99th British #Chess Championships 2012

[Stewart Reuben]

Disappointingly I don't think Jonathan Hawkins can get a useful third and final GM norm in the British. This is because his two previous norms, 4NCL 2011 and British 2011 depended on B.01.1.43 for the number of foreigners to be waived. One norm has to be achieved with the correct minimum of 40% not from ENG.

[Roger de Coverly]

Disappointingly I don't think Jonathan Hawkins can get a useful third and final GM norm in the British. This is because his two previous norms, 4NCL 2011 and British 2011 depended on B.01.1.43 for the number of foreigners to be waived. One norm has to be achieved with the correct minimum of 40% not from ENG.

This came up in another thread about the Paris championships.

The relevant rules appear to be

1.43f
At least one of the norms has to be achieved under normal foreigner requirement. (See 1.43 first clause and 1.44a)

1.44a A maximum of 3/5 of the opponents may come from the applicant’s federation and a maximum of 2/3 of the opponents from one federation. For exact numbers see the table in 1.7.

The "general" exception, which Paris didn't satisfy

1.43e Swiss System tournaments in which the competitors include at least 20 FIDE Rated players, not from the host federation, from at least 3 federations, at least 10 of whom hold GM, IM, WGM or WIM titles.

and the national league/championship exemptions

1.43a
The finals (but not preliminaries) of national men’s championships and also national women’s championships.
1.43b National team championships.

In the other thread, there was an attempt to guide the potential norm seeker. The problem would be the elusive third norm where you need to satisfy 1.44a which will depend on individual pairings. I'm aware that Stewart and others have attempted to refine the rules over the years. Was it not the case that you once had to have at least one all play all norm?

(edit) It was the regular weekly update which wandered off into a discussion about Norm rules and how to select a tournament to pursue a Norm chance (/edit)
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4511

[Stewart Reuben]

Indeed at one time you did have to have at least one RR norm. I recommended getting rid of that because, at the time, it was sometimes difficult to tell what type of tournament it was.
There has been a recent suggestion that it should include at least one Swiss norm. That is because some people are suspicious of certain RR norm factories.
I have proposed that perhaps one GM norm be gained outside the player's own federation. Or that the Chief Arbiter of at least one of the events be foreign.

The problem with this British is that such a high proportion are English, it is very unlikely that Jonathan could meet 5 non-English opponents.

[Peter Turner]

I don't think there has been a Scottish player since 2007. During the period 2004–2007, the British title went to a Scottish player each time: three wins by Jonathan Rowson, then one by Jacob Aagaard.
Also, for each of the four years from 2003 to 2007 when the title of British women’s champion was awarded, it went to Keti Arakhamia-Grant, a Georgian who married a Scot in 1996 and settled in Edinburgh.

I assume you mean Scottish GM, not Scottish player. I played Clement Sreeves last year

Correct, I should have said Scottish GM - post edited.

[David Gilbert]

It's 293 miles to North Shields, I’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it'll be dark and I’ll be wearing sunglasses. What could be more exciting than traveling up to the British Chess Championships (via a pick up at Stansted at 3.30am on Sunday morning and then back to central London ....... Hmmmm. Well that’s what Dads are for!)

Last night the entry count reached 747. Maybe it won’t be the biggest championships ever - numbers had already climbed to 834 on the Thursday before the start last year. But there are some encouraging bumper turnouts in many of the junior events. With still a bit of time for late entries, there are 41 in the under-10s, the biggest since Scarborough in 2004 and 39 in the under-8s, the largest since 2002.

Numbers in the Seniors are also holding-up. The 40 entries so far has only been bettered only twice before. In Sheffield last year (45) and Canterbury (42) in 2010. It’s interesting to me that more than half of this year’s entries also played last year.

I picked up several CDs for the journey. Some Jeeves and Bertie, and no doubt some Aunt Agatha and some love struck Bingo too; 8 episodes of I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue; the complete Catch 22, Patti Smith’s Horses and Sparklehorse's Good Morning Spider. Five hours at the wheel just isn’t long enough.

See you all there! It’s going to be amazing!

PS: I won’t really be wearing sunglasses in the dark and I don’t smoke!

[David Gilbert]

It's 293 miles to North Shields, I’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it'll be dark and I’ll be wearing sunglasses. What could be more exciting than traveling up to the British Chess Championships (via a pick up at Stansted at 3.30am on Sunday morning and then back to central London ....... Hmmmm. Well that’s what Dads are for!)

Last night the entry count reached 747. Maybe it won’t be the biggest championships ever - numbers had already climbed to 834 on the Thursday before the start last year. But there are some encouraging bumper turnouts in many of the junior events. With still a bit of time for late entries, there are 41 in the under-10s, the biggest since Scarborough in 2004 and 39 in the under-8s, the largest since 2002.

Numbers in the Seniors are also holding-up. The 40 entries so far has only been bettered only twice before. In Sheffield last year (45) and Canterbury (42) in 2010. It’s interesting to me that more than half of this year’s entries also played last year.

I picked up several CDs for the journey. Some Jeeves and Bertie, and no doubt some Aunt Agatha and some love struck Bingo too; 8 episodes of I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue; the complete Catch 22, Patti Smith’s Horses and Sparklehorse's Good Morning Spider. Five hours at the wheel just isn’t long enough.

See you all there! It’s going to be amazing!

PS: I won’t really be wearing sunglasses in the dark and I don’t smoke!

[Andrew Camp]

What could be more exciting than traveling up to the British Chess Championships (via a pick up at Stansted at 3.30am on Sunday morning and then back to central London

I'll tell you.

Leaving Daventry this afternoon and negotiating Friday evening rush hour traffic back to North Wales. Packing, quick sleep and then learning how to fit a bike rack to the car in the morning before driving to North Shields.

[LawrenceCooper]

What could be more exciting than traveling up to the British Chess Championships (via a pick up at Stansted at 3.30am on Sunday morning and then back to central London

I'll tell you.

Leaving Daventry this afternoon and negotiating Friday evening rush hour traffic back to North Wales. Packing, quick sleep and then learning how to fit a bike rack to the car in the morning before driving to North Shields.

Aren't you planning to play Worcester en-route?

[Roger de Coverly]

Numbers in the Seniors are also holding-up. The 40 entries so far has only been bettered only twice before.

It's also stronger on paper than the Major Open. At just over 2000, I would have been around 5th seed in the Major Open rather than 20th in the Seniors.

[Andrew Camp]

What could be more exciting than traveling up to the British Chess Championships (via a pick up at Stansted at 3.30am on Sunday morning and then back to central London

I'll tell you.

Leaving Daventry this afternoon and negotiating Friday evening rush hour traffic back to North Wales. Packing, quick sleep and then learning how to fit a bike rack to the car in the morning before driving to North Shields.

Aren't you planning to play Worcester en-route?

It was considered.

[David Pardoe]

To all those heading for the `British` at North Shields, I wish you well, and safe journies.
My favourite `in car` entertainment for long trips is probably Radio 2. And listen for any traffic reports...
Tiredness can be an issue, so `take that break`, if you feel the yawns coming on.
I used to do the Manchester-London run quite frequently, and I was always aware of this, particularly on the Friday afternoon run back...
And don`t forget those last minute car checks.... Oil, water, tyres, Maps, etc... boring stuff, I know.

At least the weather forecast this w/e looks more favourable...now that our reserviors are full again. Why dont we have a national plan for these things...?
Anyway, enjoy the chess, and the glorious North East visitor attractions.. Cragside is but one...
Those who havent entered yet....its not too late...
Enjoy....

PS.. I`ve been playing some online chess recently, on Gameknot (currently struggling in the 86th `Expert` Tournament), where I find myself up against a Russian (Ivanov) & Dutch player (Sjonnie) both `prevoisly` rated around 2250ish.
This is a different ball game, and the OTB stuff is still much preferred..
Can we pull some of these `online` players back into `real chess`...?

[Dan O'Dowd]

I'm beginning to become like a child at Xmas right now for the waiting to be over I'm only travelling from Carlisle, so my only tough decision is whether to play in the Arkell simul in my cosy trip by single train and metro, before acclimatising on Sunday anyways. Been playing online achieving a higher rating than ever before, which is a good sign, and my strategic play seemed to be holding up despite zero sleep last night in my real club, while also giving me a stark reminder of how horrible that situation can be. I'll be interested to see just where my shiny new online elo compares to the real life conversion I have, which I know is a bit low anyways. I wonder when the ECF will officially revise the calculation following the stabilisation of New Grades, bearing in mind that if those grades are accurate, then the 8x is fundamentally correct, and only the constant needs bodging.

[David Gilbert]

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay. Stuart Conquest joins the battle.

Don't forget the Factor-20. Plenty of sunshine heading our way.

Wonderful feeling, wonderful day!

[Andrew Camp]

Just arrived in the North East. Staying at a farm cottage a few miles from the venue. Got out of the car, started to unload and would you believe it, the Red Arrows flew over.

Now that's a welcome!

[Ray Sayers]

Just arrived in the North East. Staying at a farm cottage a few miles from the venue. Got out of the car, started to unload and would you believe it, the Red Arrows flew over.

Now that's a welcome!

Someone must have tipped them off that you were coming!