English Chess Forum

Very interesting visit to the Imperial War Museum this morning turned up a surprising find: https://scontent-lhr6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/793159041_10163751616963564_5058612444963121984_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg_tt6&cstp=mx2048x1536&ctp=s2048x1536&_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=4Gii92bP...

I remember one game at Antwerp I was watching with a very strong Israeli player who wasn't writing his moves down because it was the Holy day. I think the time limit was 40 in 2 and the Israeli guy had clearly lost count of the moves and was relying on his opponent's scoresheet. However, as they wer...

Are Russia eligible to nominate anyone? (And eligible to vote?) According to https://www.fide.com/wp-content/uploads/Annex-1_List-of-suspended-Member-Federations.pdf , Russia is suspended along with Rwanda. I don't know what Rwanda has done but the Russian Federation was sanctioned by CAS for runni...

My condolences. Resident in Eastbourne, I believe, and married a Ukranian lady, also a chess player... There were two Donovans that often got mixed up according to Nigel. As Nigel was always single and for the most part lived in Hove, I think you might be referring to Patrick Donovan whose partner ...

I'm very sad to report the recent passing of my great friend, Nigel Donovan who lived in the Brighton area. I remember first meeting Nigel in a game we played in a weekend tournament in Barking something like 45 years ago and I think at that point he was a member of the Charlton chess club. My vague...

I saw Nigel Short's blitz tournament (June 28, 9/9, *) in Vanuatu referred to as the Nigel Short Memorial Blitz. I did not screenshot it and can't now find it, but this is the tournament (no mention here of the Memorial aspect): *https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1447312.aspx?lan=1&art=14&turdet=YES&...

Could you have entered provisionally while still sorting out the ECF memberships? I suspect some schools might do that. Best of luck to the school you are taking, and hope the organisers are more flexible if for example you find a third school next year and so on. If there is more demand in the sou...

Really great to see so much enthusiasm from the South for this competition! I had hoped to get another girls school, besides the school that I'm already taking, into the under 11s but I have been held up by getting the information from parents required for the extra ECF membership requirements this ...

I don't know much about Siva Mahadevan's chess history and background. He is 23 or 24 I think. Just as Vitiugov is a product of the Russian school of chess, I think Mahadevan became an IM while in India aged 15 but has not progressed (yet?) to the GM title. Unsure if he has any GM norms. He crept a...

I was watching tennis the other day as Sky Sports have a dedicated sport channel for it. They have a sort of equivalence to the rating restricted chess tournaments in Grand Slam, 1000, 750, 500 and 250 tournaments. The difference in winnings is quite marked with the Slams and 1000 series tournaments...

Danny's tip for winning it was Marcus Harvey.

I was helping at a Kent Junior tournament today organised as usual by Jo Wildman who does a fantastic amount of work to get these things going and is a qualified arbiter. Indeed she was arbiting at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz so I asked her how it went. She said it was the most stressful and trau...

A great Chess in Schools initiative 'Chess and Chill' at Spitalfields in London which the BBC London Evening News featured in a report today (from 12 mins 30 seconds in)

Anyone care to state what the name Liverpool actually means? Well I think the official explanation is that the name comes from the Old English lifer, meaning thick or muddy water, and pōl, meaning a pool or creek, and is first recorded around 1190 as Liuerpul. According to the Cambridge Dictionary ...

The women accused of the murder of Chris Brown (and his cat Snow) has pleaded guilty. That might not be the end of it though. More information here https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/2488 ... her-brown/