English Chess Forum

Dates and venues for 2019-20 have been published at the 4NCL site.

Divisions 1 & 2
9-10 Nov, 11-12 Jan, 8-9 Feb, 28-29 Mar, 2-4 May
All at Mercure Daventry Court

Divisions 3S, 3N, 4
9-10 Nov, 11-12 Jan, 8-9 Feb, 4-5 Apr, 2-4 May

First three weekends for 3S & 4 at Holiday Inn Maidenhead, fourth weekend at Mercure Daventry, final weekend De Vere Staverton.

3N first, fourth and fifth weekends, Holiday Inn South Normanton, second and third Mercure Bolton Georgian House.

The Maidenhead hotel has been used for chess before. There was an organisation called "Chess National Promotions" which did a series of hotel based Congresses back in the late 1970s and the Maidenhead hotel staged one of them. It's little distance from the A404(M) which is an offshoot of the M4 and about a mile and a half from Maidenhead station and town centre.

The proximity of the hotels for the final weekend will facilitate team switching for squads with teams at both venues.

The new hotel rates (for Daventry anyway) are £69 for a single and £79 for doubles and twins.

Looks like there'll be a little movement on dates.

* Week 1 (Div ! & 2) may move to accommodate the ECC

* Week 4 (Div 3N) may move to avoid some other clash

On venues, assuming there was any choice in the matter, it looks a good call for the majority of players to jettison Telford for Daventry. Ditto choosing South Normanton for 3N - gives that division a chance of attracting some fresh teams

From Mike's e-mail to captains today:

1. Rounds 1 and 2 for Divisions 1 and 2 have moved to 29 February – 1 March 2020 (and so will take place after rounds 3-6). As this will now in effect be a split weekend in reverse order, Dave Thomas will announce any specific arrangements should they be needed in due course;

2. Rounds 7 and 8 for Division 3 North have moved to 28-29 March 2020.

The venues have also been changed for Division Three (North) with Doncaster replacing South Normanton on two of the three weekends including the final Bank Holiday weekend.

Weekend 1 | Rounds 1-2

9-10 November 2019
Divisions 3 South & 4 South Holiday Inn Maidenhead/Windsor
Division 3 North Holiday Inn Doncaster

29 February-1 March 2020
Divisions 1 & 2 Mercure Daventry Court

Weekend 2 | Rounds 3-4

11-12 January 2020
Divisions 1 & 2 Mercure Daventry Court
Divisions 3 South & 4 South Holiday Inn Maidenhead/Windsor
Division 3 North Mercure Bolton Georgian House

Weekend 3 | Rounds 5-6
8-9 February 2020
Divisions 1 & 2 Mercure Daventry Court
Divisions 3 South & 4 South Holiday Inn Maidenhead/Windsor
Division 3 North Mercure Bolton Georgian House

Weekend 4 | Rounds 7-8
28-29 March 2020
Divisions 1 & 2 Mercure Daventry Court
Division 3 North Holiday Inn South Normanton

4-5 April 2020
Divisions 3 South & 4 South Mercure Daventry Court

Weekend 5 | Rounds 9-11
2-4 May 2020
Divisions 1 & 2 Mercure Daventry Court
Divisions 3 South & 4 South De Vere Staverton Estate
Division 3 North Holiday Inn Doncaster

There could be problems here for some squads.

Since Feb 29 is being deemed contemporaneous with Nov 9 (ie. as weekend 1), squads such as mine (Spirit of Atticus) with teams in Div 1/2 & Div 3 could find their lower team players from Nov 9 being barred from playing for the higher team on Feb 29. Very hard to require a team to know, four months in advance, who its players will be; and then to ensure against mishap

David Robertson wrote: ↑

Sun May 19, 2019 9:59 pm

There could be problems here for some squads.

Since Feb 29 is being deemed contemporaneous with Nov 9 (ie. as weekend 1), squads such as mine (Spirit of Atticus) with teams in Div 1/2 & Div 3 could find their lower team players from Nov 9 being barred from playing for the higher team on Feb 29. Very hard to require a team to know, four months in advance, who its players will be; and then to ensure against mishap

I had the same thought.

"As this will now in effect be a split weekend in reverse order, Dave Thomas will announce any specific arrangements should they be needed in due course" is the advice from Mike Truran's e-mail to captains. Best of luck to Dave with that!

Since the purpose of the rule is to prevent weaker team being artificially strengthened with “higher team” players, not to prevent lower teams from filling gaps above in emergencies, the solution might be to amend the rules and simply focus on the composition of team in the first (November) weekend.

Something like all players are ineligible who have played above board 7 of a higher team over the last two seasons or similar. Perhaps with an additional safeguard that any player rated 80pts (say) higher than the second board becomes ineligible for Feb 29th. Alternatively allow one “wildcard” exception to the usual 80pt rule for the round 1-2 weekend. It’s not perfect, and obviously would leave potential gaps for exploitation by unscrupulous captains (are there actually any?) but better than creating a situation where teams are left in a position of effectively being forced to default in higher teams on the feb 29th weekend.

Alternatively (because the above suggestion doesn’t cover a serious player shortage on Feb 29th) I suppose it would be possible for this exceptional circumstance to waive the 80pt rule entirely for split teams in weekend one, with the only absolute restriction that no player can play both weekends.

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Mon May 20, 2019 6:16 am

Alternatively (because the above suggestion doesn’t cover a serious player shortage on Feb 29th) I suppose it would be possible for this exceptional circumstance to waive the 80pt rule entirely for split teams in weekend one, with the only absolute restriction that no player can play both weekends.

Or at least weaken it. You could have a rule that exceptionally all players in the late div 1/2 first weekend are deemed to have a rating of at least X. X presumably would need to be in the 1900 to 2200 range. Perhaps nearer the time, when teams and squads are known, set X to an appropriate value.

If say x was set to 2100, managers would know they were taking an availability risk if they fielded someone above 2180 in their second team.

BREAKING.....

Weekend 5 (D1/2) - Back to Telford

David Robertson wrote: ↑

Fri May 24, 2019 9:14 pm

Weekend 5 (D1/2) - Back to Telford

The (renamed) Park Inn again. Recent experiences of Telford are that you don't get to stay in the venue hotel, or even the Ramada across the road.

I’m assured that overflow accommodation if needed will be in the Ramada.

Subject to the usual caveats, the promotion/relegation is now sorted

Relegated from Division 1: Oxford 1, West is Best 1, North East England, Alba.

Promoted from Division 2: Barbican 4NCL 2, Cambridge University 1, Spirit of Atticus A, Gonzaga.

Relegated from Division 2 to Division Three North: Manchester Manticores 1, Bradford DCA Knights A.

Relegated from Division Two to Division Three South: Wessex A, West is Best 2.

Promoted from Division Three North: White Rose 2, Manchester Manticores 2.

Promoted from Division Three South: Kings Head, Check Innmates 1.

Relegated from Division Three South: CSC 2, Iceni 2, Leeds University Old Boys, Sussex Martlets 2.

Promoted from Division Four: Crowthorne 1, Ashfield 1, Oxford 3 , Wessex B

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Mon May 27, 2019 9:44 pm

Relegated from Division 2 to Division Three North: Manchester Manticores 1, Bradford DCA Knights A.
Relegated from Division Two to Division Three South: Wessex A, West is Best 2.

It might be worth mentioning that the pecking order for reprieve from relegation in the event of withdrawals from divisions 1 or 2 would seem to be

Manchester Manticores 1
Wessex A
Bradford DCA Knights A
West is Best 2

Any teams spared relegation would then have to contend with the Round 1/2 weekend split in place, time and sequence as well as the possible need to retain or recruit female or junior players.