English Chess Forum

I believe North Shields Council are keeping an open mind, while the landscape constantly changes around them. And Northumberland Police wouldn’t sign off on the event, and will investigate complaints if they arise on the weekend. "Wouldn't sign off on the event" suggests they were unhappy with the ...

Yes, 3.19 of the government guidelines is the essential bit. You could organise a chess tournament with Covid precautions based on APA sections of 6 ... If 3.19 is the law, which I doubt, due to the various exemptions, you'd need a different arbiter for each APA section, meaning a maximum of 5 play...

Yes, 3.19 of the government guidelines is the essential bit. You could organise a chess tournament with Covid precautions based on APA sections of 6 but (e.g.) ordinary Swiss pairings would result in mingling between groups of 6 and would therefore be illegal. This simply isn't true though is it. I...

There is of course another possibility for OTB chess which has a precedent in the Old British championship qualifying competitions. Playing in each other’s houses...

"For our purposes the crucial point seems to be that the 6-person maximum does not apply to gatherings in premises (other than private dwellings) which are operated by -- a) a business, b) a charitable, benevolent or philanthropic institution, or c) a public body. That would seem to cover most of t...

Think it’s fine to run a Congress with unlimited players as long as you 1) Badge it as a protest (against COVID restrictions maybe?) 2) put in place social distancing measures and carry out risk assessments 3) Make sure that players don’t “mingle” The slightly more far fetched alternative is to clai...

My new ECF rating is 1998. My Fide rating is 1813. I suspect a difference of 185 points is high for someone who plays a lot. Well this is the problem with using 4 digit ratings. People expect them to give the same outcomes but there is no reason why they should. I have always been somewhat mystifie...

More sad news is a sh*tty year that’s not getting any better. In my experience just a lovely guy who clearly put a huge amount of work into chess, for club and juniors alike.

Condolences Paul.

RIP

I’m just amused by the idea of an appeals panel being reduced from 3 to 2 as a result of one member having to recuse themselves for potential perception of bias - only for the resulting “panel” to be deadlocked with the only way of resolution being... to refer to the previously recused member! (who ...

Withdrawing in protest from a knockout is not particularly problematic as these things go; the only participant it harms is you yourself. It's different doing it in an all-play-all or a Swiss, where your action can have knock-on disruptive effects. That’s a fair point. Although i think in most spor...

Whatever the merits of the protest, that's a pity They would have to be some pretty strong merits, probably expanding beyond the specifics of the incident (bias in the appeals panel or something). You can’t have teams just withdrawing from events of this type whenever they feel hard done by. What’s...

I advise careful study of the final two moves of both armageddon games. White's 38th in the Germany v Hungary game, if Chessbomb has it right, is especially notable. I recall years ago, around the time of the Intel rapid/blitz events I think, Chess magazine doing a whole article on short moves/long...

So basically Magnus is a bit rubbish then?

Chess for tigers rabbit basher.

Pairings for Season 2 are now available here: http://www.4ncl.co.uk/data/4ncl_online_results_2.htm Can you explain why some round 1 pairings seem to involve teams not in the same division? Or am i missing something obvious? There are some errors in the tables that need correcting. White Rose 1 & 2 ...