British Chess Championships 2011

cjdemooi · Post by **cjdemooi** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:00 pm

I've managed to secure sponsorship for the tournament!

Darwin Strategic, who kindly helped with the Staunton Dinner last year, have agreed to provide funds for the 2011 British Chess Championships so I'd like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the company for their continued support of chess in the UK.

I'm still waiting to hear from a number of players but it will be the strongest in the history of the event with many top names taking part. I don't know what the record for number of GMs playing is but when I do, I'm hoping to break it.

Here's to a great tournament, in a great city, sponsored by a great company!

CJ

Carl Hibbard · Post by **Carl Hibbard** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:26 pm

Excellent news CJ, can I ask that we spend a "little" on IT for the live games please so I don't end up dealing with it all?

Mick Norris · Post by **Mick Norris** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 6:02 pm

CJ

That's great, well done

Jon D'Souza-Eva · Post by **Jon D'Souza-Eva** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:40 pm

Lot's of chess connections on their "Our team" page: http://www.darwin-strategic.com/?cid=1,68

Anand, Hennigan... OK, maybe only two, unless you count Officer (as in Amy).

Roger de Coverly · Post by **Roger de Coverly** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 1:17 am

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote:Lot's of chess connections on their "Our team" page:

We may recall Index IT which became part of Beeson Gregory which become of part of Evolution which owns Darwin.

There's an historic if not current connection with GM David Norwood and IM (and 1993 British Champion) Michael Hennigan

(edit) 1993

Brendan O'Gorman · Post by **Brendan O'Gorman** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:24 pm

Can I raise a question about the entry fees for the British Championship 2011? As far as I can understand the form, ECF members can deduct Â£2 from the entry fee only where they are entering the under 8 championship or one of the rapidplays. Have I misunderstood? If not, is this a printing error? If not, I'd be grateful if someone could explain the rationale, especially from an organisation that touts reduced entry fees for members at certain congresses.

Alex McFarlane · Post by **Alex McFarlane** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:45 pm

Hi Brendan,

Basically you must be a member of a national association for any event which lasts for more than one day, hence the exception for the U8 and Rapidplays.

Hope that clarifies things. This has been the case with the Rapidplay for some time and is now the case with the U8s.

Adam Raoof · Post by **Adam Raoof** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:46 pm

Brendan O'Gorman wrote:Can I raise a question about the entry fees for the British Championship 2011? As far as I can understand the form, ECF members can deduct Â£2 from the entry fee only where they are entering the under 8 championship or one of the rapidplays. Have I misunderstood? If not, is this a printing error? If not, I'd be grateful if someone could explain the rationale, especially from an organisation that touts reduced entry fees for members at certain congresses.

You are expected to be a member of the ECF for all the other events, so the discount is already built in to the entry fee. If you play in the events where you are not expected to be a member (as quoted), you can claim a discount.

Alan Walton · Post by **Alan Walton** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:49 pm

Adam Raoof wrote:
Brendan O'Gorman wrote:Can I raise a question about the entry fees for the British Championship 2011? As far as I can understand the form, ECF members can deduct Â£2 from the entry fee only where they are entering the under 8 championship or one of the rapidplays. Have I misunderstood? If not, is this a printing error? If not, I'd be grateful if someone could explain the rationale, especially from an organisation that touts reduced entry fees for members at certain congresses.
You are expected to be a member of the ECF for all the other events, so the discount is already built in to the entry fee. If you play in the events where you are not expected to be a member (as quoted), you can claim a discount.

Got to admit with a entry fee of Â£200 then game fee becomes rather insignificant

Roger de Coverly · Post by **Roger de Coverly** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 3:55 pm

Brendan O'Gorman wrote: If not, I'd be grateful if someone could explain the rationale, especially from an organisation that touts reduced entry fees for members at certain congresses.

You have to be a member of the ECF to play in any event whether FIDE rated or otherwise. That's only because the ECF says so. Do you have to be a member of a FIDE federation to play in a non-FIDE event even when you are not ENG? I'm not sure I ever read the small print to find out.

The other "strange but true" is the ECF (and the BCF before it) exempted itself from Game Fee on its own events. Whilst it obviously makes no difference to the external accounts, for management information it would have given a better picture of Game Fee income and of the costs of the British had it cross-charged itself.

Michele Clack · Post by **Michele Clack** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:14 pm

I've just been talking to an old school friend who is currently househunting in Sheffield. Apparently the Ponds Forge sports centre is a great venue with an olympic size swimming pool. Plus there is magnificent countryside just a short drive out of the city centre. Sounds a good venue for families and players who want to get fit.

Brendan O'Gorman · Post by **Brendan O'Gorman** » Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:23 pm

Adam Raoof wrote:
Brendan O'Gorman wrote:Can I raise a question about the entry fees for the British Championship 2011? As far as I can understand the form, ECF members can deduct Â£2 from the entry fee only where they are entering the under 8 championship or one of the rapidplays. Have I misunderstood? If not, is this a printing error? If not, I'd be grateful if someone could explain the rationale, especially from an organisation that touts reduced entry fees for members at certain congresses.
You are expected to be a member of the ECF for all the other events, so the discount is already built in to the entry fee. If you play in the events where you are not expected to be a member (as quoted), you can claim a discount.

Thanks to Alex and Adam for shedding light on my darkness.

{Note to self: THINK before posting

}

cjdemooi · Post by **cjdemooi** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 6:04 pm

If there are any other GMs who'd like to play in this year's British who I haven't already contacted, please email me at [email protected] as soon as possible please. It's first come first served so please hurry!

The generous sponsorship I've got, along with a kind donation, the money raised at the Staunton Memorial Dinner and on the Nigel tour as well as some funds from myself will cover the increased prize fund, reduced junior fees, players, branding and advertising and tournament improvements.

However, it's still less than I wanted so I'm unable to offer anything else outside of this. I apologise for my obvious failings and shortcomings but I promise to try harder.

cjdemooi · Post by **cjdemooi** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:26 pm

So far we have signed up -

Michael Adams
Nigel Short
David Howell
Gawain Jones
Nick Pert
Mark Hebden
Simon Williams

I'm still waiting to hear from a few others and many have expressed an interest so we should be in for a reasonably good event.

Carl Hibbard · Post by **Carl Hibbard** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 7:39 pm

Can we please beef up the internet coverage a bit?

Plus wifi coverage at the actual venue at least for the IT guys on site would be most welcomed

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