English Chess Forum

Chess is a game that doesn't tax ... your short-term memory. You what ? Yes, I tripped over that too. I'm not sure that it taxes much else. I'm talking about chess being a game of perfect information. If you want to know everything about the current state of play, you can look at the board. You don...

Maybe, maybe not. A perennial worry before the pandemic was the ageing chess demographic and whether clubs/ leagues/ congresses would fold over time. The pandemic hasn't changed that. Chess players have been fretting about the number of very old chess players for at least 20 years, during which tim...

What is more likely to hinder the return of chess will be the turnover of volunteers, some people may view organising differently after a break. It will be important that the chess community as a whole considers whether we can individually do more. I accept not everybody can run a congress, but the...

No legal force certainly, but you wouldn't want to be a lawyer arguing that you didn't kill someone after you rejected the CDC's advice. No, that is completely wrong. You might not wish to ignore the advice of the authorities in your state, but unlike here they tend not to do advice - something is ...

The CDC’s recommendations are guidelines, and carry no legal weight. Such matters are entirely in the hands of state authorities, some follow them when they feel like it, others ignore them completely. No legal force certainly, but you wouldn't want to be a lawyer arguing that you didn't kill someo...

Who knows? Weddings or funerals weren't allowed to get around the rule of 30 by saying people were in separate rooms, so there is no history of this partitioning in the UK (that I am aware of). I just don't see how anyone could expect the ECF to organise the British on the basis of what might be al...

I don't recall that separate toilets were an issue when the rule of 6 indoors was in place last time. [...] What can be done (like in Biel or Heidelberg) is to limit the number of people simultaneously in the toilets (either self regulation, or use of tokens) Indeed - the ECF's Risk Assessment docu...

Even a relatively mild restriction such as limiting indoor gatherings to one hundred people would cancel the Congress in its usual form. Indoor gatherings were limited to 6 last summer, but it seemed there was scope for local governments to define "gathering" in such a way that you can fit more tha...

And here I was, thinking this is a chess forum. Stewart, you wrote the book (literally; I read it) on organising competitive chess. 0) 8/3: 2 outdoors, 1⌂ indoors 1) 29/3 or later: 6 / 2⌂ outdoors, 1⌂ indoors 2) 12/4 or later: 6 / 2⌂ outdoors, 1⌂ indoors ("No household mixing indoors") and indoor h...

Paul Bloom wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 08, 2021 2:15 pm

I see no reason to postpone for another year but Dave sedgwick seems to think there will not be any OTB British this year

Do you know why?

Surely an organisation fretting about non-renewing members would have an extra incentive to run a FIDE-rated tournament in the 2020-2021 membership year.

I thought Nick's preference for taking rat poison rather than a Covid-19 vaccine was somewhat extreme, and I'm not convinced he meant it literally, but some of the verbal assault on him seems well over the top. It seems to me plain stupid to accept every computer-generated forecast as totally relia...

Alex McFarlane wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 07, 2021 1:21 am

Why would Chess Scotland therefore allow an event which could potentially disadvantage its own event?

Because it's the British Championship and the winners get to be British Champions.

Paul McKeown wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 07, 2021 3:25 pm

He sneers at all expertise except the armchair variety, and has no need of evidence, sticking a finger in the air and spouting any old tabloid prejudice with an ex cathedra certainty is sufficient.

When has the Argument From My Opponent Believes Something ever failed?

"The roadmap, which has now been published on gov.uk, outlines four steps for easing restrictions. Before proceeding to the next step, the Government will examine the data to assess the impact of previous steps. This assessment will be based on four tests: * The vaccine deployment programme continue...

It wouldn't be difficult to send an Open team to international events even on no budget; I'm sure five players could be found who would be willing to self-fund. Probably not five particularly strong players, but hey ho. That could be a money making exercise - the 5 highest bidders get selected for ...