English Chess Forum

Why are men higher rated than women? Tall Poppy Syndrome. Women suffer a social penalty for succeeding in a way that other women perceive as a threat. Making that final leap from playing in women's tournaments to playing in mixed tournaments, means that all the women playing in the women's tournamen...

Poulton have won the Blackpool & Fylde Online League with a game to spare. There are still games to be played in Division 2. My guess is a new online League will commence in January. There seems to be interest for a second Poulton team to play in Division 2. Final gradings: 1 David A P ----------- ...

Coventry grades after Round 6. Sorry for the long delay: the iteration process is now automated which removes the major source of human error, and results that aren't out of 2 points are now handled properly (thanks, chess.com). EDIT - now updated to Round 8. 1 Hugh P ---------------- 204 [4] was un...

Under the 40 point rule each opponent would score 110 for their win, they are not pulled down. Sorry, that's me being terribly unclear. The pulling down refers to the fact that, for the new player with a "starting grade" of 50, the effective grade of their opponents would be 90. They're in the same...

Coventry first 3 rounds: 1 Oscar P -------------- 195 [30] was 195B (0) 2 Donald J M ---------- 191 [30] was 192A (-1) 3 Mark E P ------------- 189 [30] was 192 [30] (-3) 4 Anish G -------------- 188 [2] was ungraded [0] (+188) 5 Iain A G ------------- 184 [30] was 190C (-6) 6 Mircea-Marius M -- 183...

The Blackpool and Fylde League, have an online chess league, comprising of two divisions. Online Division 1: Heywood 1, Preston, Lytham, Poulton. Online Division 2: Bare and Lancaster, Leyland 1, Leyland 2, Heywood 2. Teams of 4. Home and Away fixtures. Away team has white on odds. No league fees. ...

We will not be rating it online, it is hard enough to encourage Clubs to stay active and cohesive, let alone telling people to pay for online chess, which they can get for free on lichess, and chess . com. What is this heresy?! :D Would either of your competitions like to have online ratings calcul...

Yes, we're all very cross at being subject to wartime measures for the second time this year.

We will not be rating it online, it is hard enough to encourage Clubs to stay active and cohesive, let alone telling people to pay for online chess, which they can get for free on lichess, and chess . com. What is this heresy?! :D Would either of your competitions like to have online ratings calcul...

The K component of Elo is a total fudge - I'm with him that far. Let's do these beautiful calculations, and then let's multiply it by whatever number makes it look right . A bit like the heat index formula. https://xkcd.com/2026/ Where he loses me, is here: The primary problem is the fundamental con...

Everyone knows the GM title is meaningless, For the record, it might be useful to learn which titles you consider to be meaningful (rather than meaningless). I'm sure there is a grey area in between but some idea of your thinking would be useful as a benchmark. It amuses me to see a point of view t...

If the "admin" expense was charged back to the directorates it was actually spent on, would the two biggest beasts be a) International, and b) the cost of getting money out of members? Yes. I don't see anyone that has claimed otherwise. (b) almost certainly, but i would not think the office spends ...

We're talking about the extent to which the sky will fall if we don't indulge the "professional" aspirations of strong amateur players The thread is "Membership renewal". Chris is entitled to his eccentric views on professional chess, but I find it distressing he is exaggerating the amount of money...

We're talking about the extent to which the sky will fall if we don't indulge the "professional" aspirations of strong amateur players The thread is "Membership renewal". Chris is entitled to his eccentric views on professional chess, but I find it distressing he is exaggerating the amount of money...

This isn't the ECF's forum; we don't have to be impressed by the ECF hinting darkly at "operational problems". Do you really not understand that the ECF spends most of its money on administration not on professional players? But they don't spend it on "administration", that's not a thing. They spen...