English Chess Forum

I don’t understand our Open team policy (and haven’t for a number of years now). What’s the point of not blooding our brightest and best young players in Olympiads when our older players lose to the stronger teams, struggle to beat the weaker teams, and aren’t in contention for medals? One definiti...

I see Ireland won 4-0 today. And they have GM Alex Baburin on board 3. Actually, all three rounds have been 4-0 for Ireland so far! :shock: Actually of course Ireland lost 0-4 in round 2 (to Poland). Apart from Alex the team is young, including four fairly recent Irish champions (Adam Collins won t...

"I don't think that this is what our gold reps are for at all. They are meant to consult members and represent their interests." I assume ECF has now insisted that players representing ECF are members of ECF, so why wouldn't the gold reps ask such questions? If a member feels badly treated in any w...

"I don't think this has happened with the Open and Women's teams. I suspect selection of the Senior teams is more open-ended given that the "amateur" but wealthy players can assist with the financing." I suspect Junior selection is somewhat murky as well. I have heard several reports of people volu...

In fairness to the current ECF team, there is a written policy on junior selection that anyone can read: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/junior-selection-policy/ There was an hour-long interview with Tim Wall on the subject here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8a8_8pApuw I'm not sufficien...

I had a case many years ago where a player was going to be mated in 1 move. He sat there for 5 minutes, and his opponent ill-advisedly said "Come on, you've only got one move!" The player said "I'm entitled to use my time however I like!" or similar. A minute later he got up and walked away, and hi...

These were those Eccles events: https://eccleschess.com/when-arkell-came-to-eccles/ The ECF received complaints about them, and it resulted in these regulations being published: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/bona-fide-submissions/ Thanks - This makes sense, in some way the reporting on LMS just n...

With age it's natural of course to some extent, though I'm sure he could have stayed in the top 100 longer if he chose his events more carefully (or simply played less).

Whilst bad for his rating, it is great for English chess that he plays so many of our events.

I agree with Mike. I think Covid was an exception (as many players knew ECF was in genuine financial danger) and in normal times I doubt membership would stay anywhere near that level on a voluntary basis. The extra spending on admin will not all be directly attributable to membership and if costs w...

Thanks for the reports.

I am glad to see the contributions of Nigel Towers and Dave Thomas recognised, it was clear from my time on the board how much time and energy they spent on their respective roles. Very well deserved!

Sad news indeed, my condolences to Harriet and the rest of his family.

Very talented player and genuinely nice person, I'm sure he will be greatly missed by a lot of people in English chess.

I agree that ECF grades are probably more accurate for lower rated players generally. I'm still firmly against hybrid rules. To use one rating in the pairings and another for rating purposes just can't be correct. The games will be FIDE rated, so FIDE ratings should take priority and be used whereve...

Lots of blunders and inaccurate play, even with the silicon machine looking over my shoulder. Wonder if the schedule from 10am to after 4pm with no break for lunch is impacting the levels of play? I think the time limit of 15m + 10s p/m feels more like blitz than rapid, which probably has a lot to ...

It's a small detail but the Finance Director's report on 2021-22 includes "We have an unaudited loss of £24,157 against a budgeted loss of £36,001" while the accompanying spreadsheet appears to show a budgeted loss of £57,296. Hi Roger, yes that looks odd, apologies. The £36,001 is a reference to t...

One special condition seems unique to this event. Players must record their move before pressing the clock. Including players who continue to record moves despite being below the ‘five minute’ marker. This is to mitigate the risk of transgressing distancing rules when it is your opponents move. I h...