English Chess Forum

The English, Scottish and Welsh chess federations, plus the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands, officially protest against the "unacceptable breach of...jurisdiction" and "diplomatic provocation" of the Argentine Chess Federation. https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-fal ... F1poJ-Zh-E

Gens una sumus.

Paul Cooksey wrote: ↑

Fri May 31, 2019 6:06 pm

Gens una sumus.

Sed ut quosdam plus quam aliorum

Hmmmm, who was the first person in the chess world to notice and get so upset about this, then? (My own comment, not an attempted Latin translation!)

Google Translate and my Grade B O Level from 1981 aren't quite capable of solving the Latin between us, but as Jonathan suggests, there's a couple of other mysteries here, like who indeed noticed and when and how. Or how did they manage to play three whole events without anybody noticing?

(I'm on a ferry out of Barcelona and about to lose coverage, but a quick Google of torneos ajedrez malvinas suggests there might be something there for me to look at in the morning. Or other Spanish speakers beforehand.)

Link here:-

https://www.bbva.com/es/primer-torneo-o ... argentino/

This does not read like any proper chess tournament.

ECF Falklands statement wrote:The English Chess Federation administers chess activity in British Overseas Territories who are not members of FIDE in their own right.

Is this accepted fact and what does the administration currently comprise?

ECF Memorandum of Association wrote:3. The Company's objects are:
...
3.8. To provide assistance in relation to chess to British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, which are not for the time being members of Federation Internationale des Echecs, if requested to do so.

... seems less strongly stated.

I understand the game is popular amongst the penguins, although they struggle with the fact that you cannot be both black and white. Attempts to collect membership fees have proved problematic.

J T Melsom wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 01, 2019 3:58 pm

I understand the game is popular amongst the penguins, although they struggle with the fact that you cannot be both black and white. Attempts to collect membership fees have proved problematic.

And I'm told the emperor penguins tend to look down on mere kings and queens.

OK. The event that has attracted ire is to be found here. I think you'll find Google Translate perfectly adequate in this instance. It appears to have involved a number of veterans, none of any particular strength, though it also seems from the photos that they can't all have been of an age (or gender) to have seen action in 1982. There was also a match involving an Argentine veteran and a player from the Royal Navy.

There is an interview here - a site I don't know anything about -
with the organiser. (Again, you'll find Google Translate is adequate enough albeit imperfect.) This says that the players who played the match both fought in this battle. It also says there were three events, so I don't know if anybody else can locate the third one, which might explain the photos.

Tweet from Nigel Short taking offence at the end of April, though whether it was drawn to his attention (and by whom) or he spotted it himself I don't know - I guess he could tell us.

Oh curiously the Times Defence correspondent (and Biteback writer, an interesting combination) was tweeting about this early last month

Even more curiously both the Telegraph and Times happen to have run stories on this today.

I'm not very confident of FIDE ruling in the ECFs favour, even if we do now have friends in vice-high places. It seems a bit high risk given the overseas territories that normally get dragged into such disputes.

I don't have a Times subscription so do not know if that adds anything substantial. I am surprised Justin does, given the effort he has put into demonstrating much of their chess content is available somewhere else first.

I don't have a Times sub.