English Chess Forum

I intensely dislike concocted draws as may well have happened in two games in Gibraltar Masters yesterday. Here there is a rule, 'No agreed draws in less than 30 moves'. 1 Nf3 Nf6 2 Ng1 Ng8. 3 Nc3 Na6 4 Nb1 Nb8. 5 Nh3 Nc6 6 Ng1 Nb8. 7 Na3 Nh6 8 Nb1 Ng8, The games is drawn by 5-fold occurrence of po...

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 18, 2020 10:00 pm

..... who I recall playing in my last over-the-board tournament at Hammersmith 1972.

wasn't Barnstaple 1972 your last OTB tourney ? Your memory of your own events is probably better than mine so perhaps you weren't counting weekend events.

The important thing is not whether you touched the queen, but whether you touched it with the intention of moving it . Since 1 Jan 2018 you need to consider amendments to the FIDE Laws:- 4.2.1 Only the player having the move may adjust one or more pieces on their squares, provided that he first exp...

If the Earth went though a meteor shower or something and everyone woke up much better at chess, their ratings would not be affected one jot. There are lots of reasons why this would not be true. If you mean everyone improved so that their strength should be say 10 rating points higher then the exp...

Is wireless/bluetooth equipment used in transmitting information from sensory boards/clocks in the normal course of ENG events ?

Scanning wands seem to be metal detectors; why is it assumed that an information receiving device contains metal ?

We also had a dedicated Anti-Cheating arbiter for the first time, who was checking toilets, and checking for any interactions between children and parents, for instance. I think you need more than a dedicated arbiter checking toilets; someone with skills in cybersecurity and data security would be ...

Of course it wasn't Bellini or Rossini it was Beethoven's opera. The clue was in the name and Morphy's ability to look ahead.

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 2:39 pm

Not an organisation to be taken lightly. Decades ago I gave a simul there and the opposition was strong..

Did you play J C Thompson of Hippo fame ?

I never understood the argument for recalibration. It was Sean Hewitt's doing and he wrote a paper explaining why it was done and I suppose I should go back and read it, but my problem is this: the idea behind the grading system is that if 2 players with grades 25 apart play a match then one of the...

A player walks into your club and claims to be from a country you were sure was still part of Russia. You put him on board 5 in Division 3, and he easily beats a couple of children graded 38 and 49. Do you therefore let him enter the Under 100 section of your congress, because the fact that he play...

You're quite right. Chess columnists seem to live to advances ages so we can hopefully look to many future Luke contributions.

Paul Habershon wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 03, 2019 7:46 am

Spectator"s new chess columnist is Luke McShane who writes that it is an honour to be the third such after C H O'D Alexander (pen name Philidor) and Raymond Keene.

I haven't seen what was written but Heinrich Fraenkel (who wrote as Assiac) was the columnist before CHOD A.

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 14, 2019 8:05 pm

I know it's a typo.....

It was not a typo; I was trying a pun and according to written pun convention used the spelling for the less common usage. In view of your closing comment it fits rather well. I was also alluding to a 1970s pop song.

I refer the honorable gentleman to Delchev-Conquest in the European Team Championship all those years ago, where precisely this scenario happened, and the game was rated. I knew that game which occurred 10 years ago. However I didn't mention it because I do not know without looking it up what the R...

Jack's original post on this arrived at the correct outcome but via incorrect reasoning. A useful skill to have. When Lorin was defaulted, does Charlie get the rating points. Just a thought. Yes, because the game had started. A game has started after White has made the first move. The FIDE regulatio...