British Championship 2014 Schedule

[JustinHorton]

Newcastle
Great Yarmouth

Of course the drving times are not necessarily to be taken seriously and may be calculated to Aberystwyth's advantage. But still, you see the point. Wales is a small country and none of it is actually very far away if we're making comparison to the extremities of England, not all of which (as anybody acquainted with, say, East Anglia will know) is accessible purely by motorway. And as for mountain roads - I live near the Pyrenees. I drove across them to get here. I have some idea what a mountain road is.

[JustinHorton]

And now to stroll down the hill from Penparcau to the seafront, and then walk up the hill to the University. Lovely day it is.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

And as for mountain roads - I live near the Pyrenees. I drove across them to get here. I have some idea what a mountain road is.

What, those narrow ones that they send coaches down as well? I've been in cars driven over Pyrenees mountain roads for most of my childhood holidays and the scariest thing is when you reach a hairpin bend at the same time as a coach coming the other way... (to be fair, the roads are in better condition now and wider then than they were when my parents drove on them in the 1960s and 1970s). A game I used to play was spotting the car wrecks. Though I suspect things were not as bad as those roads you hear about in South America.

[Roger de Coverly]

They are not in favour of the former.

I don't live in Nottingham.

My road timings would be 4hrs 4 mins to Aber and 3hrs 29 to Torquay according to the AA site.

By train it's much much worse because of connections. Using the rail hub of Reading rather than my local station, by train it would be 2hrs 15 to Torquay and 5hrs 15 to Aberytswyth. There are a lot of players in London and the South East for whom Torquay is readily accessible in a way that Aberystwyth isn't.

Trying Nottingham to Torquay by train it's 4hrs 47 and almost exactly the same to Aberystwyth.

By train Aberystwyth is three hours from Birmingham. You would be in Carlisle earlier.

[Roger de Coverly]

But still, you see the point. Wales is a small country and none of it is actually very far away if we're making comparison to the extremities of England, not all of which (as anybody acquainted with, say, East Anglia will know) is accessible purely by motorway.

Aberystwyth is as about as remote as you can get without being that far from Birmingham. As far as I can tell it's around another 100 miles from the nearest Motorway connection at Worcester, along, what appear for the most part to be single carriageway roads. The route planner is saying an hour and three quarter for me to Worcester which makes it two and quarter beyond. But get stuck behind a series of lorries or caravans and that could stretch to three hours or more given the distance.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Yeah, we know, Roger. This was (mostly) all brought up before. Let's not have this argument while the event is actually on.

[Dewi Jones]

Is there a website with the results? I've had a quick look and can't see any yet on the ECF website (aside from game of the day).
I would like them for grading purposes.

[Ian Kingston]

Is there a website with the results? I've had a quick look and can't see any yet on the ECF website (aside from game of the day).
I would like them for grading purposes.

http://britishchesschampionships.co.uk/ ... -pairings/

[Dewi Jones]

Thanks Ian.
Also, Justin and Christopher - don't you realise absolutley everybody lives in the South East of England?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I thought everyone lived in London...

[Jonathan Bryant]

And as for mountain roads - I live near the Pyrenees. I drove across them to get here. I have some idea what a mountain road is.

What, those narrow ones that they send coaches down as well? I've been in cars driven over Pyrenees mountain roads for most of my childhood holidays and the scariest thing is when you reach a hairpin bend at the same time as a coach coming the other way...

Try it with petrol tankers.

Mrs Justin once drove a small car containing her, JH, myself and Angus French from their home to a tournament in Benasque. I was astonished to see petrol tankers using the same route.


As for Torquay - I like it. Stayed there twice to play chess. Not easy to get to by train for me. I live in the south east. I had to stay an extra night because the tournament could end after the last train back to the capital.

I still went.


I would agree that the perception of remoteness might be an issue, however.


The reason I don’t go to the British, btw, has nothing to do with venue. It’s because there’s no tournament there that I find even remotely appealing.

[IM Jack Rudd]

The reason I don’t go to the British, btw, has nothing to do with venue. It’s because there’s no tournament there that I find even remotely appealing.

What sort of tournament would you like to see there?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The reason I don’t go to the British, btw, has nothing to do with venue. It’s because there’s no tournament there that I find even remotely appealing.

What sort of tournament would you like to see there?

Basque chess tournament, please!

I hadn't realised they played it at super-GM level as well:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/mind-games ... tem-starts

(Though I suspect you meant 'serious chess' formats).

[Jonathan Bryant]

The reason I don’t go to the British, btw, has nothing to do with venue. It’s because there’s no tournament there that I find even remotely appealing.

What sort of tournament would you like to see there?

A Major Open that is of a Major Open standard. i.e. not a tournament that would have me, even with my somewhat deflated elo-rating, as the 10th seed.

I suspect I’ll be eligible for the seniors before anything is done about the Major Open.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I suspect the Major Open is a lost cause; it suffers from the problem that nobody 2200+ is likely to play in it because they want to use precious tournament time on tournaments where title norms are a possibility, and this has a knock-on effect all the way down the line.