English Chess Forum

"It is my strong view that Couhcil meetings need an agenda which spells out precisely what we are going to vote on and we don't have to search through supplementary documents to understand what is going on. I will do what I can to try and make sure that this happens in the future." Well, yes... But ...

You're entitled to disagree! I may be prejudiced as I have experienced the brave new world of open-plan offices and NLP, which are still being used widely, despite being discredited...

Anyway, keep up the good work.

" I took issue with the funding structure of the role, by linking individual bonuses to a non-deterministic performance was very unwise. The bonus payments will formally mis-attribute credit of future membership growth, to one individual, instead of the collective achievement of the Board and other ...

The "Strictly" dance routine had the female dressed possibly as the red queen, and a knight move happened. The floor was black and white squares. That seemed to be the extent of the chess.

"Also newspaper columnists" Where's the "like" button? Pointless "Celebrities" (all sports people) featured a round where there was a picture of an obscure sport and missing letters from the clue. The third picture showed people sitting in a boxing ring, playing chess, with the clue C-E-S-O-I-G. Thi...

"and strategy should help set priorities"

Yes - but I think you need more than strategy. There are certain routine tasks that continue.

I say that mildly, I am not going into rant mode as someone disagrees with me.

"Come the Revolution, John Reti would be at the front, holding the flag, and breathing fire." Gordon will be pleased to know that John was at the "Chess For Peace"(!) tournament and walked up and down shouting that no refreshments were available. We did agree with his general point, but not the way ...

"The New York match had a media reach of 1.4 billion people, and the opening press conference reached 700 million people."

Assuming the American "billion", that means that 800 million non-players looked at it!?

I hope Hok gets involved with ECF at some stage (although I would really understand if he didn't want to!) He seems full of ideas, but more importantly listens to other points of view, which is pretty rare anywhere, let alone this forum. As for a "Development Manager", I'm not convinced that basing ...

"David, you are of course right to raise any issues you wish with prospective candidates, but very few of these strike me as strategic nor indeed I suspect readily understood by the majority of members of council. Are these really priorities for an incoming Home Director given that I can't recall to...

"Justin, the pertinent question is whether Arkady works for Vladimir."

No it isn't - it is the question you were asked. Do you still claim you are independent of all the candidates?

This reminds me of when Paxman asked Michael Howard a question, who replied, "That's not the question" Er, yes it is.

"The prize goes to the arbiter who thought that the "75 move rule" required hiim to declare a draw if a game reached move 75." I did once encounter a player in a Minor section who played on a queen, rook and bishop down then claimed a draw as he had reached move 50, but quickly apologised and resign...

"As far as I can remember, the landlord's little speech was quietly ignored and the member concerned stayed for that evening at least, but whether she felt welcome for subsequent club nights I cannot recall." She might well feel unwelcome... She might take the view, "Well, I'll show you!" and contin...

Radio Times for this week, previewing a programme about President Bashar Al-Assad, President of Syria. Jeremy Bowen writes:-

"He wants to dominate the chessboard, as his father did."

and

"Perhaps now he will become, like his father, the master of the Middle Eastern chessboard."

"Did someone say there is a video of the GA somewhere? I was there and would like to know what happened."

I've been to meetings like that...

Sometimes you have to wait for the MInutes to be published beofre you realise that the author of those occupies a parallel universe.