Richmond Rapidplay

[John Upham]

I've read on Facebook about the last minute cancellation of this weekends Richmond Rapidplay event.

Do we know what happened?

[Roger de Coverly]

I've read on Facebook about the last minute cancellation of this weekends Richmond Rapidplay event.

Do we know what happened?

With county matches taking place, perhaps there weren't enough entries.

Next weekend's Letchworth rapidplay has also been called off, according to their email, because they only had five entries. Whilst last year, the end May Bank Holiday had relatively few events, the coming weekend sees the return of the Cotswolds event in Cheltenham amongst others.

[Richard James]

Loz Cooper, who had driven down from Stafford to help at the event, received a phone call from Sabrina Chevannes at 9:45, 45 minutes before the scheduled start, advising him that the tournament was cancelled due to 'an emergency'. He put a notice on the door and stayed until 10:30 to tell everyone it was off. I stayed another 15 minutes to see if anyone else turned up. There only seemed to be 30 or so potential players there.

I have heard nothing from Sabrina as to the nature of the emergency.

[Matthew Turner]

I also notice that another of Sabrina's events, the National Girls' Festival has been postponed. That is a great shame because it appeared to be a rather interesting and innovative idea.

[Sean Hewitt]

Next weekend's Letchworth rapidplay has also been called off, according to their email, because they only had five entries. Whilst last year, the end May Bank Holiday had relatively few events, the coming weekend sees the return of the Cotswolds event in Cheltenham amongst others.

Don't forget, there wasn't an end of May bank holiday last year which is bound to have messed some things up.

[Roger de Coverly]

Don't forget, there wasn't an end of May bank holiday last year which is bound to have messed some things up.

Not at the end of May, but there were two Bank Holidays on the fourth and fifth of June. There seemed a distinct dearth of events, with Ilford having ceased and the Cotswolds not running.

It's a similar problem to the March and April Congresses. You are either an explicit Easter Congress or not and dates have to be changed each year to fit.

The Letchworth 2012 event isn't in the calendar archive, so I don't know when they ran it, but the 2011 event was on the Bank Holiday weekend.

It's one of those unanswered questions as to why players don't enter Congresses. The recently cancelled Trafford Park Congress suggests new events may struggle, but the Bournemouth Grand Congress of 2012 attracted more than enough players for viability. Equally whilst no-one entered Letchworth, the St Albans Congress in the south of the same county attracted its normal numbers.

Reports on the cancellation of the Richmond rapidplay talk of only thirty players showing up. But perhaps some got advance warning?

[Jonathan Bryant]

It's one of those unanswered questions as to why players don't enter Congresses.

I was thinking about playing in the Richmond Rapidplay this weekend, but some basic details were hard to find on the website -what time did the first round start?; what time did the last round start? - so in the end I decided not to bother and entered Adam Raoof's Hampstead instead (I didn't play in that either, as it turned out, but that's another story).

Perhaps it's just as well the website was a bit rubbish. It saved me from being one of the 30 who made a pointless journey.

[Richard James]

I suspect the low number of entries was not the reason for cancellation. She was telling people on Saturday that it was on and the last two events both ran with very low numbers, partly, in the case of January, because of the weather conditions, but mainly because she wasn't publicising them.

She replied to a disappointed player on Facebook that she didn't expect this emergency to come up at the last minute, but I've seen nothing further on Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else.

Perhaps it was a genuine emergency, perhaps not. Only Sabrina knows.

[Jonathan Bryant]

... the last two events both ran with very low numbers, partly, in the case of January, because of the weather conditions, but mainly because she wasn't publicising them.

I do find that rather odd, to say the least. Still, as I forgot to say in my rather hasty post earlier today, you very kindly supplied me the information I was looking for - or at least told me where I could find it.

What people who don't have you as a facebook friend were supposed to do, I don't know.

[Richard James]

What people who don't have you as a facebook friend were supposed to do, I don't know.

Thanks, Jonathan. More Facebook Friends are always welcome.

[LawrenceCooper]

I also notice that another of Sabrina's events, the National Girls' Festival has been postponed. That is a great shame because it appeared to be a rather interesting and innovative idea.

The National Girls advertised on the ECF calendar that was subsequently cancelled was under the directorship of Phil Ehr and not Sabrina's version which had run in previous years.

[Roger de Coverly]

Cancellation of events at short notice causes reputation damage. It might not matter so much for a one-day tournament, but if you had booked hotel and travel in advance in anticipation of an event, it could be difficult to cancel the bookings.

Publishing entries in advance on a website is also double-edged. If there are enough entries, it establishes that the event will take place and broadly speaking who is playing. On the other hand, a shortfall of entries can encourage the opposite response.

[Matthew Turner]

The ECF website has this to say about the National Girls' Championships

"The English Chess Federation regrets that due to a lack of interest, the Girls’ Chess Festival & Championships 2013 has been temporarily postponed – the new date is still to be confirmed. All parties will be contacted regarding refunds and compensation. You can contact the ECF Office at [email protected] for some clarification, but a detailed email will follow shortly."

That seems to raise a few questions. Lots of chess events have low entries with more than two weeks to go so it is quite early to cancel. With two weeks notice will people really be after compensation? I wonder what will be said in this detailed E-mail, surely it doesn't take long to say cancelled due to lack of interest.

[Mick Norris]

Dear all
Postponement of Girls Festival

I met with Ian Seddon (Bolton School), Mandy Hundle and Judith Mohammed (Bolton Control Team) to try and take a view regarding the Girls Festival of Chess. It was our collective opinion that it would not be advisable to continue with the event on the current date, given the number of entries (13). We identified a number of contributory issues that we believe lead to this situation:

• The low national turn out to Girls events
• The short lead in time to the adverts about the event
• The lack of a systematic approach to marketing
• The distance
We advise that the event is run next year but that it has an agreed date in the diary from September. Bolton remains on offer as a venue. We also feel that it would be preferable if it was simply a single day event, and that serious consideration should be given to placing it alongside a bigger event, giving it financial protection.

Costs
Bolton School have waived their charges in the light of the cancellation.
There are no costs in relation to people in involved in the organisation.
The money raised by MJC to sponsor this event is obviously not now available as it was linked to the use of the school site.
Holiday Inn have advised me that all the bookings made so far have not been through the agreed chess booking. They have been made on line at a discounted rate that has a no cancellation refund policy. If people had booked the rooms through the “chess booking” a refund would have been made.
However they are prepared to allow the booking to be moved to another date for the event. Parents should ring the hotel BEFORE 1st JUNE and advise that they want to move the booking to a date in next April/March. This date can then be amended when the date for the event is agreed. This only applies to change of date; because Holiday Inns are not a single company but effectively a series of franchises with separate accounts, they cannot move between different hotels.

Naturally the team above were very disappointed at having to agree with the ECF decision to postpone this event. The team remain keen to run it and believe that with the correct preparation this is possible.

MJC is Manchester Junior Chess

[Matthew Turner]

Mick,
Just for clarity who is the 'I' in "I met with Ian Seddon......"