English Chess Forum

Seeing fire alarms were mentioned ("The Curse of Sedgwick"), I note that at a tournament David is controlling soon, the players' notes include a warning that there will probably be a fire-drill during the first two days. This seems remarkably prescient. I recall at one tournament where I was arbiter...

https://www.aol.co.uk/news/2019/05/15/over-50s-can-boost-brain-function-by-regularly-doing-puzzles-st/ says doing word puzzles and number puzzles can boost brain function, although if you actually look at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gps.5033 the abstract says, "Future work needs to d...

"Correspondence chess, If a player dies, his games are adjudicated. "

In team events, you are normally allowed a substitute.

"Is that a reference to this from 2007?" Well spotted! Whilst I relaxed in the bar one evening, the others played 5-a-side football, and Andy Hammond damaged his leg. He was both surprised and relieved to discover that not only did Benbecula have a hospital, it was a very good one, with brand new sc...

" I recruit, you entice players to join you, he poaches."

"I offer the players the opportunity to play in a high-class team", surely?

"Possibly more likely is that the players themselves might not know what each other are getting, and publishing a gross figure would make it fairly easy for them to work out. Probably Malcolm negotiates fees on an individual rather than a collective basis (it’s not like the England football team whe...

"Does that really rank alongside, say, the Thanet Open? As a closed event, would the Civil Service event have qualified for the BCF Grand Prix of that year" No idea what BCF rules were. In CS championship, there were about a dozen regions, and two qualifiers were allowed from each region, each regio...

"1. Civil Service National champion 1991 Kevin Thurlow will validate"

Yes.

As the Book Reviews section has disappeared, I'll mention it here. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328097627_The_Psychology_of_Chess By Fernand Gobet, described as "Professor of Decision Making and Expertise at the University of Liverpool, UK" I didn't think that was a thing, (the job title...

Thanks to Roger and Ian for confirmation. I never doubted my memory. Interestingly, Chris Dunworth had tried to get involved in Surrey Chess, but the then officers had firmly rebuffed him, so he went off and started the 4NCL. Surrey's loss I think. However, in an attempt to get back on topic, the Co...

"The suggestion that the ECF should protect their `flagship` event by imposing heavy handed penalties on any event that dares clash might be the most ludicrous thing I've read on this forum." No - not even close. "Is there widespread (or indeed, any kind of) agreement that the ECF Counties Champions...

"I know of one lost bid - where miraculously all of the proposed team from our bid were mysteriously contacted by a headhunter the week after we lost - who it turned-out was working for the firm that won the contract. I've no idea who they actually proposed to do the work, if they then neede to stea...

Good report Jonathan - I hope you and Mike can negotiate terms for regular reports!

"Bruce Birchill had a particular interest in promoting Girls Tournaments. He felt that they were not being supported in Middlesex Chess. Know that he did organise Tournaments for Girls." Middlesex in return thought he was not supporting Middlesex! We have discussed the all-female County team elsewhe...

"The software might allow a dedicated subgroup, " Probably - the Countdown forum had a secret sub-group, password protected, where the organizer and his cronies had discussions (many of which used 4-letter words) and the rest of us didn't know what was going on! More work of course, but Carl could h...