English Chess Forum

Hello

Ken Norman has asked me to post the following on this forum:


Having recently collected my Bus Pass and Senior Citizens Railcard I was
interested to read that in Europe Chess played by the over 60's is the main
area of growth in Chessplaying. After some "Silver surfing" I find that
there are a considerable number of seniors Tournaments being held all over
Europe. Germany is especially active with Seniors Tournaments being held
every month somewhere within that country. While other European counties may
not be as active as Germany there are still a considerable number of events
for seniors being held, for example Amsterdam has for some years held an
Annual seniors Individual Championship.

Then we look at the situation in England. We have the excellent Exmouth
seniors organized by Bob Jones. The British Seniors Championship held since
1984 at the annual E.C.F. Congress and then we have NOTHING. At the County
level Sussex have held a veterans Championship for over 60's since 1997.I
would be interested to hear of any other county that organizes an annual
Veterans/seniors County Championship.

The one piece of good news is the announcement by the E.C.F of plans to hold
the 1st English Seniors Chess Championship next year. The arrangements for
this tournament sound ideal for the senior player. The venue is an excellent
hotel in the delightful peak district with a schedule of one game a day at a
sensible time limit. However the E.C.F. have made one dreadful blunder. They
have chosen a date that coincides with the second week of the Gibraltar
Tournament and is only two weeks before the start of the European Seniors
Team Championship in Dresden.

The clash with Gibraltar is unfortunate as the Seniors playing in this years
Gibraltar Tournament included Keith Richardson, Ray Edwards, Julian Farrand,
Tony Ashby and myself plus several lower rated players including that
hyper-active septuagenarian Barry Sandercock. Also present in his role as
Chess Sage and fount of all knowledge was Stewart Reuben. I would consider
several of the above to be potential winners of any English Seniors
Championship.
The closeness to the European Seniors Team Championship has the potential
to weaken both the England squad in Dresden and the proposed English
Championship. If we look at this years England First and Second Teams of
David Anderton, Geoff James, Tim Pelling, Jim Scholes, Bob Wade, Mike
Singleton, Alan Crombleholme, Ivor Smith and John Feavyour we see several
former British Seniors Chess Champions and potental England Senior
Champions.
So why did the E.C.F. make such an obvious error? I would suggest one reason
is that nobody on the E.C.F. Management Board has direct responsibly for
Seniors Chess. Therefore nobody with any knowledge of Seniors Chess looked
at the Calendar.

So what evidence is available that there is a demand for seniors events in
England? The Exmouth Tournament run by Bob Jones is very popular and has to
be restricted to 90 competitors. The British Seniors Championship is always
well supported and in February of this year 21 Seniors travelled to Dresden
at considerable expense to themselves to play for England in the European
Seniors Team Championship.

So should Chess organisations within England take any interest in Seniors
Chess? I believe there are sound economic reasons for trying to expand the
current level of Seniors Chess activity in England. In a recent Article
Leonard Barden stated that" the active Chess population is ageing and
numerically in slow decline" and with the post World War two generation of
so called "Babyboomers" now reaching 60 years of age we will see a
considerable increase in the E.C.F. financial base being provided by the
over sixties. Surely it is sensible to encourage these over 60's to carry on
playing as long as possible by providing the events they require. Thus
ensuring that the E.C.F. continues to receive the income from both
membership fees and the game fee generated by these players activities.

So what should be done? 1) The E.C.F. must appoint a Director of Seniors
Chess and provide a sufficient budget to enable him/her to carry out some
"pump priming". 2) Tournaments like Hastings and Paignton should be
encouraged to run a Seniors event alongside their existing tournaments with
initially some funding from E.C.F. 3) Actively encourage the running of many
more tournaments like Exmouth throughout the country. Lets catch up with the
Germans!! 4) Remember growth takes TIME. The European Seniors Team
Championship began with 7 teams in 1999 and this year entry was 52 teams!

I would organise a seniors section at the Brentwood International Chess Congress but it coincides with the FIDE Senior Team and so the viability would be tricky. I will have senior prizes though and go along that line. When this tournament has run a while maybe look at organising a Senior+Junior running in parallel event some other time in the year and hope the demand is there.

Previously posted on the SCCU forum.
Concerning Senior chess. Germany probably has more Senior chess activity than the rest of the world put together. Despite what Ken says, England in fact is one of the most active countries in supporting Senior chess. Compare us with the US for example. They could not even raise a team when we held the first (and so far only) World Senior Team championship in 2004 in the Isle of Man. This despite the fact that the organisers were willing to pay most of the expenses for such a team.
Personally I don't think a diet of chess played solely in one minority group is particularly healthy. Thus the events with which we are associated: European Senior team; European Senior Individual; World Senior Individual; British Senior; Exmouth and English Senior are adequate when placed together with such events as the 4NCL, Hastings, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, etc. The ECF is at its best when involved in international chess. Many events in England offer lower entry fees for Seniors. This is of doubtful legality, but if you do not tell anybody, I won't.
I believe the reason the very odd dates for the English Senior Championship was because that was the only time Neil Graham could get the venue.
In fact I am responsible for Senior chess in England in all but the official title. Sadly I have never been offered a budget, although there is some financial assistance with our participating in the European Senior team Championship. So far 34 players have entered the British Senior Championship in Great Yarmouth. that compares favourably with the 6 who took part towards the end of the time I was running the whole congress. The ECF should be well aware of the value of senior chess. Much of its capital comes from a few individuals who have left large bequests to the federation.
I will not be seeking to hold separate senior events at congresses like Hastings and Paignton. If Ken, or anybody else, wishes to run events himself, then I will be delighted to offer assistance and technical help.
Stewart Reuben

Dear All

This is slightly off the point but very relevant

Fixture clashes are a fact of life in all sports but it does seem more acute in chess

The clash that stands out for me occurred 6th June 2005 and was discussed at Management Board level but I do not know if anything was resolved i.e.

National Schools Championships u18- Richard Haddrell
National Schools Championships u18- Tony Corfe (Yes, two events with the same name?)
National Girls Team Championships - Claire Summerscale
County Championships Final - Cyril Johnson

These are all ECF sanctioned events with national ramifications and they were all trying to secure players from each other with the obvious loss of quality

The reasons for this clash are the usual ones-

Venue/Accommodation
School holidays
School Exams

Weekend tournaments have the additional complication in that the personnel preference and willingness of the organiser is paramount.

On the face of it, it may seem impossible to bring all these clashes under control but I suggest we could at least make a start by embracing and encouraging established professional organisers to arrange our backbone national competitions allowing them to take interest and to grow in relation to their success.

Should not the ECF invite Spectrum, CCF, Richmond Chess Club, 4NCL, etc or individuals like Adam Raoof, Tony Corfe, Mike Basman and Claire Summerscale etc to form their own committee to organise The Seniors selection tournament, National County Championships, National Girls Championships, National Junior Squad Championships, UK Chess Challenge and National Schools Championships u18.

If this could be achieved it could be followed up initially with polite approaches to the organisers of our flagship weekend tournaments like Blackpool, Scarborough, Hereford and Manchester, to bring their dates into line.

I draw to your attention my previous entries regarding, The British Championships, Junior Selection and its relevant poll

Alan Ruffle