English Chess Forum

Years ago I acquired a copy of the first (1933) English edition of Réti's Masters of the Chess Board , which is inscribed by J. du Mont (who contributed a short note about Réti) to one W. S. Howard. Lockdown boredom has started me wondering who this person was, whether he was a friend of du Mont, an...

Until recently I would have said no. Having played in one of Adam's invitational events, I am not so sure. The technology presents some problems, of course (I got disconnected when I had just reached a winning position, à la Firouzja), but there are definite advantages which I probably don't need to...

Jonathan is quite right about what the law says. Indeed in the cheating thread I argued that, as the law stands, there is no need for a "test case" about whether someone who cheats in a chess tournament could be successfully prosecuted. Clearly they could - provided that the jury or magistrates were...

Congratulations Justin! I don't suppose you got an explanation too?

Either you find the case against the accused proven (beyond reasonable doubt), in which case you find them guilty, or you don't - in which case the verdict should be "not proven" or "not guilty" - these are equivalent and result in acquittal. What question are the audience asked: whether they think...

There is however a premise that a prosecution should be in the public interest. A prosecution for using a computer engine to win a £ 100 prize in a tournament is thus unlikely as it could and perhaps would be regarded as a waste of police and court time. The CPS might decide that a prosecution is n...

There seem to be at least three different threads on "Not Chess" relating to WWTBAM. There is also "Would you like to become a Millionaire?" and "Millionaire Major Coughing Scandal", and there is a large overlap in regard to the material covered and arguments presented. There was also the thread ab...

But you said that (according to Woffinden) the prosecution called Tarrant to prevent the defence calling him. With respect, that makes no sense. Assuming that the defence would have called him if the prosecution hadn't, they were certainly happy to cross-examine him instead, since that way the restr...

But the late Bob Woffinden explained to me that the reason why Tarrant had been seized by the prosecution as their witness was solely to prevent the defence seizing him as theirs! For he had absolutely nothing to contribute to the prosecution case. And had he been heard saying all that for the othe...

In addition to J T Melsom’s points, from our individual perspectives the likely prospects for OTB chess may be relevant to the way we choose to spend our time in the immediate future. If I’m not likely to resume playing even when we are allowed to do so, studying the game will soon slip down my list...

I suspect that, even when the lockdown is lifted, many of us oldies will not want to play OTB until a reliable vaccine is generally available — which I understand Is 12 to 18 months away. That’s easily long enough to lose interest.

I'm struggling to see anything here that anyone might reasonably object to.

I believe today is FM Owen Hindle's 80th birthday. A real gent, and an inspiration to those of us who played in Norfolk when he was active. I think I'm right in saying that he was Norfolk champion in six different decades.

I don't think lawyers use the notion of evidence in some peculiar, technical sense. The legal usage simply assumes that, if someone asserts a proposition to be true, the making of that assertion militates to some extent in favour of that proposition being true. It may not be much, but it's better th...

Out of interest, is there any precedent here? I'm not sure what you mean. Any instance of a defendant relying on alien abduction as an alibi? Not that I know of, but then there's no reason why I would. Or do you mean a precedent for a rule that an assertion of a fact, even if uncorroborated, is sti...