Use of Technology at the British Championships

[Carl Hibbard]

Andrew Zigmond has a good post it is just posted on the wrong forum.

[David Sedgwick]

I recognised the Tech man as the youngest member of the Arbiters' Team.

Young he may be, but in my experience he is a very good arbiter.

This weekend the FIDE Arbiters' Commission Councillors will be considering an official request from the Welsh Chess Union to reduce the lower the minimum age for appointment as a FIDE arbiter from 21 to 18.

Back on topic, we've tried to do live online commentary at the Hastings Congress, with some degree of success. However, we've always been cautious about promoting it, as we've known that we couldn't devote much in the way of resources to it and accordingly things might well go wrong.

[Carl Hibbard]

I no longer provide the free hosting and this may limit live coverage a little.

[Michael Flatt]

Back on topic, we've tried to do live online commentary at the Hastings Congress, with some degree of success. However, we've always been cautious about promoting it, as we've known that we couldn't devote much in the way of resources to it and accordingly things might well go wrong.

As long as you have the right people looking after the technical side, there's no real reason for it to go wrong.

Out of interest I looked at the Hastings Congress website. I couldn't see any sign of a menu or index.
How do you find things on it?

[David Sedgwick]

As long as you have the right people looking after the technical side, there's no real reason for it to go wrong.

That presupposes that you can afford to hire the "right people".

Out of interest I looked at the Hastings Congress website. I couldn't see any sign of a menu or index.
How do you find things on it?

If you click on "Congress Archives", you'll find a lot of links to historic information.

As the 2015 - 2016 event draws closer, new links and a menu will start to appear.

[Roger de Coverly]

As the 2015 - 2016 event draws closer, new links and a menu will start to appear.

With the new sponsorship from Tradewise, confirmation of the details of the 2015-16 event would be welcome.

[Angus French]

"Phil Ehr, @ECFChiefExec, will address the commentary and broadcast issues during the closing ceremony. Please be assured we do care."

(From https://twitter.com/ecfchess/status/629672645781549056.)

I'll be interested to hear what Phil has to say but I was a bit surprised, especially given publication of the above, that today's commentary ended before White's 42nd in Howell vs. Hebden, with the Championship in the balance.

[David Clayton]

……
Let me start by considering the setting up of the tournament. At the Scottish, British, Hastings and 4NCL the control team arrives the day (or night before) and starts setting up. At the foreign events being compared to when I have arrived the day before, everything is already set up and is being given a final test. That is one vital difference to the quality of early rounds.
Even if we had the desire and manpower in Britain to set up earlier the extra money involved in venue hire and accommodation for those doing it is a significant matter. …….
……..I’ll finish by saying that I agree being a volunteer should not be a defence when mistakes are made. But nor should it be seen as an explanation for problems that really lie elsewhere.

Clear examples of where some tournaments are IT events (IT lead), running a chess tournament, rather than the IT struggling to fit into the constraints of a chess event.

Two weeks at the British would be too much of my limited holiday and you really need that level of experience to assist onsite or at least to add some newer technologies.

Unfortunately, because everyone is a volunteer there may be an understandable culture of sustained praise, rather than a dispassionate, detailed analysis of competence in tasks undertaken. In Volunteer organisations that we have been involved in it was always stressed that all work (and it is work) has to be at a professional standard. Volunteer can never mean amateur and is never an excuse for incompetence, however harsh that may seem. When teaching unpaid in schools we have always quite rightly been the more intense focus of the staff; they simply could not afford to have individuals performing under the required standard.

There has to be oversight, there has to be constructive criticism and there has to be accountability.

There is no technical IT support staff within the team to support the various IT infrastructure or systems in use at the tournament, so there are no individuals underperforming. Just a small group of individuals attempting to undertake tasks outside their skill set or remit. Are you berating those with the appropriate professional expertise who do not volunteer, or those who are attempting to introduce newer technology and meet peoples rising expectations within the constraints imposed upon them? Perhaps you are suggesting these tasks should not be undertaken unless all the appropriate resources are in place, which is a valid opinion. I believe this is just one of the symptoms that is being exposed due to the push of the introduction of IT from the bottom of the organisation rather than the pull associated those events which are IT lead.

I thought Dave Clayton wasn't talking about computerised pairing systems, but presumably Sean Hewitt and Adam Raoof manage to use these successfully

Correct Mick, my observations are not on specifics, but based on an organisation culture where change is being pushed from below. This is something that happens in many organisations. It’s not just about the implementation of IT systems, but how should they be adopted and incorporated into the event or should the event change to take advantage of the opportunities of the new technologies and communication channels available to us?

[David Sedgwick]

There is no technical IT support staff within the team to support the various IT infrastructure or systems in use at the tournament, so there are no individuals underperforming. Just a small group of individuals attempting to undertake tasks outside their skill set or remit. Are you berating those with the appropriate professional expertise who do not volunteer, or those who are attempting to introduce newer technology and meet peoples rising expectations within the constraints imposed upon them? Perhaps you are suggesting these tasks should not be undertaken unless all the appropriate resources are in place, which is a valid opinion. I believe this is just one of the symptoms that is being exposed due to the push of the introduction of IT from the bottom of the organisation rather than the pull associated those events which are IT lead.

This brings me back to the point that I was seeking to make about the commentary at Hastings.

It has always been aimed primarily at the audience at the event. Their entry fees and the Hastings Council grant pay for it. The Council's interest lies in encouraging people to come to Hastings for the Congress.

So when the Hastings Congress introduced live broadcasts, it wasn't something to which we devoted much by way of resources. If things went well, that was excellent. If they didn't, then it wasn't a service which we were committed to providing, or had any obligation to provide.

With the advent of Tradewise and their different priorities, that may need to change.

Reverting to the the British Championships, it would appear from what you're saying that there wasn't a problem with the Congress being over reliant on volunteers in this area. There weren't even any volunteers on whom to rely.

[Roger de Coverly]

It’s not just about the implementation of IT systems, but how should they be adopted and incorporated into the event or should the event change to take advantage of the opportunities of the new technologies and communication channels available to us?

There still seemed pairing cards and boards in the background in Warwick. It's difficult to be sure, but I thought that at a Congress just before the British, they were using the pairing cards and boards as a display mechanism, having done the pairings on a laptop. This does have its advantages from the spectator and player point of view as the use of marker pens to write the names, makes the pairings readable from a greater distance than a computer print. If the previous rounds had been transcribed, it is also possible to see from the card, the previous opponents. Although tournament management software supports both pairing displays and wall charts, it was only the former on display at the Warwick venue.

You might want to discourage spectators bringing laptops, tablets or phones, but accessing chess-results.com was usually the best way to find out what was happening.

[Carl Hibbard]

"Phil Ehr, @ECFChiefExec, will address the commentary and broadcast issues during the closing ceremony. Please be assured we do care."

(From https://twitter.com/ecfchess/status/629672645781549056.)

I'll be interested to hear what Phil has to say but I was a bit surprised, especially given publication of the above, that today's commentary ended before White's 42nd in Howell vs. Hebden, with the Championship in the balance.

Were chessresults paying for their access?

[Roger de Coverly]

Were chessresults paying for their access?

Isn't it more likely the other way round? That the ECF pays chess-results for use of its tournament management software and web publishing.

[Adam Raoof]

Were chessresults paying for their access?

Isn't it more likely the other way round? That the ECF pays chess-results for use of its tournament management software and web publishing.

Exactly; you buy a licence for Swiss Manager, and chess-results functionality actually comes free.

http://chess-results.com/tnr183051.aspx ... =30&wi=821

[David Sedgwick]

"[ECF Director of Home Chess Alex Holowczak] has a colossal portfolio which he discharges with energy and enthusiasm."
- David Anderton speaking at the Closing Ceremony

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[Tim Harding]

Andrew Zigmond has a good post it is just posted on the wrong forum.

Can you post the link for that here please?