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Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:28 pm
by Andrew Zigmond
Quick question raised by a player on the YCA forum - can he use his buss pass on the metro?

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2012 8:06 pm
by Paul Bielby
Andrew

I think not. I can't use my Metro Gold Card on the buses.

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:19 pm
by Ben Purton
How come the entries are so shocking this year?

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:20 pm
by Ben Purton
For what its worth I think Pierre Weller who is about 10th seed will win the major open.

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:47 pm
by Jonathan Rogers
Ben Purton wrote:How come the entries are so shocking this year?
One answer may be that CJ seems to have made no effort at finding sponsorship. Of course I might be wrong, but the days are gone when he was on this forum to tell us what he was doing as our President.

Another answer might be to question that the entries are as bad as all that. Seven GMs (plus Hawkins, and Palliser who recently made a GM norm), mostly around/over 2500 (as opposed to your career 2450 GMs) is not so shabby and the top two seeds this year would have been highly credible winners in any of the previous Britishes. I don't recall there being a stronger line up at the top in 2004 or 2005 - probably the opposite. There is, I think, an even bigger gap than usual in the 2300-2500 range but I can live with that. Several competitors are under-rated and I would be surprised if (for example) the York University players James Adair and Martin Brown did not record some upsets.

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:11 pm
by Andrew Bak
It's a shame that Michael and/or Nigel aren't there, but they can't play all the time! If you look at most national championships, the top players dont always turn up.

James Adair is a real talent and will definitely take some points off the big guys I think. Jean-Luc Weller is another one to watch out for.

I wonder if Charlie Storey will bother to play more than 4 rounds this year?

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:14 pm
by Roger de Coverly
Jonathan Rogers wrote: Another answer might be to question that the entries are as bad as all that.
It's down on head count for the two eleven round events. Last year the British had 86 starters and the Major Open 74, so that's 160 in total. This year the corresponding numbers are 62 and 32, so 94 in total.

The Isle of Man in 1995 was 46 in the Championship and 35 in the Major Open.

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:17 pm
by Jonathan Rogers
I imagine that Ben was talking about quality of entries and (like me) looking at the Championship rather than the Major Open (and it is only in the latter event that there has been a serious dip in numbers).

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:49 pm
by Andrew Camp
Clash with the Olympics cannot help.

Visited the venue today and was really impressed. Looks great, very spacious. Lara has done brilliantly getting this.

Decent sized and cool analysis room. Commentary Room very close to the arena.

I think it will be a superb two weeks.

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 5:06 pm
by William Metcalfe
The Analysis room is where we play the Northumberland congress

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:34 pm
by Alex McFarlane
British Round 1 pairings. These will appear on the website shortly.

Pairing of round 1 of British Championship

Table White - Black Results

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- round 1

1 Poobalasingam, P ( 0 ) - Jones, Gawain C ( 0 ) 19- 1

2 Howell, David W ( 0 ) - Adair, James R ( 0 ) 2- 20

3 Townsend, M Paul ( 0 ) - Gordon, Stephen ( 0 ) 21- 3

4 Turner, Matthew ( 0 ) - Storey, Charles ( 0 ) 4- 22

5 Ledger, Dave J ( 0 ) - Gormally, Daniel ( 0 ) 23- 5

6 Conquest, Stuart ( 0 ) - Osborne, Marcus ( 0 ) 6- 24

7 Hanley, James L ( 0 ) - Hawkins, Jonatha ( 0 ) 25- 7

8 Palliser, Richar ( 0 ) - Mason, Donald J ( 0 ) 8- 26

9 Brown, Martin ( 0 ) - Arkell, Keith C ( 0 ) 27- 9

10 Hanley, Craig A ( 0 ) - Shaw, Robert ( 0 ) 10- 28

11 Holland, James P ( 0 ) - Houska, Jovanka ( 0 ) 29- 11

12 Wall, Tim P ( 0 ) - Murphy, Hugh W ( 0 ) 12- 30

13 Walker, Nicholas ( 0 ) - Eggleston, David ( 0 ) 31- 13

14 Kolbus, Dietmar ( 0 ) - Oswald, Graeme E ( 0 ) 14- 32

15 Burnett, Jim ( 0 ) - Rudd, Jack ( 0 ) 33- 15

16 Chapman, Terry P ( 0 ) - Shaw, Peter ( 0 ) 16- 34

17 Jaunooby, Ali R ( 0 ) - Walker, David J ( 0 ) 35- 17

18 Roe, Simon J ( 0 ) - Sugden, John N ( 0 ) 18- 36

19 Wadsworth, Matth ( 0 ) - Coathup, Roger H ( 0 ) 51- 37

20 Harvey, Marcus R ( 0 ) - Maroroa, Sue ( 0 ) 38- 52

21 Whitfield, Craig ( 0 ) - Mackle, Dominic ( 0 ) 53- 39

22 Jackson, James P ( 0 ) - Lenier, Jude A ( 0 ) 40- 54

23 Foo, William J ( 0 ) - Weller, Jean-Luc ( 0 ) 55- 41

24 Surtees, Mike J ( 0 ) - Fabri, Henrik ( 0 ) 42- 56

25 Grattage, Matthe ( 0 ) - Waters, Clive L ( 0 ) 57- 43

26 Bhatia, Kanwal K ( 0 ) - Elwin, Adrian G ( 0 ) 44- 58

27 Hoare, Amy B ( 0 ) - Batchelor, Peter ( 0 ) 59- 45

28 Hall, David E ( 0 ) - Tambini, Jasper ( 0 ) 46- 60

29 Burke, Mitchell ( 0 ) - Ledger, Stephen ( 0 ) 61- 47

30 Varnam, Liam D ( 0 ) - McDonald, Ian ( 0 ) 48- 62

31 Jain, Radha ( 0 ) - Combie, Alex B ( 0 ) 63- 49

32 Foster, James M ( 0 ) - Dodds, Edward ( 0 ) 50- 64

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:38 pm
by John McKenna
I'd bet that Charlie 'Sniper' Storey will go more than 4 rounds and may even take a 'scalp' or two. Whether or not he lasts the course is another matter but he is close to home so he may go all the way.
Suggest that in years when the number of entrants in the 'Major' Open is less than the number in the Championship it should be called the 'Minor' Open so it's weakness is easily discerned. Winners can proudly say, "I won the Major Open in..." and those who won a 'Minor' Open can keep it to themselves.

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:55 pm
by Ben Purton
Jonathan in general it appears the general state of chess has gone down in the last 10 years. I remember 10 years ago, you basically struggled to get a FIDE rating unless you were over 170 (old ecf) and playing in 4NCL was extremely tough( I got rejected by 4 teams until Slough took me on board).

And Yes I do know that James is a talent, we were coached by the same person in Berkshire and we both play for Reading Chess team together still. I hope he has held his form in the Yorkshire league etc.

I was mainly talking about the base of the tournament really Jonathan. The bottom 30-40 players use to be the top half of the Major Open. I mean Liam Varnam for example has not gone up much in rating but is around 4th seed.

Without Sean Hewitt and Mike Truran's events , English chess would be nothing short of a shambles.

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:07 pm
by Andrew Bak
It's an interesting draw, I can definitely envision some upsets occurring!

How come it's an accelerated Swiss with only 64 players? Won't this lead to a lot of lop-sided pairings in the final rounds?
John McKenna wrote:Suggest that in years when the number of entrants in the 'Major' Open is less than the number in the Championship it should be called the 'Minor' Open so it's weakness is easily discerned. Winners can proudly say, "I won the Major Open in..." and those who won a 'Minor' Open can keep it to themselves.
A "Minor Open" would make it seems like no players stronger than 120 ECF are allowed to enter!
Ben Purton wrote:Without Sean Hewitt and Mike Truran's events , English chess would be nothing short of a shambles.
I think this is a bit over the top - there is still a lot of club chess that gets played in this country. England hosts some of the world's best players in the London Chess Classic and London will be hosting the Candidates later this year. Malcolm Pein and his team are also doing an excellent job with Chess In Schools. We just need more people to be on board with progressing chess instead of spending time in-fighting with each other.

Re: 99th British #Chess Championships 2012

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:13 pm
by JustinHorton
It might be pertinent to mention that quite a lot of people have less money than they did some years ago. There must be people who would have been able to play in the past, who presently don't feel they can afford it.