Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

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NickFaulks
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by NickFaulks » Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:31 am

Michael Flatt wrote:
Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:17 am
English players MUST be members of the English Chess Federation.
In this context, what is an English player? I'm not being pedantic, I genuinely cannot guess whether I would be put in that category. I am a player and I am English, but my federation is BER.
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Michael Flatt
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by Michael Flatt » Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:35 am

NickFaulks wrote:
Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:31 am
Michael Flatt wrote:
Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:17 am
English players MUST be members of the English Chess Federation.
In this context, what is an English player? I'm not being pedantic, I genuinely cannot guess whether I would be put in that category. I am a player and I am English, but my federation is BER.
That is the key question.

I undertand it to mean that an "English" player is one who obtained their FIN through the English Chess Federation.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:36 am

British Championship (Michael Flatt) wrote:
Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:17 am

Other players MUST be a member of their national body.

The key point is what the ECF means by this statement and why it believes it to be necessary. FIDE's rating requirement is just that every player should have a FIN. These are issued by National Federations but any number of local rules are possible, falling far short of individual paid for membership in the current English model.

E Michael White
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by E Michael White » Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:43 am

You beat me to it Nick. The term "English player" is unclear. I guess it needs to be, and most players would expect it to be, "with FIDE ENG registration".

The entry conditions really need to be in 3 parts 1) eligibility such as residence, nationality 2) qualification such as minimum FIDE rating which might depend on age or others 3) player registration which covers membership levels of the ECF and other national bodies. While these 3 are intertwined confusion will arise.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Fri Dec 29, 2017 1:09 pm

Richard James wrote:
Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:06 am
The Swedish GM Pontus Carlsson, who is of African descent, received some very unpleasant racist abuse from a chess.com user named funnychess9, who plays under the flag of the Solomon Islands, yesterday. You'll find it on his Twitter feed if you care to look.
I think that said user has been banned now?
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Richard James
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by Richard James » Fri Dec 29, 2017 1:14 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Fri Dec 29, 2017 1:09 pm
Richard James wrote:
Fri Dec 29, 2017 11:06 am
The Swedish GM Pontus Carlsson, who is of African descent, received some very unpleasant racist abuse from a chess.com user named funnychess9, who plays under the flag of the Solomon Islands, yesterday. You'll find it on his Twitter feed if you care to look.
I think that said user has been banned now?
Yes, he has. Quite rightly.

Mike Truran
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by Mike Truran » Fri Dec 29, 2017 1:31 pm

Alex Holowczak and I have reviewed the case in question. Past custom and practice from before the ECF moved to a universal membership system, but which as far as we can see does not seem to be have been formally documented, has been not to require ECF Gold membership for players from or resident in federations other than the ECF that were signatories to the 2007 BICC agreement, but to require ECF Gold membership for English players, including those resident in England. So the player in this case as an English resident was required to take out Gold membership, while players resident in other BICC signatory federations were not. So as far as we can see the decision was entirely consistent with custom and practice at the time.

That said, it is clearly undesirable that the various requirements have not been formalised, and the British Championship entry forms and guidelines have also been less than clear on the matter. The various BICC federations have been working on a new version of the 2007 BICC agreement which we hope to sign shortly and which will properly document the ECF membership requirements for the 2018 British Championships; these requirements will also be made clear in the British Championship documentation.

Xenophobia played no part in this case, and has no part to play in any ECF activities.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri Dec 29, 2017 1:38 pm

Mike Truran wrote:
Fri Dec 29, 2017 1:31 pm
Past custom and practice from before the ECF moved to a universal membership system, but which as far as we can see does not seem to be have been formally documented, has been not to require ECF Gold membership for players from federations other than the ECF that were signatories to the 2007 BICC agreement, but to require ECF Gold membership for English players, including those resident in England.
That is not however a practice applied to any other FIDE rated tournament in England or under English auspices including the 4NCL. Why make the British Championships more stringent?

Michael Flatt
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by Michael Flatt » Fri Dec 29, 2017 2:11 pm

The clarification provided by the ECF's Chief Executive Officer is welcome and does confirm that the dispute arose from inadequate information being published regarding Conditions of Entry.

How is an entrant who submitted her application online to have known about the ECF's undocumented 'custom and practice'?

Is there any way that the ECF can compensate the player for what appears to have been unsatisfactory and distressing treatment in the handling of this complaint?

Michael Flatt
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by Michael Flatt » Sat Dec 30, 2017 6:55 pm

It does appear that in the 2017 British Championship the ECF have not been consistent in their demands for foreign nationals based in England to have ECF Gold membership.

In reviewing details of players competing in the Championship event I have been able to identify three international players, registered to chess clubs in England, who only had Silver membership in the 2017 ECF membership list.

It seems, therefore, that there is substance to the complaint raised by the mother whose daughter was excluded for only having Silver membership. There must have been some way to resolve this matter at the time.

References
2017 results: http://chess-results.com/tnr293939.aspx?lan=1
2017 ecf membership: http://web.archive.org/web/201707160942 ... ership.xls

A.Kluckova
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by A.Kluckova » Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:23 am

My main problem was, that I did not understand the situation all the time. (Chessplayers are masters in explaining, they can write a book about one chess position. So I did not wait that something can not be explained. )

she must top up her Silver Junior - why - she must top up if she wants to play - why juniors must top up and adults must not - because she is only Silver Junior - why you have different rules for juniors and adults - we have not, the rules are the same, she must top up her Silver Junior - why adults can play and juniors can not, the rules are not the same...
...after all I got an advice send email to ECF executive members and ask them.

Of course, I did not send nothing. If I have official regulars and officer responsible for entry process , I dont need take time to somebody alse.

She was cancelled, but I still did not understand . At the end I wrote about my problem to our captain, and he explained to me, that there are different rules if you play BCh, you must be member of any UK federation and if you are member of ENG, you need to be Gold.

But it was not in the regulation and no Sir did not tell me it no one time. And still, however it would be valid, I still knew player who had not membership in the other UK federation, so it was not valid.

She played other Championships in August and September, so was not problem . If she would be hard crying, I would be more active, of course. But we did not feel happy , because all the time we did not know, what we know now.

So happy end.
And also happy end of 2017.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Xenophobic abuse in British chess in the post-Brexit world

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Sun Dec 31, 2017 11:55 am

"My main problem was, that I did not understand the situation all the time."

If it is any comfort, many other people have been in that position...

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