English Chess Forum

I knew Philip Hoad well. I did a 10 year stretch as Lancashire Secretary from 1964-1974 and for the first five of those years he was my President He was a very strong player, but a little bit unassuming so he did not always get the recognition he deserved. One of my jobs as Lancashire Secretary was ...

I do not think it is that difficult to save money and reduce membership fees • There is a big saving in employment costs thanks to Furloughing • The lack of international chess frees up large sums of money • We move expenditure back to the levels of2-3 years ago. In the current climate for example i...

Hutton pairings were I presume written by a person named Hutton. In the 1960's or early 1970's they were re-written by Clifford Hilton who improved them and made them "fairer". Cliff re-wrote them in one of his BCF capacities. It is too long ago for me to remember which one. As it says in the ECF si...

I remember the Mascot. I was on the appeals committee. Richard Furnace was the arbiter. The German player's opponent complained to the arbiter (Richard) that the mascot was too big. It was sat on the corner of the table with its legs spread out at 90 degrees. Its toes stretched to the 3rd or 4th ran...

The three biggest weekend congresses in the North. (Some would argue in England) Blackpool Scarborough Manchester Are not FIDE rated. I run Manchester. It is not FIDE rated because I am convinced that FIDE rating tournaments reduces entries. I also help to run a FIDE rated congress. Bolton Easter. A...

What you say is quite correct. However, in league matches with no arbiter present, I think that you can reasonably ask someone to keep score so that you have a record after the game. The person doing this should ensure that their scoresheet cannot be seen by either player. While I agree with all th...

The reason that there are few one day events on Saturdays is fixture congestion. There are very few if any Saturdays dates that do not clash. Causes of clashes include • Weekend tournaments • County matches • 4NCL • A full football fixture program, A full football program costs 15-20 entries. Plus i...

Just to be sure, Harry, you understand that this is a thread about the forthcoming Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia and not about tournaments in any of these four countries? I do understand the title of the thread, Batumi Olympiad. My concern is that the version of the rules to be used at the Batumi Oly...

The law is not as you suggest saying, let disabled people cheat. It is saying that in your efforts to stop cheating you must not discriminate against disabled people. To what law in which jurisdiction are you referring? Equality Act 2010 Applicable (with some differences from country to country) to...

Nick, I know you are a FIDE loyalist, but am surprised that you would go so far as when there is a rules clash to support the laws of a somewhat dubious FIDE above the laws of the country in which you live. The law is not interested in cheating at chess. It is interested in ensuring disabled people ...

I wear two hearing aids. These are disability aids. If in the UK a tournament organisor bans me from wearing my disability aids the orgniser is in my opinion breaking the various disabilities and equalities legislation in force in England, Wales and other parts of the UK. That being so anyone bannin...

When Nikolay first entered he spelt his name with an "i", So we did. Subsequently we found it was spelt with a "y" by FIDE. We discussed the situation with him and changed his name to Nikolay on all our documentation. He wants to play 4NCL chess and I will pm Lawrence with his email address. Harri L...

I wonder why you never hear Labour or Tory supporters explaining that their beliefs aren't actually illegal. It's almost as if Kippers understand that a policy of deporting 50% of the kids from our local junior club is indefensible, and "it's legal" is literally the best thing they can say about it...

Is a headline from today's BBC web site at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42329564 But I have changed the word sport to Chess. The thrust of the argument put forward is that children have been driven away by coaches and parents forgetting it's all supposed to be fun. Consequently particip...

Keith B Richardson was Englands first Grandmaster. He got his title for ccorrespondance chess. He also played for England at Cricket playing in Englands under 19 team. I believe that he also played First team county cricket. I am not sure which county he played for but he was from Nottinghamshire. S...