ECF meeting reports

[Alex Holowczak]

There have only been 3, perhaps 4 or 5 posts debating this so far - I think it would be remiss of me to rename the positions until a consensus is reached, perhaps in another 20-30 posts time.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Put me in the camp of "it does no harm to explicitly specify they are schools' events, and including that in the titles would serve to lower confusion".

[Neill Cooper]

The Team Chess Challenge competitions are for schools, so they are the main target audience. Adding the word "Schools" to the title would be superfluous for them.

But not for anyone looking on the ECF website at its list of Officers, where they appear under the Events Director section, meaning there's nothing to indicate that they are schools events.

If people do contact me thinking it is part of https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Seniors/ then I would inform them it is a schools event. If there were enough such enquiries then it would show that it could be worthwhile developing such a tournament.

[Neill Cooper]

Put me in the camp of "it does no harm to explicitly specify they are schools' events, and including that in the titles would serve to lower confusion".

I preferred the name I started with, simply "Team Chess Challenge". Many schools would immediately see the relationship to Team Maths Challenge (Teams of 4 players, the main focus being on the regional final with winning schools going to the national final.)

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Many schools would immediately see the relationship to Team Maths Challenge (Teams of 4 players, the main focus being on the regional final with winning schools going to the national final.)"

But people that are not associated with schools would not see the relationship.

If you make cars, ABS means anti-locking brake system.
If you work with plastics, it's acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene!
There are other possibilities...

[Roger Lancaster]

Fwiw, my first reading of "Manager of the British Senior Team Chess Challenge" was this was something for older generations. Further, some descriptions which clearly indicate they are junior team events prove to be 'schools only' and not, as was the case of J4NCL, open to junior clubs.

[Brian Beattie]

But it isn’t entirely consistent. There is an English Schools Championship webpage that has a National Schools Chess Championship title with links to various Team Chess Challenges. To be consistent with various competitions that schools enter children in (Maths, Physics, etc) certainly titles inclusive of the words “Team” and “Challenge” are appropriate. But to avoid confusion with a wider audience particularly in Chess where Senior often takes on a completely different meaning including “Schools” in the title make sense. The reality is even within the ECF’s own website consistency isn’t applied. And for any parents who are trying to encourage their school to enter a team it’s a minefield trying to navigate. Earlier this year It took me quite a while to figure out which competitions were relevant. Provided I’ve actually arrived at the correct answer I’d simply name them:

English Schools Primary Team Chess Challenge
English Schools Junior Team Chess Challenge
English Schools Senior Team Chess Challenge
British Schools Team Chess Challenge
English Schools Girls Team Chess Challenge (is it English or British?)

[Alex Holowczak]

There is an English Schools Championship webpage that has a National Schools Chess Championship title with links to various Team Chess Challenges.

I made the point internally a few days ago that we need to tidy up those webpages. This will be a job for the summer, ready for when schools go back in September.

[Neill Cooper]

There is now an interim update to https://www.englishchess.org.uk/NSCC/ explaining briefly the different ECF School tournaments
Does this help?

[Brian Beattie]

There is now an interim update to https://www.englishchess.org.uk/NSCC/ explaining briefly the different ECF School tournaments
Does this help?

I think a chart detailing the different competitions with eligility, team size, relevant school years, and dates would probably be the easiest way to get the information across. Similar to the chart that is used in the British to show the various events, locations, and times which I've always found quite helpful. I've made a rough draft of what information I think would be useful. And thinking it unnecessary to have any unofficial image hosted across the internet have sent it directly to you in an email.