English Chess Forum

The ECF website carries the news of Carl Portman's resignation, with immediate effect, from the post of Development Officer: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/development-officer-resignation/ Carl's resignation letter may be found at: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/20191208...

The website says: "The ECF will organise a minimum of three ECF Arbiter Seminars per year... The ECF will aim to increase the number of seminars to a minimum of five per year by 2019." This year there appear to have been two, and I assume there won't now be time for a third. I emailed the Manager o...

The European Youth Rapid and Blitz Championships are underway in Tallinn, Estonia including a large English contingent in some of the younger age groups. The Rapid Championship started today and concludes tomorrow with the Blitz Championship on Saturday. For individual and team results, plus detail...

The European Youth Rapid and Blitz Championships are underway in Tallinn, Estonia including a large English contingent in some of the younger age groups. The Rapid Championship started today and concludes tomorrow with the Blitz Championship on Saturday. For individual and team results, plus details...

The following is reported in the minutes of the Chess Arbiters Association AGM in the latest edition of Arbiting Matters Too (issue 39): "the FIDE Ethics Commission has returned the resolution of the case resulting from a 4NCL Congress to the ECF. The ECF will now have to consider forming a group t...

The following is reported in the minutes of the Chess Arbiters Association AGM in the latest edition of Arbiting Matters Too (issue 39): "the FIDE Ethics Commission has returned the resolution of the case resulting from a 4NCL Congress to the ECF. The ECF will now have to consider forming a group to...

I only got to know David fairly well a year or two before his final illness when I helped to organise the Under 19 National Schools Chess Championships in 2016 and then became Organiser in August 2016; David was Chief Arbiter at the Finals in 2016 and 2017, a position he had held for many years. Pri...

I believe that he also played First team county cricket. I am not sure which county he played for but he was from Nottinghamshire. So he may well have played for them. No record of that here The information I had from Andrew Walker (Notts - not the ECF one!) at the time of Keith Richardson's death ...

Robert Richmond has been researching the history of the Nottinghamshire Chess Association and has unearthed some very interesting material, including the activities of the Nottingham Chess Club (founded in 1829) and the Nottingham Tournament of 1886. See: http://www.nottschess.org/information/histor...

The Times has an article on p.12 "Chess players make more mistakes when air is polluted":

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/clea ... -98x2cm3g2

I have another excuse to deploy the next time I blunder!

Up thread, I asked a couple of times why the results of the ECF Members' Survey into possible changing to monthly and four-figure grading hadn't included the precise total sample size nor constituent sample sizes, but just the percentages and the rather vague "more than 900 responses". I followed th...

If I'd had the full picture I'd have played differently against them Sorry, John, but I have to say that if you were trying to play the ( perceived ) opponent rather than the position, then you deserved what you got. ... but the position you aim for may well vary depending on the strength of the op...

From what I know of the situation it seems to me the person in question is a bit of a shambles - unable to get himself to places on time; unable to conduct his activities/deal with any issues he may have without inconveniencing people due to lack of communication; perhaps even too much of a shamble...

There may be some confusion about the ECF Accredited Coaches Scheme. The regulations for becoming an ECF Accredited Coach are surprisingly still on the website in the "ECF Documents" section: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Coaches.pdf I say surprisingly because there was ...

The Chess Arbiters Association has published some helpful clarification about the January 2018 FIDE Laws: Article 5: The completion of the game 5.1.1 The game is won by the player who has checkmated his opponent’s king. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing the checkmate p...