English Chess Forum

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...

Mmm I have given you what is clearly labelled as my opinion. What is your opinion that the minimum population size should be?

Ahem. You're not that far from Yorkshire, Michael. The long established Bradford Congress takes place in September, normally on the third weekend. The 4NCL are bringing an event to Doncaster following previous September events in Wakefield and Bolton. Hold On Andrew. I have had enough problems in m...

I run the Manchester congress. Which used to be held the weekend after August Bank holiday and straddles the membership year. When the current rules were introduced it was held the last weekend of the old membership year. Then as the calendar moved it entered a period when it was the first weekend o...

It is with great sadness that I report the death of Martin Regan. Martin died on the 5 April aged 54. Further details are available at

https://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/2017/04 ... tin-regan/


Harry Lamb

Edit. Date of death corrected from 6 April to 5 April

Sometime in the 1980’s the scenario described by Joey happened to me. I played in a Greater Manchester Congress at Wigan and achieved the amazing feat of losing my first-round game in the Open then went on to win the tournament with a 100% score. The event was a standard weekend tournament starting ...