English Chess Forum

And finally where is Graeme Buckley? The man is a legend in the London League. Playing for champions Wood Green, he’s unbeaten in his last 32 games going back to March 2007 when he was toppled by Mark Lyell. London to Canterbury can’t be that far? Didn’t Geoffrey Chaucer walk it – and didn’t he write a chess metaphor in one of his poems? Maybe!

I am here at [email protected] if anyone wants to talk about this! If anyone is out there from the Nationwide, then I might be a better bet than your previous!

Ah, I hadn't realised that Yang-Fan had gained so many points; in that case he would be the next obvious choice after David. It is still a very long drop and I guess that he might be in the lower half of the list. But he still has a number of years left to play the event, if he continues to be selected.

Postscript - hi Graeme. Did you ever play in the World Junior?

Van Gogh walked from Margate to Richmond, took 2 days I think.

I agree with Alan and Ernie in that Adams funding if external is totally his business and lets face it from what i am reading if he did not have that he may not be playing at the British . I think he may not be the only GM being funded externally from what i hear there may be 2 others . We may be gazing into the future with sponsor a player ? it might only appeal to chess enthusiasts of course but if it secures a few GM`s playing then i am in favour of it. I think Ernie points out that in tough financial times it could be a lot worse .

The programme for this year's championship and the parking permit is now available from the congress website. There are two versions of the programme. The longer version contains all the usual stuff that you would expect, the shorter 8 page programme contains only the important info that you might want to reference during the event.

Can I thank those who have supplied info on first names of former champions. As you can see considerable progress has been made here but a few names are still missing. Any help in this area would be appreciated.

Great job Alex. It's going to be great!

Has there ever been a British Championship where there have been three Poles in the field?

There used to be a five year residential qualification until a few years ago. David Welch was instrumental in reducing that to one. Michael Adams believes (or used to) that the event should be restricted to players who are registered for a British Isles Federation. Thus Joe Gallagher, Tony Kosten would not be eligible.

Stewart Reuben

So you don't have to be British then?

Every day is a school day!

Gareth Harley-Yeo wrote:So you don't have to be British then?

Every day is a school day!

It is difficult to answer that question because it relies on a somewhat dubious assumption: that "British" is a binary quality, one which applies to you or does not. Plenty of people are British under some definitions and not British under others.

Here's a crazy idea... What would happen if the British Championship was open to all competitors, regardless of country, but the criteria for those deemed 'non' British have to have a minimum rating/FIDE title to compete. Have a seperate prize pool, or re-jig the one that exists so there are prizes specifically for the British winners. Perhaps this would help significantly increase norm opportunities for the Brits. Would something like this be possible? Would it be desirable? Are there any other national competitions that operate in this fashion?

Ljubica >Here's a crazy idea... What would happen if the British Championship was open to all competitors<

There is nothing crazy about that, it is just different. The German's often have theirs as an open championship. The US have both an open and a closed usually annually.
Currently a player has to qualify for the British either from an event or by their rating or grade. that would not need to change for foreigners.
Commonwealth players were allowed to compete until 2003, but the Indians were too strong and there was an abreaction to this 100 year old tradition. It divided into two separate problems. The prize money was being captured by the Indians in the British Championships. The titles were being captured by the Indians in the junior championships. They are of greater commercial value to the Indians than to the British. Losing the Indians lost the event 100 players, many of them paying entry fees.
It would have no significant effect on increasing norm possibilities for British competitors. There is an adequate supply of title holders in the event, even this year. Being the national championship there is no problem over meeting an adequate number of non-English opponents.
Without substantial sponsorship few foreign non-Indian paying customers would be attracted to the event. With sponsorship we would want the money to go to the home-grown players.

Stewart Reuben

It's completely crazy that you only have to have a 'one year residency' to play in the British Championship.

Can't imagine the Chinese doing that, can you? And why's that, because they pretty much solely want to promote CHINESE chess. The English Chess Federation should be pretty much solely aiming to promote English chess too. And that means giving places in England teams to people who have paid their membership fees, were born and spent their life playing in England, not someone who's been here for a year or two whose rating is a bit higher.

On the other hand, the one-year residency rule can capture a lot of overseas students. In the case of one of the Poles, Ryszard Maciol, who goes to my own University, he was particularly interested because he saw it as prestigious. He qualified "by accident", from one of Sean's events. (The Students' Guild paying his entry fee did nothing to dampen this enthusiasm!)

So, they can be considered "British", and they're prepared to pay the £200 entry fee. They're strong enough to add value to the competition. I say let them play.

Alex Holowczak wrote:On the other hand, the one-year residency rule can capture a lot of overseas students. In the case of one of the Poles, Ryszard Maciol, who goes to my own University, he was particularly interested because he saw it as prestigious. He qualified "by accident", from one of Sean's events. (The Students' Guild paying his entry fee did nothing to dampen this enthusiasm!)

So, they can be considered "British", and they're prepared to pay the £200 entry fee. They're strong enough to add value to the competition. I say let them play.

It's a matter of definition and of opinion, but I'm not convinced that an overseas student should be regarded as resident in this country.

Stewart Reuben wrote:There used to be a five year residential qualification until a few years ago. David Welch was instrumental in reducing that to one.

The reduction to one year was to bring the requirement into line with the then FIDE Regulations. From the current Regulations - see the thread at http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1869 - one can infer that the standard FIDE requirement is now two years. I think it would be desirable for the British Isles Coordinating Committee to look at this again.

For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not speaking for any member of the BICC. My views are entirely personal.