English Chess Forum

The side room which hosted the Open section had its own independent air conditioning control. I know, as I switched it in the morning when putting up notices and placing board numbers. From the reports posted and otherwise received it would appear that the units failed or were unable to cope, both ...

I was there to present the prizes, and I agree the playing conditions weren’t great. No promises (money is tight as always), but we’ll see if anything can be done for next year. Can we award you the ECF prize for biggest understatement of the year with this comment; you could have just said conditi...

I have to admit I was quite glad to get away after the game this weekend (not just because I lost); the conditions in the playing area for the Open were most probably the worst I have ever played at; with no air conditioning the heat was very oppressive; I had players coming from the main room actua...

Nice piece Chess: Trio of young English experts impress at Pula Open in Croatia by Leonard Barden in the Guardian online: "Success in Pula reflects well on the English Chess Federation’s elite programme, which provides an annual grant to the best talents to be spent on coaching, books, or travel to...

Horton has a TPR of 2519, has played 3 IM+ and 5 titled players if you include the opponent who didn't turn up against him. But it's quite complicated given the situation with the default, and I lack the enthusiasm to dive into those murky depths at the moment. It is relatively simple regarding the...

2.Nf3 gives black a pretty comfortable game straight away, the knight doesn’t always belong on f3 in a lot of variations and believe it or not is better on h3 - a lot of opponents in the minor are London / Colle players, so you will get this move a lot - White will be hoping for 2...d5 next, gettin...

At Bunratty a couple of years ago I lost three on the bounce against Nick Pert, Bogdan Lalic and David Fitzsimons, albeit David was only an FM but he was rating 2390; this was in round 3-5, but it was still within 24 hours

I think in this transitional year until the new qualifying process is embedded it does look strange to have a lower limit

Once the new qualifying is in place; I suspect the volume of U2051 players will be significantly reduce and this becomes less of an issue

When I played in the Canadian Open back in 2010 they used Canadian grades for those who had one (FIDE for others); in Rd 1 I played somebody rated 2350, beat him quite quickly and he said I was stronger than by rating of about 2150 at the time; only after found out he was only FIDE rated at 2130; so...

Nick Burrows wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 17, 2018 3:38 pm

Sue Maroroa beat GM Kuzubov (2663) in round 1.

You will find that Sue's opponent didn't turn for Rd1 and thereafter the tournament

This is me just coming up with ideas to reinvigorate the championship as a whole, like Alex H has been trying to do In the MCCU, counties don't enter the Under 180 at the start of the season. If any counties want nomination to the Under 180, they are invited to do so in January. Warwickshire entere...

So I think the impact isn't as bad as people make it out to be Easy for you to say when you are not one of those who will find themselves banished from county chess at the national level. Also this will only be for the ECF stages; there is no barrier for the unions to continue there own U180 sectio...

Still only need 3 weekends for this competition so again no different to the current ECF stages In terms of competing for available weekends with summer Congresses, then no different. Are you not proposing though that weekends 2 and 3 will have matches on both the Saturday and Sunday? For teams wit...

Personally I would scrap the minor counties and U180, and have one Championship section with a couple of Plate competitions which replace the Minor and U180 So at a stroke you are taking the 160-180 group of players in the big counties out of county chess. Why? I did read the grudging concession ab...

On the weekend proposal of open then minor counties I cannot see how that would work as the teams are likely to be different. Personally I would scrap the minor counties and U180, and have one Championship section with a couple of Plate competitions which replace the Minor and U180 For example you ...