed Aug 23, 2023 8:32 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Major investment to transform future of English chess announced
Replies: 134
Views: 12449

Re: Major investment to transform future of English chess announced

Good news of course, just don't expect major titles tomorrow! Doubtless, ECF will publish detailed plans and costings soon. I agree with Roger - there's much more interest at primary school level. I did some coaching at a school, which had hordes of eager players at primary level, but only about 5 ...
by Neill Cooper
Fri Aug 11, 2023 9:37 am
Forum: Deaths & Obituaries
Topic: Martin Cath
Replies: 16
Views: 2269

Re: Martin Cath

I was very sad to hear the news of Martin's death. One of the highlights of playing South Norwood was that Martin would enjoy his game whether he won or lost, and he was always welcoming to the away team whether or not he was playing in the match. He was a true gentleman and it was fitting that one ...
by Neill Cooper
Wed Jun 21, 2023 1:31 pm
Forum: Chess History
Topic: Gordon Pollard
Replies: 19
Views: 1055

Re: Gordon Pollard

T Gordon Pollard was a great encouragement to me and other Maidenhead juniors in the early 1970s by publishing our games in (I thought) a Wallingford paper. He enjoyed some of my (slightly unsound) attacking games. I remember posting games to him addressed to Brightwell-cum-Sotwell.
by Neill Cooper
Sat Apr 22, 2023 6:16 pm
Forum: ECF Matters
Topic: ECF Finance Council Meeting 22 April 2023
Replies: 78
Views: 9697

Re: ECF Finance Council Meeting 22 April 2023

I thought the comment that chess.com has over 4 million UK members interesting. It shows the limited reach of the ECF to the vast majority of people who play chess in our country. I think it is also consistent with the controversial survey of a decade or so ago about the number of chess players in t...
by Neill Cooper
Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:49 pm
Forum: General Chat
Topic: Media comments on chess
Replies: 5968
Views: 737749

Re: Media comments on chess

Today's BBC Radio 4 profile of Rachel Reeves not surprisingly mentioned her chess background.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001k7lw
"Shadow chancellor and former economist, who was a national chess champion aged 14."
by Neill Cooper
Mon Jan 09, 2023 4:04 pm
Forum: Junior Chess
Topic: ECF Under 19 National Schools Chess Championship
Replies: 8
Views: 3064

Re: ECF Under 19 National Schools Chess Championship

The final entry for this year's competition was a very healthy 250 teams from 147 schools. The number of state schools entering was greater than the number of independent schools, and the largest increase was in the number of schools who are not academically selective. This year the event therefore ...
by Neill Cooper
Tue Nov 01, 2022 8:08 am
Forum: ECF Matters
Topic: New rating list is out
Replies: 7
Views: 2532

New rating list is out

This is now happing so smoothly and efficiently that there is no longer the 'When will the list be out?' posts appearing here. There have been some intersting changes including 'P ratings' after just one game which means many more players have grades. Indeed Wilson's School now has over 200 rated pl...
by Neill Cooper
Mon Oct 17, 2022 6:18 pm
Forum: Junior Chess
Topic: ECF Under 19 National Schools Chess Championship
Replies: 8
Views: 3064

Re: ECF Under 19 National Schools Chess Championship

So far 250 teams from 147 schools have entered this year's championships. Abingdon School Oxon Ada Lovelace CofE High School London, Altrincham Grammar School for Boys Cheshire Ampleforth College Yorks Ark Greenwich Free School London Aylesbury GS Bucks Bancroft's School London Beaumont School Herts...
by Neill Cooper
Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:28 pm
Forum: Junior Chess
Topic: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school
Replies: 11
Views: 2935

Re: Help for chess children moving to a secondary school

Today I ran a chess tournament at my school for the new year 7 pupils. Now chess is popular at my school but even so, 100 pupils entered - more than half the year group. So you can help juniors transfer from primary to secondary school, if you are a secondary school teacher.