British Chess Championships 2010

[Adam Raoof]

For someone to have a chance of being awarded an ECF title, they have to be supervised by an appropriate person with experience and their own ECF title. This may rule out some tournaments.

All the problems Alex mentions also happen in the Elite events

[Alex McFarlane]

Arbiter training happened at the British last year and is happening again this year. Indeed Adam you worked with the successful candidate at the London Classic.

I honestly believe that anyone who wants to progress as an arbiter should assist at the British, Hastings or even the Scottish. This is an excellent way to brush up your pairing skills with complicated situations which you seldom have time to fully examine at weekend events. Jack Rudd will verify that. At Hastings we even had a Mexican arbiter who was astounded to discover the Swiss Master draw was less satisfactory than the manual one. For the first time in his life he queried a computer pairing. (As an aside, at a recent Edinburgh event Swiss Master floated two players further than necessary rather than change the downfloat in the score group above. I have passed this on to Guert Gijssen for comment.)

Whilst I agree that trainee arbiters should do weekenders and rapidplays there are things which crop up at large events because of the large number of games that you may seldom, if ever, encounter elsewhere.
a-h listed above do occur (though we would move the player in g!!). In addition I have had flooded boards, fire alarms, accusations of advice, photographers with flash, failed clocks (electronic), results not handed in, etc, etc.

Getting experience of time scrambles is getting more difficult. This was one area at which the British excelled but is no longer possible with the time control now in place. However there are plenty of junior games and the Seniors where you could get some experience.

[Sean Hewitt]

It is far better to volunteer to help out at a community hall-type Congress, rather than elite, FIDE-rated stuff. All sorts of things can go wrong in your average congress:
a) Players stop recording their moves with half an hour on their clock just because their opponent has less than five minutes
b) Players write in all sorts of languages and notations that they're not strictly allowed to use, but you allow anyway so as not to cause a fuss
c) Players try claiming a draw in the last 2 minutes regardless of what's going on in the game
d) Players complain about the pairings ("Why do I always get four blacks, this arbiter is a *#~@!"), even if they're correct and it's just bad luck
e) Players keep their mobile phones on (despite being warned), and if one inevitably goes off, they look aghast when the arbiter begrudgingly goes to have a conversation with them (knowing the argument that's about to ensue)
f) Players don't tell you they're withdrawing (or if they've suddenly opted to take a bye in round 3), so you leave them paired, which messes up the pairings when you phone them to discover they're not coming
g) The curtains never draw quite as well as you want them to, meaning the sun often shines right in someone's eye
h) Players move the clock because "black chooses where the clock goes", meaning you sometimes can't see the clocks

Usually about five of those happen in every weekender/rapidplay. I bet none of these happen in e2e4 events!

Oh the naivety of youth!!

We're not an elite event ; whilst we may run FIDE rated sections we also run Majors and Minors too you know, and our events are open to players of all strengths.

We've had all of your examples except h I think. With respect to d, have you never heard of Alexander Cherniaev?!

And I can add

i) Player thinks he should be bought a curry. But that's a whole new topic

[Ben Purton]

That was very funny, it was so obviously going to happen when you saw the draw as he is famous for it.

Seans a more patient man than most, Id have kicked him out the building if he was that rude to me.

Ben

[David Gilbert]

No new GMs, but sixty new entries today! Numbers have now reached 680 with 12 days still to go. Final figures should be close to, or better than, the 742 who played at Liverpool in 2008 and the 768 at Swansea in 2006. If you love playing chess and haven’t entered yet – what is there to think about!? Come down to Canterbury and play, and enjoy, it’s going to be fantastic.

In passing, let’s offer congratulations to whoever is uploading the revised entry lists and for the frequency of those updates, and for adding FIDE and ECF ratings. In previous years updates have been weekly at best, and for many events names were published in alphabetical order without grading details. So well done – whoever you are – its quality improvement!

[Andrew Farthing]

If you love playing chess and haven’t entered yet – what is there to think about!? Come down to Canterbury and play, and enjoy, it’s going to be fantastic.

And if it's on the way, why not warm up at the Worcestershire Open congress on 24-25 July? We have a bigger and better venue than last year and a much increased prize fund in each of the three sections. The timetable is designed to accommodate anyone travelling on to Canterbury, with the possibility of a Round 5 bye as well if requested in advance of the event.

Details available at http://home.clara.net/collett/worcs/worcsch.htm.

Message courtesy of the Department of Shameless Plugs, Worcester Branch

[Adam Raoof]

No new GMs, but sixty new entries today! Numbers have now reached 680 with 12 days still to go. Final figures should be close to, or better than, the 742 who played at Liverpool in 2008 and the 768 at Swansea in 2006. If you love playing chess and haven’t entered yet – what is there to think about!? Come down to Canterbury and play, and enjoy, it’s going to be fantastic.

In passing, let’s offer congratulations to whoever is uploading the revised entry lists and for the frequency of those updates, and for adding FIDE and ECF ratings. In previous years updates have been weekly at best, and for many events names were published in alphabetical order without grading details. So well done – whoever you are – its quality improvement!

David, I am probably not the first person to note that your enthusiasm and good humour is welcome, and quite infectious!

You have to thank Roger Edwards, Neville Belinfante and the webmaster Stephen Connor for the excellent service in receiving, processing and updating the entries online. I think the entry is going to be very respectable, and I hope that some of that is down to the work we have put into publicising the event on Facebook, Twitter and the very usable website.

[Jonathan Rogers]

As a matter of curiosity, are the five day morning/afternoon events eligible for FIDE rating? (Perhaps not, because the time limit might be too fast even for FIDE?)

[Alex Holowczak]

As a matter of curiosity, are the five day morning/afternoon events eligible for FIDE rating? (Perhaps not, because the time limit might be too fast even for FIDE?)

There's no reason why not. The time limit is acceptable for FIDE. They use the same time limit in the mornings as the Under 16s - which are FIDE-rated. The afternoon is a 7-hour session! Members of the ECF are playing in it (obviously, because you have to be to play in them). So the only thing probably stopping them is the £2.50-a-head rating cost.

[Sean Hewitt]

As a matter of curiosity, are the five day morning/afternoon events eligible for FIDE rating? (Perhaps not, because the time limit might be too fast even for FIDE?)

There's no reason why not. The time limit is acceptable for FIDE. They use the same time limit in the mornings as the Under 16s - which are FIDE-rated. The afternoon is a 7-hour session! Members of the ECF are playing in it (obviously, because you have to be to play in them). So the only thing probably stopping them is the £2.50-a-head rating cost.

It actually costs €1 per player to FIDE rate an event.

[Alex Holowczak]

As a matter of curiosity, are the five day morning/afternoon events eligible for FIDE rating? (Perhaps not, because the time limit might be too fast even for FIDE?)

There's no reason why not. The time limit is acceptable for FIDE. They use the same time limit in the mornings as the Under 16s - which are FIDE-rated. The afternoon is a 7-hour session! Members of the ECF are playing in it (obviously, because you have to be to play in them). So the only thing probably stopping them is the £2.50-a-head rating cost.

It actually costs €1 per player to FIDE rate an event.

Then where have I heard figures of £2 or £2.50 from?

[Joey Stewart]

And why are fide rated events so much more expensive then ecf rated ones when the grading price is comparable?

[Alex Holowczak]

And why are fide rated events so much more expensive then ecf rated ones when the grading price is comparable?

Because FIDE-rated events generally need to adhere to stricter guidelines on space. Whereas you might cram 120 people into a school hall, you can't do that with FIDE; there are guidelines on the number of feet available for each board...

Also, to encourage the stronger players to play, I suppose more money needs to change hands. So the entry fees are higher, and the prizes are higher too.

[Sean Hewitt]

And why are fide rated events so much more expensive then ecf rated ones when the grading price is comparable?

Depends on the FIDE rated event.

For a norm event you need a certain number of titled and foreign players. That usually means paying such players to play, and that has to be funded.

And you often need a bigger prize fund to attract players. So again, that has to be funded.

Alex is right as well. You often need to have more space per player. With less players and the same size room you need to charge more per player to cover costs.

It all mounts up.

[Joey Stewart]

Yeah, I guess that all comes into consideration.
Do you think that there will come a stage when FIDE tournaments in the UK will be on a smaller scale without the need for masters to provide norm opportunities?