English Chess Forum

Congratulation (or is it commiserations) to Sabrina and Jovanka on their new appointment. Mention must also be made of the previous efforts of Ljubica - and her gracious decision to stand aside to allow others she thought were better placed to carry forward the aims of womens chess.

It's a pity that there are some negative comments but it is perhaps to be expected, especially when we're dealing with the ECF. I should know!

Anyway, I'm going to attempt to do something positive for women's chess. As you may know we've reached an understanding with the ECF that will allow e2e4 events to continue. As a result, planned weekenders at Uxbridge in March and Sunningdale in May are back on.

So, here is my small contributuion to Women's chess. Female players can play in these two events free of charge

Thanks Sean!! That is very generous - I will make sure female players all know.

Sean Hewitt wrote:So, here is my small contributuion to Women's chess. Female players can play in these two events free of charge

Is this legal? There is a new Equality Act coming into force in a few weeks. This is lifted from their "What equality law means for your business" document (see http://tinyurl.com/2aekhce):

What is unlawful discrimination?
Unlawful discrimination can take a number of different forms:
• You must not treat a person worse just because of one or more of their protected characteristics (this is called direct discrimination).
For example:
• A shop will not serve someone because of their ethnic origin.
• A nightclub charges a higher price for entry to a man because of their sex where the service provided to a woman is otherwise exactly the same.

Matthew Turner wrote:Robert,
The World Universities Championships was a fantastic event. It was great that Hannah, Sarah, Peter and Vedantha could play. They were able to participate because Alex Holowczak put in a huge amount of work to make it happen. It is also absolutely appropriate that the ECF should financially support this event and I think it is a very good idea that the players should have to produce post event publicity as a condition of their support. I think everybody agrees on that.
If however you are saying that Geat Britain's female representatives should get more financial support than their male counterparts (because they are female) then I'm not sure that I see why.

Just got home and read your post, Matthew. I have re-read my own comment and cannot see any way anyone could read into it a suggestion that female competitors should get more support than male. I was simply expressing thanks for the help that was given. I am well aware of Alex's hard work - I thanked him on a separate thread some while ago. Maybe I should throw in a word of thanks to Lorin D'Costa as well, in case anyone thinks I have forgotten him!

Regarding the general theme of what Sabrina and Jovanka can do, I am sure they will have many ideas. But like football managers, they need time. We must not judge on the first few months, or even the first year, while ideas are still being formulated.

Regarding the general theme of what Sabrina and Jovanka can do, I am sure they will have many ideas. But like football managers, they need time. We must not judge on the first few months, or even the first year, while ideas are still being formulated.

Yes Robert, I really hope we do not get judged like Roy Hodgson has to the glamorous start of the Liverpool season

Females allowed free in a tournament?

Gosh, Sabrina and Jovanka have only be in the job a few days
and already girls don't have to pay an entrance fee!

So now it's free entrance is for GM's, IM's and any female with spare time on her hands.

I'm sorry but girls play just as well as the boys. There is no difference.
Same game, same rules.

If we want to attract more females to chess then treating them as equals
would be a nice start rather than this condescending wee pat on the head.

If free entrance is an option then how about
it being offered to all those under 16 of both sexes.

PS:
Good luck to Sabrina and Jovanka . But they won't need it.
You cannot buy fresh Ideas, young bright faces and the optimism of youth.

(The only negativity I can see from Mathew's posts are his concerns that they
may get embroiled with the ECF red tape).

Chess Scotland gave over the running of it's magazine to two (then) 17 year olds
and that has turned out to be a great success.

I would like to know what evidence Matthew uses where he seems to think that for the 6 months that I was in the post, I achieved nothing.

Geoff Chandler wrote: So now it's free entrance is for GM's, IM's and any female with spare time on her hands.

I'm sorry but girls play just as well as the boys. There is no difference.
Same game, same rules.

If we want to attract more females to chess then treating them as equals
would be a nice start rather than this condescending wee pat on the head.

Hey Geoff

I can see how this might seem condescending but I know that Sean means it in a nice way and he is doing what he can to help more females play. It is a nice gesture. At the moment, due to the ration of men:women, a lot of women are deterred from the game. Money is a big issue with everyone and of course if I could I would like to help both sexes, but there are a lot of men who will still find a way to play the game regardless. Women, however, seem to have more difficulty so I hope I can change this.

I am happy that he is willing to help. Any other kind contributions will be much appreciated and also any other ideas would be much welcomed

Thanks

Ljubica there can be no doubt that Matthew owes you a sincere and grovelling apology for his comments. There can be no justification for his attack on you.

Hi Sabrina,

I can see the gesture and realise it's meant with all good intent.

I did not know women are deterred from the game because more men play it.
I've never been a woman.
So you will know much better than me what has put girls off playing chess.

Thought this might be an attraction to the girls as chess is without
doubt a level playing surface.

Perhaps I'm looking at this from my point of view.
If I could play a sport where the girls out number the guys 20-1 then
I know I would certainly be interested.

Money is tight all over. Just trying to get young lads a piece of the pie.

These days I would have thought it would be easier to get the girls at the board
then boys. Trying to get young boys away from their X-Box is like asking a
Christian to give up his faith.

Sure you and your mate will have loads of new and good ideas.

I'd run the more radical ones past Ljubica or someone who has had experience
in dealing with the ECF first.
This is so you can word your proposal/idea in such a way that will not give
them heart attacks.

Good Luck

Matthew Turner wrote:Ben,
This is the breakdown of the fundraising from the Staunton Dinner

Karpov 2010 - £4216.07 (although it also received a private donation of $10,000 on the night)
National Bullying Helpline - £720.42
Child Care Charity - £1200
British Chess Championship 2011 - £7000

So, I don't think that brought in any money for Women's Chess. Perhaps CJ has done something else to raise funds?

CJ spoke at the AGM, where he explicitly used the words "£500 for Women's Chess" when referring to money raised at the Staunton Dinner.

Ljubica wrote
"I would like to know what evidence Matthew uses where he seems to think that for the 6 months that I was in the post, I achieved nothing."

Well the bottom lines is that there was no chess activity that took place that wouldn't have taken place had you not been in post. Now that is not quite the same as saying you achieved nothing. I think this was always quite a likely outcome, because there are no resources in the ECF Women's budget and you are going to waste a lot of time on bureaucracy. Hopefully, over the next six months and beyond you will achieve a lot for Women's chess. You can probably achieve more outside the ECF than within it, We've heard you've got some fantastic ideas, so get out there and make it happen.

Alex,
OK so the Staunton Dinner raised £500 for "Women's Chess". However, my guess would be that this will probably go towards supporting Jovanka at the World Championships. I think this falls under the jurisdiction of the International Director, so I doubt it would be there for the manager of women's chess to use.
This highlights a problem with the manager of women's chess role. The junior stuff is handled by the Junior Director and the International stuff is handled by the International Director, so it is not entirely clear what is left.

Matthew Turner wrote:Alex,
OK so the Staunton Dinner raised £500 for "Women's Chess". However, my guess would be that this will probably go towards supporting Jovanka at the World Championships. I think this falls under the jurisdiction of the International Director, so I doubt it would be there for the manager of women's chess to use.
This highlights a problem with the manager of women's chess role. The junior stuff is handled by the Junior Director and the International stuff is handled by the International Director, so it is not entirely clear what is left.

Some Directorships have an overlap. E.g. the World Youth team has an overlap between Junior and International, but comes out of the Junior budget. I don't think it's confined to the Manager for Women's Chess role.

If Jovanka does get that money, I do hope no one starts going on about a conflict of interest...

Alex,
I entirely agree with all of that.