English Chess Forum

Having noted more player registrations by various Captains for the Surrey Border League I was made to ponder :

Which Leagues (apart from the London League and 4NCL) have a high number of titled players registered?

The Surrey Border League has :

1 FIDE World Champion
9 International Grandmasters
1 Woman Grandmaster
7 International Masters
4 FIDE Masters
3 Woman FIDE Masters

which is a total of 25 FIDE titled players plus various ECF titles

Can your league beat that?

John Upham wrote:Having noted more player registrations by various Captains for the Surrey Border League I was made to ponder :

Which Leagues (apart from the London League and 4NCL) have a high number of titled players registered?

The Surrey Border League has :

1 FIDE World Champion
9 International Grandmasters
1 Woman Grandmaster
7 International Masters
4 FIDE Masters
3 Woman FIDE Masters

which is a total of 25 FIDE titled players plus various ECF titles

Can your league beat that?

Anand looking for some practise against English players prior to the London Classic, is he? But has he paid his membership???

ps. couldn't he get into a bit of trouble in India being associated with a team called the Drunken Knights...?

Out of curiosity, does anyone know the totals for the London League and 4NCL?

I'm sure Alex H. has a few spare minutes to carry out this research.

Good luck trying to work it out from the LL web site!

John Upham wrote:Out of curiosity, does anyone know the totals for the London League and 4NCL?

I'm sure Alex H. has a few spare minutes to carry out this research.

Good luck trying to work it out from the LL web site!

Oh yeah, I've got plenty of time!

The Birmingham League has three titled players, Loz Cooper, Jana Bellin and David Anderton. Loz plays for West Bromwich. Incidentally, the second highest graded player in the League (a CM if he bothered to claim it) would be Ryszard Maciol. Jana and David play for Walsall Kipping. Robert Bellin may do on occasion, but I'm not sure. Last year, one player managed to beat Loz and Jana in consecutive weeks - he was black in both games!

Nick Thomas used to play, but stopped because he used to have lots of adjournments. Stephen Gordon played for South Birmingham when he was at Birmingham University a few years ago. Danny Gormally used to play for the same team when he lived in the area.

Given the size of Birmingham, I'd have hoped there'd be more titled players around here. Do your Leagues impose rules as to where the players who play for you can come from?

John Upham wrote:The Surrey Border League has :

1 FIDE World Champion
9 International Grandmasters
1 Woman Grandmaster
7 International Masters
4 FIDE Masters
3 Woman FIDE Masters

as well as 2 ICCF GMs, both obtained in pre-computer days, a couple of ICCF IMs, and two former junior world champions (both now GMs).

Alex Holowczak wrote: Do your Leagues impose rules as to where the players who play for you can come from?

I suspect that's unique to Birmingham and the mid-Sussex.

Alex Holowczak wrote: Do your Leagues impose rules as to where the players who play for you can come from?

Planet Earth is the probably the only restriction but even that filter has not stopped a handful playing.

Before this thread is hijacked on this topic, can we continue to gather data please?

There are more titled players in that area, they just dont play league chess.

Joey Stewart wrote:There are more titled players in that area, they just dont play league chess.

Which area Joey?

Around the midlands. I know of a couple of IM's who live in Warwickshire, and I expect there are masters elsewhere who have fallen under the radar.

My local league has a 194 as the strongest player in it, so i don't think we'll be competiting in terms of strength any time soon

Apologies for the double post

The average FIDE rating of the players in my local league is 2236.

A few years back (late 90's) Coulsdon fielded a team against Guildford with all 8 players about 200. I think nearly all of them were IM's or FM's. I recall us having an IM as a regular player on board 1 for our 2nd team. Add that to a sprinkling of title players at other clubs at the time and it must have been comparable to most.

Back in the 1990s, Warley Quinborne had Tony Miles as a reserve for its 1st team!