English Chess Forum

Why have they shared the title this year? I know the money usually gets shared in the case of a tie but there is usually a decider to find out who the actual champion is - there should be only one, we dont want to go down the boxing route where half the professional population is a "champion" of something or other.

Joey Stewart wrote:Why have they shared the title this year?

Logistics to enable Olympiad players to get to Tromso. That's why they started play at 9.30 am as well. There could have been a shared title last year as well, as Gawain was scheduled to catch the midnight train to get to Norway for the World Cup, thus there was a no playoffs rule in 2013 as well.

Why can't they play a 5-minute game to decide who the true British Champion is?

What's with this ,two people get the same score, they are joint winners? it would never happen in other sports.

If only Sepp Blatter was here to put some logic into the situation....

Most of david howells games seem to be 5 minute jobs - the first 10-15 moves always take ages and then it is a race to time control.

stevencarr wrote: What's with this ,two people get the same score, they are joint winners? it would never happen in other sports.

In the UK , chess is not legally a sport. The various possibilities for tie breaks in chess are all completely arbitrary. The usual practice is to have a play-off, as at Sheffield in 2011 and North Shields in 2012. The need for participants to be able to travel to Norway ruled it out this year, as it did last year as well. That was pre-announced around nine or ten months ago.

why are they travelling to norway in the first place?

Joey Stewart wrote:why are they travelling to norway in the first place?

Last year was the World Cup for which Gawain qualified. This year is the Olympiad, the biennial international team competition. The schedule was adjusted so that it was possible to both compete in the British and play for England (Wales/Scotland/Ireland) in the Olympiad in Tromso (Norway).

You could (as I noted on the other thread) always have a 4-6 game match later on in the year sometime. Funding probably rather hard of course.

Tell all this to Leonard Barden ... who if I remember correctly was equal first in the '54 championships and then drew a 10 game play-off. (with Alan Phillips)

Or there's cricket - drawn tests are common ... tied series

Or we could follow the USA where they seem unable to accept a drawn game in any sport ..

Eliminate draws in any game ... some sort of penalty shoot-out in chess ... taking alternate colours with random rook endings?!

Andy Stoker wrote:Tell all this to Leonard Barden ... who if I remember correctly was equal first in the '54 championships and then drew a 10 game play-off. (with Alan Phillips)

12 games, if I remember correctly.....

I have been thinking about organising a challenge match between Jonathan "The Hawk" Hawkins, who plays for my club, and David Howell.

When I was younger I have fond memories of visiting several British Championship playoffs with Hartston / Stean commentating and playing at the RAC club. Just as the British finished, I came out of a club (a potential venue for a match) in Kensington and passed Michael Stean on the street - and took it as a positive sign!

Now I have a venue and I'm looking for a sponsor. I will keep you posted!

Adam > I have been thinking about organising a challenge match between Jonathan "The Hawk" Hawkins, who plays for my club, and David Howell. <

The ECF is thinking of matches for both David and Gawain. Jonathan would regard his final GM norm as the most pressing urgency for him.
The idea is 6 game matches one round a day. Preferably against separate opponents of similar rating.
Such a project is very costly. But the ECF does have in its possession some money that could be used to partly fund this.
We were intending to discuss this in Tromso.
I too have a venue available, but that would not be good for spectators. It is likely Adam's is superior - unless they also sponsor the event.

Stewart Reuben wrote:Adam > I have been thinking about organising a challenge match between Jonathan "The Hawk" Hawkins, who plays for my club, and David Howell. <

The ECF is thinking of matches for both David and Gawain. Jonathan would regard his final GM norm as the most pressing urgency for him.
The idea is 6 game matches one round a day. Preferably against separate opponents of similar rating.
Such a project is very costly. But the ECF does have in its possession some money that could be used to partly fund this.
We were intending to discuss this in Tromso.
I too have a venue available, but that would not be good for spectators. It is likely Adam's is superior - unless they also sponsor the event.

It is an amazing venue.

The other thing is that I am organising a GM norm event just after the classic which might be perfect for norm seekers. Contact me soon after Tromso and we can do both.

Have a GM tournament in London after the LCC and players could stay through Christmas and then play in Hastings. Commonwealth Champion Deep Sengupta wants to play in Hastings.

Stewart Reuben wrote:Have a GM tournament in London after the LCC and players could stay through Christmas and then play in Hastings. Commonwealth Champion Deep Sengupta wants to play in Hastings.

I have the 15-23 December pencilled in for that reason. We could run a couple of APAs but I have a few strong expressions of interest already from IMs, so a limited swiss would be my preference.