English Chess Forum

Ian Thompson wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 19, 2026 11:22 am

If that's it, the ECF is rather light on numbers compared to US team which has 20 people .

We have become used to the USCF sending three people to Commission meetings, all offering radically different views.

Very smooth win by Mickey, let's hope he stays in this form.

Bohhana's patience looks to have paid off. Her opponent's panicky decision to open the h-file must be wrong.

2. What would your open, fair and transparent criteria be? The job of the selectors is to select the most appropriate team according to their guidelines. It is not their job to draft those guidelines. Since they are currently required to select teams with a view to getting the best possible result,...

The Congress will be overshadowed by today's news of the death of Georgios Makropoulos. A massive figure in FIDE for decades.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 12, 2026 5:51 pm

FIDE now also use the dummy player idea, but deem there to be two games rather than one.

After many years of hard work on the FIDE rating system, the 2024 changes were the point at which I finally lost all hope and gave up.

Anya is remembered in Bermuda for her involvement in the only game ( I'm pretty sure ) in which two female players have faced each other on top board in the Open section of an Olympiad. https://www.olimpbase.org/pgn4web/analysis.html?pf=uscf&showGamesList=true&pd=https://www.olimpbase.org/2006/games...

SMoss wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 10, 2026 4:47 pm

I'm not sure why people in the UK, as opposed to Greece, take such pleasure in scrawling graffiti on – and indeed physically tearing up – concrete chess tables.

Perhaps the Greek police discourage that sort of activity.

Some of the money is being spent on funding for FIDE rated tournaments with norm chances within England. Is there evidence that ENG players are hampered by lack of norm opportunities? There a no non-GMs rated over 2500 and the only non-IM over 2400 is Supratit, whose title should go through this mo...

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 11, 2026 2:06 pm

Does he vote for himself or does he nominate an alternate to be the Delegate?

He voted for himself last time. I don't see why that is a problem.

Nick Ivell wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 08, 2026 4:53 pm

I could not make the spectacular work

You're right it doesn't

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 08, 2026 4:17 pm

But to at least a degree, both rating inflation and deflation are objectively observable phenomena irrespective of their effect on individuals.

How? Surely you have to define them first.

I think this is one of those things you spot either straight away or not at all.

I believe there is a consensus among those who know a lot about chess ratings that there has been rating inflation at the lower end, which was partly caused/recognised by the artificial uplift a few years ago. But has there been some rating deflation in the something like the 2000-2400 range as wel...

To save me from reading the details myself, how are the pieces stored and accessed?