English Chess Forum

The political situation in Scotland on Friday's Newsnight (BBC2) was described as "a constitutional game of chess".

Talk Sport. It's a chess match. Did you really watch The Queen's Gambit? I did. It was exceptional.

Man City 0-0 Chelsea. NOW 1-0. And a penalty miss. So much cheating IMO...

Kante with a great run, again. His vision is outstanding. Always feels like he's looking 10 moves ahead on the chess board....BBC sport....

Last night I was watching TV and came on a beer TV ad where two people were playing chess. Obviously this is to indicate they are intelligent. We may have had that pointed out before. Then I remembered an old story.
I was hired to provide the chess expertise for an ad where two people are smoking and playing blitz chess. The ad was to be shown in Germany, but shot in London because they had a special deep focus lens. I ensured the players played the Berlin Defence, made certain the board was round the right way and that they moved the pieces and pushed the clock correctly.
I never saw the completed ad. I mentioned this to Friedrich Friedel, who started chessbase. He looked at me and said, 'Oh, a friend said he had seen an ad in a cinema and, surprisingly, everything was correct'.

The story of Tani the American "Chess Master". From 105 to 2223 in three-and-a-half years! https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/opin ... e=Homepage

With Rachel Reeves promoted to Shadow Chancellor, are there any recent mentions of her previous life as a junior chess champion?

Roger, one occasionally sees mentions of it. But it is an old story.

She made it to the front cover of chess magazine. I assume her promotion is an attempt by Keir Starmer to slow down team Burnham

Is now the time to restart the campaign for the removal of VAT on hall rentals for chess tournaments?

Alex >Is now the time to restart the campaign for the removal of VAT on hall rentals for chess tournaments?<
Only if you enjoy banging your head against a brick wall. There is also the matter of VAT on entry and membership fees.
The EBU took the matter to court in Europe and lost. This is a saga that goes back to 1937.
Should Rachel Reeves become Chancellor, that might be a different matter.

Stewart,
The entry fees are a different issue. I accept that is unlikely to change. But for hall rentals chess is specifically listed along with about 4 other things as not being a legitimate reason for not charging VAT on a hall rental.
It is a significant factor for a local congress especially where that is the major expense. (I admit that when a venue treats chess as a sport and does not levy VAT I don't tell them.)

"(I admit that when a venue treats chess as a sport and does not levy VAT I don't tell them.)"

I think that defrauding the Revenue would be their problem, your silence would probably not constitute "conspiracy to defraud".

Actually, it probably does not matter if the venue thinks chess is a sport, as UK Law disagrees with them...

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Mon May 10, 2021 10:05 am

With Rachel Reeves promoted to Shadow Chancellor, are there any recent mentions of her previous life as a junior chess champion?

I just spotted this on the BBC website. I hope that it's okay to quote two sentences:

"The new shadow chancellor is Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves - a former Bank of England economist who has held a number of front bench roles since joining Parliament in 2010. As a teenager she was the under-14 UK girls chess champion"

David Sedgwick quoting the BBC wrote: ↑

Mon May 10, 2021 1:35 pm

As a teenager she was the under-14 UK girls chess champion"

I think it was established when she first became prominent that it is arguably more accurate to say " a under-14 ..." given that it was a title awarded by the now seemingly defunct BWCA rather than the ECF or BCF.