ECF Vacancies

[Carl Hibbard]

Who is the sponsor of the London Chess Classic?

I always presumed Norwood?

[IM Jack Rudd]

Who is the sponsor of the London Chess Classic?

I always presumed Norwood?

Well, that's the point. It's someone behind the scenes who hasn't made their identity obvious. That's not a sponsor; it's a philanthropic benefactor.

[JustinHorton]

Sponsorship can be a feature of UK chess as the London Chess Classic currently shows, but the ECF has been unable to secure any. I don't think I need to repeat why I think this is the case despite the amount of whining on this thread by the 'usual suspects'.

Well let me repeat, then, that nobody at all has been stopping anybody from raising sponsorship for international chess tournaments.

[Nigel_Davies]

Is that meant to be a serious comment? Seriously? Have you not heard of Tradewise?

Tradewise was not brought in by a current ECF person.

[JustinHorton]

By the way, just as nobody has been prevented from organising any international chess tournaments, the professional chess masters of the country are not prevented from setting up an organisation to represent them and to seek sponsorship for chess tournaments. I am only surprised that they have not yet tried to do so.

[Michael Farthing]

Was that a whine, Justin?

[LawrenceCooper]

By the way, just as nobody has been prevented from organising any international chess tournaments, the professional chess masters of the country are not prevented from setting up an organisation to represent them and to seek sponsorship for chess tournaments. I am only surprised that they have not yet tried to do so.

Quote from Malcolm Pein: "There have been attempts to organise the players before, indeed about twenty years ago I founded the ABC - The Association of British Chessmasters and some players boycotted the Lloyds Bank Masters to protest the low appearance fees."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/ches ... union.html The article was dated 21 Jun 2003.

[JustinHorton]

[*]

Was that a whine, Justin?

Probably. At any rate, wine had been consumed.

[JustinHorton]

Quote from Malcolm Pein: "There have been attempts to organise the players before, indeed about twenty years ago I founded the ABC - The Association of British Chessmasters and some players boycotted the Lloyds Bank Masters to protest the low appearance fees."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/ches ... union.html The article was dated 21 Jun 2003.

Protest against, surely, this side of the Atlantic. I'm amazed the Telegraph subs let that one through.

[Martin Regan]

JH:

just as nobody has been prevented from organising any international chess tournaments, the professional chess masters of the country are not prevented from setting up an organisation to represent them and to seek sponsorship for chess tournaments. I am only surprised that they have not yet tried to do so

Spot on.

[Martin Regan]

ND:

Tradewise was not brought in by a current ECF person.

Had you said that the current ECF board had not brought in sponsorship ok, though given they've only had a few months I'd think it was a tad harsh.

But you didn;t, you said the ECF had never brought sponsorship. You know you're wrong. I know you're wrong, the forum knows you're wrong. And no comedy answer escapes that.

[Ian Thompson]

Who is the sponsor of the London Chess Classic?

I always presumed Norwood?

Well, that's the point. It's someone behind the scenes who hasn't made their identity obvious. That's not a sponsor; it's a philanthropic benefactor.

ChessBase outed them several years ago for anyone who really wants to know. (It's not Norwood.)

[Roger de Coverly]

Quote from Malcolm Pein: "There have been attempts to organise the players before, indeed about twenty years ago I founded the ABC - The Association of British Chessmasters and some players boycotted the Lloyds Bank Masters to protest the low appearance fees."

The ABC didn't last very long. It could have had more influence if it had become a member of the BCF and therefore able to attend BCF meetings as a voting member and ask difficult questions.

I doubt that a boycott of the Lloyds Bank Masters had any influence over the cessation of the tournament, but be careful what you wish for.

[Nigel_Davies]

ND:

Tradewise was not brought in by a current ECF person.

Had you said that the current ECF board had not brought in sponsorship ok, though given they've only had a few months I'd think it was a tad harsh.

But you didn;t, you said the ECF had never brought sponsorship. You know you're wrong. I know you're wrong, the forum knows you're wrong. And no comedy answer escapes that.

As you seem to like to pretend to know so much (and are no doubt deeply disappointed that your magnificent term as CEO didn't bring you an Honorary Vice Presidency or knighthood), perhaps you'd like to list the last 5 ECF sponsorship deals and state the name of the person that brought them in!? If that one's too difficult then you might like to state the moves which constitute scholar's mate!?

[Mick Norris]

I know there's sponsorship at local tournaments (credit to Heywood, they have 3 or 4) but they tend to be connections with local players (that's how we always did it at Bury) - Stockport Rapidplay (30th edition next Sunday) was sponsored by their local Vernon Building Society at one point, but like many tournaments now exists without sponsorship

The recent Shropshire Congress attracted 12 titled players due to offering £1,000 first prize, but there is no mention of the sponsor, so like the London Chess Classic that's actually a benefactor (and no less welcome for that)

Sean Hewitt has explained the potential sponsorship "value" of the e2e4 tournaments is very low

Tradewise sponsorship is very welcome for Hastings no doubt, but that's an aside of a bigger overall deal

Going back a few years, we had excellent tournaments in Liverpool thanks to the hard work of Prof Robertson et al, but there's been no follow up elsewhere (and in Manchester I have tried but no-one else wants to help)

Have there been any major English events with sponsorship in the last 5 years? And as Justin asks, what has been stopping anyone organising them?