British Chess Championships 2011

[Alex McFarlane]

Championship and Major Open Draws now on British Championship Website

[Paul Cooksey]

I note Richard Bates dodged the Adams bullet by one board in the end.

[Nicky Chorley]

Apologies in advance for what's (probably) a stupid question, but in the pairings list, what does 'i' mean by a player's name?

[Sean Hewitt]

Apologies in advance for what's (probably) a stupid question, but in the pairings list, what does 'i' mean by a player's name?

Inactive. It means they haven't played a FIDE rated game for a year.

[Roger de Coverly]

I note Richard Bates dodged the Adams bullet by one board in the end.

A strange way of dividing the field in half. 46 in one half (down to board 23) and 40 in the other. Is it a secret arbiters' rule to make predicting even the first round pairings impossible?

Apologies in advance for what's (probably) a stupid question, but in the pairings list, what does 'i' mean by a player's name?

It means the rating is inactive, in other words it's been more than a year since the player last played in an internationally rated event.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Apologies in advance for what's (probably) a stupid question, but in the pairings list, what does 'i' mean by a player's name?

Inactive player.

[Nicky Chorley]

Thank you .

[Alex McFarlane]

The top 'half' is the larger when required. For tournaments where bottom half players are also accelerated withing 1/2 point of the lead it makes sense to have a slightly larger top half.

[David Gilbert]

Interesting - the draw for the Under-180 and Under-140 competitions uses yesterday's grades. In the past the new grades have been used. A break from tradition, or were the new grades just not available to the Arbiters until too late?

[Andrew Camp]

Interesting - the draw for the Under-180 and Under-140 competitions uses yesterday's grades. In the past the new grades have been used. A break from tradition, or were the new grades just not available to the Arbiters until too late?

I hope this is a break - it was ridiculous last year seeing a 145 in the weekend under 125 comp. I know it's a fact that the player was a 145 but for outsiders looking in, it must seem very odd and unfair. The grades being shown should be the grades that are used during the entry process.

[David Shepherd]

Interesting - the draw for the Under-180 and Under-140 competitions uses yesterday's grades. In the past the new grades have been used. A break from tradition, or were the new grades just not available to the Arbiters until too late?

I hope this is a break - it was ridiculous last year seeing a 145 in the weekend under 125 comp. I know it's a fact that the player was a 145 but for outsiders looking in, it must seem very odd and unfair. The grades being shown should be the grades that are used during the entry process.

I'm not so convinced to me it seems more logical to pair based on the most recent grades as they more accurately reflect current playing strength than a grade over 1 year old.

[David Shepherd]

So for example by using old grades a player on board 81 in the U140 - a top half player is paired against another player with a grade of 141 (new grade) - is that sensible?

[Stewart Reuben]

It is a real problem unique to the Britih Chess Championships as there is only one grading list a year that comes out at the same time as the event starts. It will only be slightly ameliorated by having two. But it will be a step in the right direction of having frequent lists. Obviously if you are going to pair by grade you should have the most uptodate information available. Eligibility for grading restricted events has to be known well in advance, since the maximum information should be given to the contetants, oddities will have to appear.
Would entrants prefer the players to have to enter in advance without knowing to which graded section they will be assigned? I would have thought that would lead to a lower entry and thus higher entry fees.

Stewart Reuben

[Roger de Coverly]

So is Ray really opening the Championships then?

Forty years since his previous and only win.

[David Gilbert]

I don't see any reason to change the current entry conditions. The point is that in previous years the new grades have been used to determine seedings and the first round draw for the graded championships. For example James Foster would have been top-seed in the Under-180 championship with a grade of 191. My question was whether there was a conscious decision not to use the new grades this year?

It might be worth saying that I've got concerns about a twice-yearly grading list. It was made clear at the London League AGM a couple of weeks ago that the League had no intention whatsoever of submitting grading data more than once a year.

One further point, it was interesting to see an 11th hour entry in the Major Open from Charlie Storey. He should stir things up. He's the new top seed, but his entry wasn't even in the list published this morning, so it must have been a really late decision.