English Chess Forum

Although I won't be hard coding an upper bound for the number of boards for any division of any League up and down the country I was nonetheless curious to sound this out?

I'll start the ball rolling with :

Chiltern League: u-180 : 20, u-125 : 16
Surrey Border League : Div1 1-4 : 5 , 5-7 : 4
Berkshire League : 6 regardless of division (1-3)

I'm guessing that no league has more than 20 boards.....???

Thanks for the feedback.

In the Liverpool & District CL, we have:

Div 1 = 8
Div 2 = 7
Div 3 = 6
Div 4 = 6
Div 5 = 5
Cups = 6

With six teams in all, but with two in both Div 1 & Div 2, my club sometimes has to fill 30 boards on the same night. Various attempts are made each year to reduce the number of boards, or to standardise at 6. But the Div 1 clubs regard 8 boards as a good test for a match between clubs so not much changes. From time to time, Atticus play Wallasey in a match over 20 boards. And efforts are in hand to play a 16-board match between Atticus and the Rest of the League. Atticus would struggle to win that, being out-graded 150 v 165 by the time we reach board 16.

Why the difference in the number of boards by division? Look no further than rolling decision-making from decades of AGMs

David
Atticus CC

Manchester - 7
Central Lancs and East Lancs - 5
Bolton - 6
Bury&Rochdale - 4

Essex League Divs 1 and 2 - 8 boards
Essex League Divs 3 and 4 - 6 boards
North Essex League Div 1 - 5 boards
North Essex League Divs 2 and 3 - 4 boards
Southend & DIstrict League - 6 boards
London League DIv 1 - 12 boards
London League DIvs 2 and 3 - 10 boards
London League Div 4 - 8 boards
London League Minor Div - 4 boards
North Circular League DIv 1 - 6 boards
North CIrcular League Div 2 - 5 boards

There definitely seems to be a pattern in lower divisions having a smaller number of boards.

Oxfordshire League - 6

Notts League
Divisions 1-4: 5 boards
Division 5: 4 boards

Derby & District League
All divisions: 4 boards

Leicestershire League

Divs 1-3 5 boards
Divs 4&5 4 boards

Coventry League

Div 1 5 boards
Divs 2&3 4 boards

Surrey League: 10 (Alexander Cup, knockout), 8 in divs 1 and 2 of the main league, 7 in div 3 of main league, 6 in divs 4 and 5 of main league and Lauder Trophy (knockout), 4 in two rapidplay leagues and 4 in (newly proposed) div 6.

Kent League
Divisions 1 - 5: 6
Divisions 6 - 7: 4

Richard Haddrell

Civil Service League
Div 1: 8
Divs 2 & 3: 6

London Commercial League
Div 1: 8 in League, 6 in Cup (it's open to Div 2 teams)
Div 2: 6

The Civil Service League has about 200 active players. This figure is stable, although it was much higher about 25 years ago. Although there is a case for going down from 8 to 6 boards, teams in Division 1 prefer the higher number.

Hillingdon Borough Chess League

Divisions 1, 2, 3 and all Cup competitions - all 5 boards

Huddersfield League - 6
Calderdale League - 5
Yorkshire League - 8

I am asking all the clubs to look in their cupboards - do you need to know about sets and clocks as well.

Sorry couldn't resist it - sometimes this forum seems a bit too serious to me, although there are plenty of serious issues about.

Is the below comment relevant to the previous post?

"But where's the chess? I back Jack on this - otherwise we all finish putting anything we find funny on this site - don't we. Then we get links to all sorts of irrelevant sites - which happens on a lot of similar forums."

Couldn't resist...

Mid-Sussex - Divs 1-4 of the league play over 5 boards, the KO Cup is played over 6. Division 1 of the league used to play over 6 boards until a few years ago.