English Chess Forum

May be of interest: Fat Fritz – What on Earth is that? It's a semi-secret development, an AlphaZero clone, engineered over the past nine months for ChessBase. Fat Fritz was tested by some of the best players in the world, who expressed unmitigated delight over the ideas and improvements it came up w...

Shocking turn around in Emms-Haria. John Emms was clearly winning, and then managed to lose. Nice for Ravi Haria to finish 3rd and take the U21 title. That will make up for not getting a GM norm (was I right that Ravi need slightly higher rated opponents or a half point more)?.

Thanks Alex. I have corrected my previous post to point this out (the 'forfeit' vs 'default' wording), though my post was later quoted. Do you think organisers need to use stronger/clearer wording on their entry forms? Should there be written warnings displayed at the board and/or on posters in play...

How many British titles is this now for Adams? It was his sixth last year, so it will be his seventh this year if he can finish off Gordon. To add to this, Adams will have won all five of his games with White (though only one against a GM), and drawn three of his four games with Black (against GMs H...

Well, not sure of the timings, but Mickey (I checked, and from what I can tell it is spelt this way and not 'Micky') is now clearly winning. The position looked innocous after 9.Rb1 but 14...Bd7 was a big mistake and now the c-pawn is on the b-file, and has become a strong passed pawn on b6. Gordon ...

I think the point being made is that the norm Charlie Storey has achived has a (very slight) question mark over it because it effectively includes a default (whether you call it a phone default or whatever) rather than being achieved by winning at the board. It is not Charlie's fault that this happe...

Am I right that Ravi Haria would have been in with a GM norm chance, but it appears that he will be unable to meet the minimum TPR (even with raising his lowest rated opponent to 2200) of 2600? I am not sure what score out of nine he would have needed to get, but a win against Emms in the final roun...

Jonathan Rogers wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 01, 2019 4:43 pm

Incidentaly we have another trivia question from today's pairings - who is the first player to be paired with four consecutive Blacks?

Too easy: Richard Palliser (though defaults don't count for colour pairings, surely?).

Justin appears to be referring to the news that Adams has drawn with Black again (with Justin Tan). If Howell wins against Wadsworth (looks likely) then he and Adams will be leading again on 5/6, unless Williams can make his unsound sacrifice work against Gordon.

In other news, IM Brandon Clarke has reached 5/5 in the Major Open - is anyone following that? I am indeed. He's also on 4/4 in the AM Open. Thanks, I'd not noticed that. He will get £990 if he wins both tournaments, which is just less than 5th in the British (£1000)! Less the entry fee for the AM ...

In other news, IM Brandon Clarke has reached 5/5 in the Major Open - is anyone following that?

If you want to see the (probably fully updated now, apart from maybe a couple where the records no longer exist) list of ENG norms, in this case for the GM title, see here: https://ratings.fide.com/title_norms.phtml?title=GM&country=ENG According to this: https://ratings.fide.com/title_norms.phtml?d...

The over 50s I have so far are (some are over 60s, but none are over 65s): Pein, Emms, Arkell, Ward, Lane, Pigott, Bradbury, Zapolskis, Wall, D. Ledger, A. P. Smith (among the titled players). Along with Moore, Crickmore and Holland among the non-titled players. The oldest appears to be John Pigott ...

I feel silly now. Of course looking at a games database would provide the answer! (Thanks to those who replied - not to put any pressure on Malcolm, but I hope he does well!). He has also played at other events over the years, IIRC, particularly Bunratty, but I don't think he is the most active of E...

Does anyone know when Malcolm Pein last played at the British (would he be responsive to a personal enquiry)? Are there lists of participants going back over the years to be found online anywhere, or would a database of this have to be constructed from something like the results lists that were (for...