Are Opens a little too open?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Rumour has it that the Congress will get its FIDE results sent in within 24 hours of the last round, in order to ensure inclusion for the next list.

The Congress Director made an announcement about that before round 5, confirming what you've said, though whether the results got in or not, I don't know. There were quite a lot of unrated players looking to complete part ratings, and lots of printouts posted and being consulted about that.

Unless my opponents did well against other FIDE-rated players, I'm afraid I didn't do too much to contribute to that, as I played three unrated players and beat them all. My other three games were against FIDE-rated players and I scored 1/3 there, so I lost 7.65 FIDE rating points. So I performed above my ECF grading, but below my FIDE rating. I think I begin to see now why Jonathan Rogers made a point in another thread (about the 4NCL) about his rated players seeking rated players rather than unrated players.

In an event like this, is a 50% split between rated and unrated games reasonable? As far as I can tell, in the FIDE Major, the split was 13:16 between rated and unrated players (in the Open it was 22:2, which is to be expected). Hopefully some of those unrated players in the FIDE major had part ratings and achieved a full rating, or achieved a part rating, but I presume there is a certain ratio of rated:unrated beyond which it gets difficult to achieve part ratings?

[Thomas Rendle]

Possibly the organisers might want to mention the park in publicity materials if they don't already? Not all chess players spend their lunch breaks analysing over a board!

There was a pub across the road - a number of the players chose to spend the break between rounds there!

[LozCooper]

Anyone know any scores from Southend?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Possibly the organisers might want to mention the park in publicity materials if they don't already? Not all chess players spend their lunch breaks analysing over a board!

There was a pub across the road - a number of the players chose to spend the break between rounds there!

Did it improve their afternoon play?

[Thomas Rendle]

In some (but not all!) cases. Still, with such glorious weather it would've been a shame to sit inside all day

[Ben Purton]

In some (but not all!) cases. Still, with such glorious weather it would've been a shame to sit inside all day

Tom Someone has hacked in to your account?

[Sean Hewitt]

Rumour has it that the Congress will get its FIDE results sent in within 24 hours of the last round, in order to ensure inclusion for the next list.

The Congress Director made an announcement about that before round 5, confirming what you've said, though whether the results got in or not, I don't know. There were quite a lot of unrated players looking to complete part ratings, and lots of printouts posted and being consulted about that.

According to the FIDE website http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_list ... ountry=ENG the results of Surrey and Southend have not been received. The deadline for inclusion in a list is seven days before the end of the month so I think that is 24th April. In which case Surrey and Southend will be rated in July. Coulsdon was received within the 7 day period so will be rated in May.

[David Sedgwick]

Rumour has it that the Congress will get its FIDE results sent in within 24 hours of the last round, in order to ensure inclusion for the next list.

The Congress Director made an announcement about that before round 5, confirming what you've said, though whether the results got in or not, I don't know. There were quite a lot of unrated players looking to complete part ratings, and lots of printouts posted and being consulted about that.

According to the FIDE website http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_list ... ountry=ENG the results of Surrey and Southend have not been received. The deadline for inclusion in a list is seven days before the end of the month so I think that is 24th April. In which case Surrey and Southend will be rated in July. Coulsdon was received within the 7 day period so will be rated in May.

I was told at the Surrey Congress was that the results would be included in the May list if they were submitted today (Monday). I don't know for certain that they will be so submitted, nor that FIDE will accept them. However, I've noticed on previous occasions that FIDE have sometimes accepted results submitted only 5 or 6 days before the end of the relevant month.

We'll just have to see what actually happens.

The Coulsdon event was a two-day one, so it finished a day earlier.

[Sean Hewitt]

I was told at the Surrey Congress was that the results would be included in the May list if they were submitted today (Monday). I don't know for certain that they will be so submitted, nor that FIDE will accept them. However, I've noticed on previous occasions that FIDE have sometimes accepted results submitted only 5 or 6 days before the end of the relevant month.

I'm sure that's right. Fingers crossed!

[IM Jack Rudd]

There was once a British Championship with two sets of three siblings: in addition to the Ledger brothers already mentioned, there were also three Buckley siblings playing. (This was the tournament where Melanie got her second WIM norm and won the British women's championship.)

[David Haydon]

hi all,

I can confirm some results about the southend congress.

There was a four way tie for first, all with 5.5/6 - Me, Richard Bates, Goerge O'Toole and Richard Pert. with george O'toole becoming the new Essex champion on progressive score.

David.

[Susan Lalic]

One thing that I enjoyed very much (along with the excellent food and organisation), was having the chance to walk around Nonsuch Park (I think it is also called Cheam Park) between rounds. On the Sunday especially, after the rain on the Saturday, the park was beautiful in the glorious sunshine we had. There is even some local history to read about and a mansion to visit. Didn't have time to actually go in there, but bought some books at a secondhand book stall that runs there (2nd and 4th Sundays, so it might not be there on the date of future congresses).

Christopher - you beat me to it!
I was going to say I was pleased to see that Simon and Alexandra had found the mansions, judging by the ice-cream one of them was enjoying before he clinched victory in the last round. However, after talking to several people today I realised most people had no idea that there was a beautiful park next door. Henry VIII chose the site to build "Nonsuch" Palace like it, hence its name.
After a few years of experience at the venue, I think the organisers have a perfect format to make use of the facilities and we look forward to a bumper entry next year. The prizes are fantastic too, with £500 1st prize (and more than £2000 up for grabs).
Hard to believe it was snowing at the Easter Surrey Congress two years ago.
146 juniors playing today and 46 in the rapidplay.

[benedgell]

Anyone know the Exmouth results?

[IM Jack Rudd]

Anyone know the Exmouth results?

1st Steve Berry 6
2nd= Dominic Mackle, Matthew Turner 5

GP #1 Patryk Krzyzanowski 4
GP #2 David Littlejohns, D.Stephenson 3½

British Championship qualifier: Patryk Krzyzanowski

[Roger de Coverly]

Anyone know the Exmouth results?

The Keverel site was covering the tournament with daily reports

http://www.keverelchess.com/2011/04/

4-5 in the Championship were Jack himself and Andy Smith on 4.5/7