British Blitz Championships

[Joey Stewart]

Just thought that since this event (on chess.com) doesnt seem to have been mentioned anywhere on the forums it would be worth giving it a thread - massive turnout for both rounds, with more masters entering then ever before.

[Roger de Coverly]

Just thought that since this event (on chess.com) doesnt seem to have been mentioned anywhere on the forums it would be worth giving it a thread -

It was mentioned on the 4NCL Online thread.

Allegations though.

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10700&start=225#p244452

[John McKenna]

From somwhere on the ECF website (there's some confusion about the event name: English/British/UK) -

National Championship -  The group stage of the English Blitz Championships took place on 9th May based on two Swiss tournaments at 3|2 time control starting at 2-00 pm and then 8-00 pm. Both qualifiers were highly competitive with large fields liberally sprinkled with titled players. There were 248 entrants for qualifier 1 in the afternoon, and 216 entrants for the evening event.  You can find full details and final standings on the chess.com tournament result pages here:
 
https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/e ... -1-1217776

https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/e ... -2-1217782


The announcement of the full list of finalists for the Open and the Women’s Championship are due to be made on Monday and will be published on the ECF website.

The finals take place on chess.com on Saturday May 16th.

"Monday" means today but the exact when today and where on the humongous website are to be self-determined so watch those spaces at the best of times.

[John McKenna]

In addition to tbe above quote -

Qualification and Joining the final – The top 16 players in each category will be notified that they have qualified with the list of finalists published within 24-48 hours of the group stage events including the results of any tie breaks. Players qualifying for the final must agree to their real names being used in the draw and reporting of the final stage rather than their chess.com handles as a condition of entry to the final.

[Matt Bridgeman]

We were emailed this afternoon re final entry. I think they are just checking they have a full roster of available players for Saturday’s final before they publish the list.

[Keith Arkell]

The ECF have so far declined to reveal to me the true identity of two of my opponents. One was 'Istraja' and the other 'Fischerfan230804'.

I feel that it is ludicrous to play someone in a national Championship and not be permitted to know who they were. However, in my follow up email I hope to receive the answers which should have been automatic.

Incidentally, another of my opponents - 'Topj' - has now been banned by Chess.com, which hosted the event. They have a very high threshold regarding levels of certainty of cheating, to protect themselves legally.

[Roger de Coverly]

Incidentally, another of my opponents - 'Topj' - has now been banned by Chess.com, which hosted the event.

His ECF OTB profile can be found without much difficulty.

They have a very high threshold regarding levels of certainty of cheating, to protect themselves legally.

That's not the experience of one of the regular posters here, who was banned essentially for looking up variations in the books on his bookshelf. That would be external assistance in Blitz or Rapid, but this was "Daily" which follows ICCF at least in part in allowing access to game databases and published theory.

Also they are very difficult to pin down legally. The ECF is likely to be a far easier target.

[Carl Hibbard]

One was 'Istraja' and the other 'Fischerfan230804'.

Issues with those games?

Are they viewable anywhere?

[Roger de Coverly]

Are they viewable anywhere?

If you go to the URL for the results as previously posted and click on a player's handle, you can see their recent game history.

[JustinHorton]

Incidentally, another of my opponents - 'Topj' - has now been banned by Chess.com, which hosted the event. They have a very high threshold regarding levels of certainty of cheating, to protect themselves legally.

No they don't. They say they do, but experience suggests that they don't, that they ban people casually and inappropriately, and their legal protection lies mostly in the difficulty people would have in suing them.

[Roger de Coverly]

Here's Keith's game against the banned player.

https://www.chess.com/live/game/4832312 ... rname=topj

Keith goes into a Rook and Pawn ending a pawn down and wins. When they reach the 5 man ending, I was quite sure it was a draw, but it's not enough to know the assessment, you also have to find the correct move.

[Li Wu]

Topj almost certainly cheated- you can trust chess.com here.

Being barred from daily chess is very different from being barred from blitz, where you can get a big sample quickly (and can use thinking time for analysis).

[Carl Hibbard]

Hard to see how anonymous handles were even allowed for this championship to be honest.

[Roger de Coverly]

Topj almost certainly cheated- you can trust chess.com here.

What sort of cheating did he do? If he was using external assistance in his game with Keith, it wasn't the Lomonosov tables and if an engine, one that wasn't very good at playing endings with an extra pawn.

[Li Wu]

Computer assistance before he got into time trouble.

I don't have to know exactly what chess.com found to state that live chess and daily chess are completely different. Yes you are correct that it wasn't a tablebase, with no time left (I personally find it strange from a cursory look at the game that he doesn't know Philidor's defence and crushes in other parts of the game).

For live vs daily chess- as a business here are some points I would consider:

-how many players play live chess vs daily chess?
-how many games played (even worse ratio here for daily)?
-how easy is it to cheat in either game?
-how easy is it to detect cheating (daily chess is nigh on impossible if the cheater doesn't do it blatantly)?
-if someone is banned, which support queue do I manage at higher priority (hint it's not daily chess)?