Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

[Paul McKeown]

It is sad, but entirely predictable, how some people are unable to condemn an attack on a fellow chess player for being Romanian.

[LawrenceCooper]

It is sad, but entirely predictable, how some people are unable to condemn an attack on a fellow chess player for being Romanian.

As a 4NCL captain who has had 3 (plus one in the European Club Cup) Romanians play for my teams I find it as unacceptable as I would an attack on a player of any gender, nationality, race etc

[Paul McKeown]

The player concerned got banned by chess.com, which seems about right. Sad that some people hold such views.

[Roger Lancaster]

Perhaps I see this slightly differently to Paul. People are entitled to hold views with which the rest of us may disagree (look no further than this forum!) and many, probably most, of us have irrational prejudices of one type or another. That may be sad but much worse is the failure to recognise that articulating certain prejudices is sure to be grossly offensive to others.

[David Sedgwick]

The player concerned got banned by chess.com, which seems about right. Sad that some people hold such views.

I am pleased to hear that.

[NickFaulks]

That may be sad but much worse is the failure to recognise that articulating certain prejudices is sure to be grossly offensive to others.

I'm pretty sure that this unpleasant character mate2mate made the comments not because they assumed no offence would be taken, but because they wished to give as much offense as possible. No doubt that is also true of the similar foul-mouthed rants against certain groups of the community which occasionally pop up on this forum.

[Roger Lancaster]

That may be sad but much worse is the failure to recognise that articulating certain prejudices is sure to be grossly offensive to others.

I'm pretty sure that this unpleasant character mate2mate made the comments not because they assumed no offence would be taken, but because they wished to give as much offense as possible. No doubt that is also true of the similar foul-mouthed rants against certain groups of the community which occasionally pop up on this forum.

Yes, I'm sure you're right in this particular case, Nick. But in some other cases, mouths get engaged before brains.

[A.Kluckova]

Has anyone had any experience of such racist, or xenophobic abuse, apparently related to Brexit, either online or in the real world?

Hi Paul, I have this xenofobic experience.

My daughter ( she is 18 years old member of SVK federation), could not be entered to British Chess Championship 2017 , however she was double qualified for it ( as a junior over 180 and as WFM over 2000), she is resident in the UK from 2012, she was entered online and she had paid entry fees at the end of May 2017 ( so on time).

I think , this attack against her could begin 2 years before. However she was not ENG federation player, I always paid for her Silver ENG chess membership ( any basic honor to ENG Federation). At 2015/16 we top up her membership to Gold. I got an email, that it was done . But her Gold membership was not displayed in the grading database no couple of months later , so I sent an email to correct this mistake and display her correct membership. Nothing happened. The next season 16/17 I paid for her Silver membership. I have not more interest for Gold one . I asked our captain to write them instead me, because I though, that mother ( no chess player) and foreigner is not suitable partner for communication with them. He was more successful , so communication could begin. Lady was not happy to it, she asked me why I speak about it, if it happened 2 years ago. So I remembered her, that it happened only last season. At the end I got an apologize in the email .
A couple months later , at the end of May, I entered my daughter to British Championship 2017.When she was not displayed at the list of participants a long time, I sent an email to organizer ( the same Sir who was emailing with me about uncorect membership). He explained me, that she will not be display until she will not top up her membership to Gold one. But there were many non ENG federation players without Gold membership on the List of participants, even without Silver or Bronze membership. And my daughter was still Silver.
So I waited one month more. Another non gold participants were displayed at the Participants list. I asked him again to display also my daughter. I got an email, that if I dont understand properly ,so he even highlighting for me, that only Gold membeship juniors can play. It was special rule only for my daughter.
Was no way through , at the end I asked about money back and he sent me it back as a refund. For him it was refund, however she was not allowed play.

When I finally asked a few days before the championship, if he really did not change the mind, he wrote to me , that he is very busy with organizing. He sent to me updated database with thousands of names and asked me to find for him the players who will play without Gold.
He thought, that forigners must to be analphabets. I did not affraid of his neverending database and found for him a lot of players with the conditions he asked me about. And he never answered me to it.

He never explained to me this attack against my daughter, however I asked him about it.

She is not more Gold, Silver or Bronze . I lost all honor I had before,

[Roger de Coverly]

She is not more Gold, Silver or Bronze .

I get the impression this is a dispute about membership and the ECF's notorious blindness on what FIDE mean by member.

Quoting from the 2017 Regulations
http://www.britishchesschampionships.co ... ntry-2017/

English players MUST be members of the English Chess Federation. Gold membership is required for FIDE-rated events (other than Rapidplay) and Silver for others.

Other players MUST be a member of their national body.

But what of players qualifying for the British Championships by virtue of being resident in the UK or the Irish Republic, particularly where their home Federation doesn't run an individual membership scheme? Should they be required to be English for the purposes of membership? If it's any precedent, the 4NCL isn't bothered, not that a distinction is made between resident non English and those flown or bussed in for the weekend.

A former organiser of weekend rated tournaments took the view that he couldn't be expected to check whether a non ENG player had individual membership in one of world's chess federations and he would go no further than identifying players from the FIDE list that they had a FIDE Number and Federation.

[Michael Flatt]

It is shocking that a promising and strong young chess player has been excluded from the British Chess Championships when she had already been listed on the competitions website as having met the required qualifying standard on two counts and is a long term resident in England.

The failure of the ECF needs to be investigated to understand what has gone wrong and recommendations made to prevent further incidents of this sort.

What procedures do the ECF have in place to deal with issues such as this?

[Kevin Thurlow]

"It is shocking that a promising and strong young chess player has been excluded from the British Chess Championships when she had already been listed on the competitions website as having met the required qualifying standard on two counts and is a long term resident in England."

It is also a bit odd, as juniors, especially female ones, generally get preferential treatment.

Perhaps an ECF voice will comment?

[Michael Farthing]

What's all this about? She needed to be gold. She wasn't. Simples.
Are you saying that (a) because she is a junior and (b) because she is a girl the ECF should ignore its own rules?

[NickFaulks]

A former organiser of weekend rated tournaments took the view that he couldn't be expected to check whether a non ENG player had individual membership in one of world's chess federations and he would go no further than identifying players from the FIDE list that they had a FIDE Number and Federation.

It wouldn't have occurred to me that any organiser would do anything else.

[Roger de Coverly]

What's all this about? She needed to be gold. She wasn't. Simples.

The rules as applied to other FIDE rated tournaments in England, not least the 4NCL are that Gold membership is only required if your FIDE affiliation is ENG. No stipulation is made as to whether you are resident in England or otherwise.

The management of the British Championship Congress appear to be applying a different standard. Do they have explicit authority for this? Suppose the player was resident in Scotland, Wales, Ireland or the Channel Isles but competing under a FIDE flag that wasn't SCO, WLS, IRL, JCI or GCI?

[Roger de Coverly]

What procedures do the ECF have in place to deal with issues such as this?

Her county representative could raise the matter at an ECF Council meeting, assuming that he or she could dodge the procedural devices that attempt to silence dissenting voices. You could try "Ask the Directors" but that has yet to elicit a public response.