English Chess Forum

Most importantly, a new player should not have to wait more than a month to get their first grade. This should be the main priority. Whether the whole list is updated live is not so much of an issue, though it should be an ambition. Ideally the gradings should be updated on the first (maybe a first ...

I reported it by e-mail to the relevant ECF unpaid volunteers just after 13:00. When someone will be able to act I have no reason to know. PB I think ECF webmail might also be down, so the relevant ECF unpaid volunteers might not have received it. I reported it by text too. One Director couldn't ac...

Just trying to do some grading but unable to connect - is that a general problem?

In the Netherlands it is fairly common to have Quads where you compete in a four player all-play-all over three days, usually divided by rating, alongside another event. If this can work, a four round Swiss can certainly work. You can have a lot of smaller sections. Imagine imperial college congress...

I think the organiser has corrected the time control to 75 mins plus 10 seconds increment on the leaflets I have here at Hendon Blitz! We have Jonathan Rowson and David Levy playing...

http://chess-results.com/tnr409683.aspx ... =1&flag=30

Parents who attended the recent http://hampsteadchess.blogspot.co.uk have suggested that we might get a surge in entries from juniors at FIDE rated tournaments looking to improve their FIDE rating (especially where that rating lags behind their ECF grade) in order to meet the qualification criteria.

Chess is easy to learn, but challenging and complex to master. This is one reason why people play chess for decades, irrespective of their ability.

And I think they will have to come up with a better solution to the “junior problem” than FIDE have managed. The latest massive analysis of results showed that, aside from initial ratings still needing work, the predictive power of FIDE ratings for juniors is pretty good. At the risk of banging the...

At the last Division 3/4 weekend there must have been 12 - 16 matches in a large room (144 - 192 players). I think there was only one arbiter working the floor most off the time, with a second arbiter some of the time. There was a third arbiter in the room most of the time, but he didn't appear to ...

It may be that FIDE laws say nothing on this subject, but the interpretation I was given is that an upturned rook is a rook - so it is not an irregularity, it's just a rook. Surely it's an irregularity as a displaced piece. Aside from pawn promotions, if a player deliberately turned their rooks ups...

Which manual? If someone promotes to an upturned rook, I think the rules allow for this. On their next move, they move the upturned rook diagonally - then you step in as this is an illegal move for a rook. However if you step in as soon as they promote, you are not allowing them to make the illegal...

IM Jack Rudd wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 26, 2019 4:18 pm

OK, I've created a position with six pieces, where the only legal move with a specified piece (in this case, the d2 queen) is checkmate.

8/8/2Q5/2q1K3/2k5/8/N2Q4/8

Jack is a God.

Ha ha! Hard cases make bad law. In the circumstances described in the original post (where to get out of a queen check, a queen move was possible) you could not construct a position where White's only legal move complying with touch-move was checkmate. The Arbiters Manual has a guidance note to 3.7...

I don't think you should tell a player that they have to make a legal move with the [insert name of piece] - they should be given the opportunity to make a second illegal move. Moreover, what if their ONLY legal move with the [insert name of piece] was checkmate? In the scenario set out, where Whit...

The advice you're giving the player that is useful to someone who doesn't know the rules (when they should) is that he would be wasting time analysing moves other than a queen move because he can't play them. Perhaps, but I don't think that's still preferable from a people-management perspective to...