English Chess Forum

Here are the results to date (subject to objections/amendments etc):-

Open (12 May) Yorkshire 10 Essex 6

Minor (12 May) Devon 9.5 - Worcestershire 6.5
Lincolnshire 9.5 - Norfolk 6.5

Under 160 (12 May) Suffolk 6 Essex 10

Under 120 (5th May) Warwickshire 7 Essex 5
(12th May) Leicestershire 8.5 - Surrey 3.5

No doubt there will be updates and more results shortly.

In the Minor, Surrey defeated Cornwall by something like 12-4.

Still nothing on Suffolk - Warwickshire in the Minor Counties. Did it happen?

Official match results are being posted on the ECF League Management System: http://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/36/home

U160 Yorks 9½ - 6½ Herts, played at Evergreen Village Hall, Sharnford, Leicestershire

Under 120 (12th May) Norfolk beat Lancs on board count
(13th May) Middlesex 8-4 Notts
Merseyside v Warks is scheduled for 19 May in the last quarter final

Who determines the time controls for the final stages? Surrey's Minor Counties fixture last Saturday consisted of four hour games. Having travelled so far, I felt we deserved something better than that.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Mon May 14, 2018 10:53 am

Who determines the time controls for the final stages?

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-cont ... 7-2018.pdf

in which

E3. Time Limit
E3.1. The time limit shall be 40 moves in 110 minutes, plus a 25-minute quickplay finish, plus a 10-second increment per move from move 1.
E3.2. Where suitable digital clocks are not available for an entire match to be played with this time limit, then the time limit shall be 40 moves in 2 hours, plus a 30-minute quickplay finish.
E3.3. The time limit of any match may be varied by agreement between the captains with the permission of the Controller.

Blame the Surrey captain, the Cornwall captain and the Controller if you only got a four hour session !

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Mon May 14, 2018 11:06 am

Blame the Surrey captain, the Cornwall captain and the Controller if you only got a four hour session !

Thanks. It would probably be a bit unfair to blame the Controller.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Mon May 14, 2018 11:45 am

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Mon May 14, 2018 11:06 am

Blame the Surrey captain, the Cornwall captain and the Controller if you only got a four hour session !

Thanks. It would probably be a bit unfair to blame the Controller.

The Controller is only involved in this to stop the Open teams agreeing to a time limit that would make the match not eligible for FIDE-rating; e.g. the first time period at move 40.

There was a hold up on sets and boards. Late running in Cornwall too for arriving with these and also became apparent that Cornwall would default my board 16 as no clearance for a 6 year old or his father (or any of the Cornwall spectators). I was offered an ECF rated game but did not get one. I was very happy with a restful long day and if I had known I was not going to play I would have gone for the Hazy Cider rather than non-alcoholic choice for lunch with our meal.

Anyway the 6 year old's mother received a photo by phone of our match and he was very delighted with it as was his father. And let's give some credit to the older brother that won and also the National Junior set-up for their work too.

The arbiter did very well and made an appropriate adjustment which was clearly announced and why. Everyone was aware of this. Thanks to Trowbridge too. The actual venue was one of the better ones for a quarterfinal.

If any later I would have missed a last train home and some others too. God knows what time or whether all the Cornwall players and spectators got home at all.

This year's minor counties is not eligible for fide rating anyway Nick so why moan? Move 36 is an appropriate move control for ECF rating purposes.

Nick Grey wrote: ↑

Mon May 14, 2018 9:43 pm

This year's minor counties is not eligible for fide rating anyway Nick so why moan? Move 36 is an appropriate move control for ECF rating purposes.

I don't believe I said anything about 36 moves. I do think that having blocked out an entire day for one game of chess the players deserve something better than four hours.

Truro- Trowbridge= 3hrs+ each way, 350 mile round trip.

I'm guessing there were similar length journeys from parts of Surrey.

A 2pm start would've meant setting off 10.30/ 11am, getting home 9- 9.30pm at best.

I can't imagine there were many people there that wanted the chess to last an extra hour.

Besides, whats wrong with a 4hr session? 2hrs each thinking time for a game of chess is plenty.

benedgell wrote: ↑

Tue May 15, 2018 8:45 am

Besides, whats wrong with a 4hr session? 2hrs each thinking time for a game of chess is plenty.

This is the thinking that has caused the ECF to view the County Championship as just a sort of second rate 4NCL. Perhaps they're right.

benedgell wrote: ↑

Tue May 15, 2018 8:40 am

Truro- Trowbridge= 3hrs+ each way, 350 mile round trip.

I'm surprised no-one has worked out a mechanism for playing telephone matches using current technology. In skeleton, you take your PC, tablet or smart phone to a local central venue or venues, connect your device to a server using wi-fi or otherwise and play in real time. You have a local central venue to enable an arbiter or neutral steward to be present.