English Chess Forum

I'm not suggesting that the ECF starts paying volunteers. But perhaps we should start considering that? To the most senior ECF volunteers.... Not a proper salary or anything near - that at the moment is financial cloud cuckoo land. But perhaps a reasonable honorarium as some recognition of the huge...

Assuming the same process as last year, ECF will be invoicing leagues and clubs (for clubs' internal results) for players who (a) played more games than permitted for a non-member; (b) were not ECF members at (Junior) Bronze or higher. Invoicing should start as soon as possible after the grading tea...

I have a grading proposal. Can we please have the February update? I know of at least one player who entered an event in January as a Bronze member and needs to be upgraded by the ECF in time to enter another event this month without having to pay another £7.50. Isn't that the membership list rathe...

I reported it by e-mail to the relevant ECF unpaid volunteers just after 13:00. When someone will be able to act I have no reason to know.

PB

fwiw ECF President Dominic Lawson is on BBC Radio 4 'Any Questions;' tonight at 8:00 p.m.

PB

BBC1 at sometime this morning between maybe 6 and 8 had their Mike Bushell previewing an underwater chess tournament. I didn't pay much attention as it was just so naff.

PB

Anyone contemplating the shortish walk from St Leonards Warrior Square station to the venue, with suitcase, should be warned that it is situated at the highest point of the South Downs. I'm puzzled: what prompted this post? Has it a tongue in cheek element which has completely passed me by? Hasting...

It is a long long time ago, and I have been caught out recently by failing memory, but I have a recollection of a big survey (NRS maybe?) in the early 80s that was showing 7 to 9% of the more-or-less-adult population playing, albeit casually, at least once a year.

PB

Am I alone in feeling uncomfortable that the ECF President voted (albeit by proxy)? Perhaps I'm old-fashioned but I'd prefer a non-executive President not to vote, other than from the chair with a casting vote.

How do people cope between rounds at weekend congresses? Quite often I will have a couple of hours between games, if not longer. Other than intensive reading (if I can find somewhere quiet-ish) I get pretty bored; and not knowing when my game will finish makes it difficult to plan alternative activi...

'Daily Politics' on BBC2 today: Lord Hennessy (Peter Hennessy) describes the West's position vis-à-vis the overall Middle East situation as like playing chess on twelve boards simultaneously, with three of the boards on fire, with perhaps President Trump's most recent action re Iran lighting a fourt...

Chris Goodall: I think it ill-advised to bring implied negative comments on players' private and legal political beliefs to a chess forum.

PB

There's a false assumption there: That having a grading code means the ECF has a record of the date of birth. There are a number of league submissions, for example, that don't submit date of birth information, because they don't collect it. How difficult can it be to check the grading code against ...

Yesterday's 'Guardian' TV guide pejoratively describes one serial's (McMafia's) progress as having "all the thrilling urgency of correspondence chess played by second-class post".

PB

Assuming there was an entry fee, presumably it included VAT and the BCF had to send a VAT invoice if requested. That would have been from some time in the late 1970s when it was ruled that VAT would apply to chess entry fees and memberships. In practice it was only the BCF which was affected, provi...