English Chess Forum

The government are proposing to test their emergency warning system on 23rd April by sending an alarm to mobile phones.
https://www.gov.uk/alerts

If the phone is switched off completely, it will remain silent.

Or at least that's what it says.
https://www.gov.uk/alerts/how-alerts-work

You will not receive alerts if your device is:

turned off or in airplane mode
connected to a 2G or 3G network
wifi only
not compatible

Emergency alerts work on:

iPhones running iOS 14.5 or later
Android phones and tablets running Android 11 or later

If you have an earlier version of Android, you may still be able to receive alerts. To check, search your device settings for ‘emergency alerts’.

So it's a warning to all players in the several Congresses taking place that weekend.

It is ( for now ) possible to disable these intrusions through the phone settings.

This could provide an interesting diversion to the Mike Basman Memorial tournament!

If every phone went off simultaneously during a tournament I'm pretty sure the organisers would have to let it slide otherwise there would be no way of knowing whose was whose, everyone would be claiming it was their opponents but not their own and it would be absolute pandemonium.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 30, 2023 10:20 am

This could provide an interesting diversion to the Mike Basman Memorial tournament!

Yes, it had occurred to me that Mike, with his intense dislike of state controls, would be the first to oppose this development.

I received one of these alerts, in German, while playing in Bad Wörishofen earlier this month. There was a follow-up alert a few seconds later in English, explaining it had been a test.

My previous experience of this was in Poiana Brașov last year, when I received real alerts - not test ones - about bear(s) being spotted in the street where I was staying. I had to turn my phone off at night to stop myself being wakened in the early hours by the loud claxon-sound of the alerts.

Tim Spanton wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 30, 2023 11:22 am

My previous experience of this was in Poiana Brașov last year, when I received real alerts - not test ones - about bear(s) being spotted in the street where I was staying.

By coincidence I was there also and managed to snap this image of the bears (the one on the right is called Geoff):

In what sense is this meant to be important?

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 30, 2023 12:28 pm

In what sense is this meant to be important?

The sixth

I'd never heard of this. If you had delayed posting it for two days I would have been very confident it wasn't true.

Not sure I get it. Sounds very much like a first-world problem of no real significance.

It may be of interest to some who intend to play competitive chess on that day. If you don't, no biggie.

Hats off to Roger for posting this.
Please give a thought to those who feel the need for a concealed phone
I've no expertise in identifying those who might be suffering or causing such oppression, but let's stand up to controlling bullies in all their manifestations. Don't be a bystander.
.
End of rant.
Many of the clubs that I loved have a vibrant anti-bullying environment.
Who knows, I might pop along again one day.

An abomination on St Georges Day (and Tony Miles birthday).