English Chess Forum

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...

It sits quite easily ..... I was Controller of the event as a BCF employee, as part of my duties, starting in 1975/76. Mitchell Taylor succeeded me as Controller after maybe 4 or 5 years, I'm not sure. He did so as a BCF volunteer. It remained a BCF event , although Mitchell's style was very much to...

[what does taking over the UKCC actually mean? I would imagine it would be trying to have an event run with a similar name and structure. There's precedent with the National Schools, which used to be run by the Sunday Times and later the Times without direct BCF involvement. I don't know what perio...

By Marc Bryant, Chairman, Hastings & St Leonards Chess Club, re-posted with permission, very minor editing. It’s my sad duty to report the death of Con Power who died at home on Thursday 5 May Con had been the rock on which Hastings Chess was built for over half a century. I first met Con in 1977 at...