English Chess Forum

"After spending many months looking at the data, I think the hypothesis that juniors tend to improve is conclusively proved against the alternate that playing strength is constant." Are you sure? Admittedly it was many years ago, but I took a small sample of juniors (about the first 30 pages of the ...

"I believe that we all have good periods of performance and poorer periods - that is one of the factors which makes us want to compete and try to raise our performance." True - I once beat a 226 with black and 3 days later lost to a 115 with white! If you try to do a statistical analysis of your per...

"Is it unreasonable for the 'Head' of the Academy to see a document before publication that could seriously affect the future of the project? "

No - surely you should have been consulted beforehand?

"That's one approach, but there are some fairly obvious drawbacks to making people use their real names, includinf making them more vulnerable to abuse and harrassment off-site." True - another Countdown expert was enraged by a review of an online book he wrote, and travelled about 300 miles to brea...

Even if there are moderators, it is not unknown for them to be biased. And as you can frequently be anonymous online, the problem gets worse. I used to post on a "Countdown" site occasionally, which was mainly populated by people who had done well on the programme. In theory, people used real names,...

Sun Mar 03, 2019 7:38 pm On the point about ethics, there was one request to have an advanced viewing of the tender document. I declined it. Quite right too - I'm not that impressed that the question was asked though. "I think it safe to assume that - while we might all have minor (and, in some case...

"Suffice to say that online misogyny has been closely correlated (in America certainly) with the rise of the far-Right and pro-Trump politics. " That would please the left wing of course, but I think it is just some men/boys being totally obnoxious. Online abuse of female players certainly pre-dates...

"Believe me, I have a great deal of sympathy for the last comment."

Yes, me too.

Anyway, I happened to be looking at Is Fraud A Brain Game? again this evening, as you do, and I couldn't help laughing at this: David Levy wrote: Chinese Chess, which differs from the western form of the game, is probably the world’s most popular board game, being played by half the population of Ch...

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/irregular (etc.) Infringement - The action of breaking the terms of a law, agreement, etc.; violation. Irregularity - The state or quality of being irregular. [Note - not a great definition!] Irregular - Contrary to the rules or to that which is normal or...

I agree with the others who have posted so far. This might be a record.

"This is being discussed at https://www.bridgewinners.com/article/v ... nblum-cup/" Good to see the bridge forumites are critical of WADA too. I don't know if their website has improved but it was difficult to search in previous years, even for me, when I knew what I was looking for! Note that a lot...

"Venue claims we we weren't drinking enough (though that was just a pretext to evict us)."

I think that's in the pub landlords' training manual as number 1 excuse to get rid of people.

Bridge drug shock...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/47420065

Chosen drugs are interesting. This might explain https://dopinglinkki.fi/en/info-bank/do ... clomiphene

It seems short notice for what will presumably be a lot of work. (On second thoughts, it's probably an enormous amount of work.) The applicant doesn't seem to have any input into what is done. OK, teachers have to follow the syllabus, but this is not quite the same thing. It might take a year to get...