English Chess Forum

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:21 am

Keith Arkell wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 10, 2019 3:09 am

The ECF site is awful these days. Hard to find anything anywhere. Eg, not that it means anything, but I challenge anyone to find the latest Grand Prix leaderboards in less than 15 minutes.

I managed it in 2 - 3 minutes, discovering that you are currently in second place.

Well I didn't. Gave up after ten minutes or so, noting that I hadn't seen anything from Stewart either. Maybe midday still counts as "morning".

On a happier note, nice game from Keith today with a far from obvious finish.

I wonder what happened on Board 2.

I think that game is still in progress, despite being shown as a win for Black.

Terry Chapman drew with Zurab Sturura, so will be at least still tied for the lead depending on the result on board 2.

Re Keith's, David's and Simon's posts, what's wrong with clicking on 'ECF Grand Prix' on the ECF website home page?

Five seconds tops, as David Gilbert says.

Come on guys......

Board 2 was drawn as well. That leaves Terry Chapman still in the sole lead by half a point with four rounds to go, having played the top two seeds. Let's hope he can keep that lead intact in the next round and indeed to the end of the event!

Mike Truran wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:51 pm

Re Keith's, David's and Simon's posts, what's wrong with clicking on 'ECF Grand Prix' on the ECF website home page?

1. You can't see it when you go to the ECF home page - you have to scroll down and then spot it amongst a large number of other links.
2. There are links at the top of the page that you can see when yo go to the home page, so that's the obvious place to start looking.

Mike

Ian beat me to it, and I would add, as an infrequent visitor to the site

1. The home page is far too busy. I'm currently looking at a 17" screen and can see only half of it before scrolling down. On a phone or iPad, barely 10% of it.
2. It isn't intuitive. There are two banks of links at the top, so you would expect to be able to access everything from there. And even if you find the link to the ECF Grand Prix, there are the same two banks of links prominent at the top, with the link to the current standings halfway down the page, again difficult to find on a phone or iPad.

Simon

Control + F is a very useful facility in Google Chrome to find text on a web page.
For instance it finds and highlights the occurrence of 'tie' on this web page.
Probably other browsers have a similar facility, but possibly not phones.

Neill Cooper wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 11, 2019 9:55 pm

Control + F is a very useful facility in Google Chrome to find text on a web page.
For instance it finds and highlights the occurrence of 'tie' on this web page.
Probably other browsers have a similar facility, but possibly not phones.

Chrome on an Android phone does; if you click the three dots, one of the options is "Find in page". You then get the equivalent text window to the one when you press Ctrl + F.

It's true that we used to have all the links in dropdowns at the top of the page, but far more people complained that these were too busy and too complex and that all the links should be visible than are complaining here, so I put them all in plain sight. However, as the one, the only webmaster, I am open to ALL constructive criticism from interested and knowledgeable parties to improve the websites (all seven, if you count the development site) but this must be constructive, and not the other kind
Seniors, incidentally, has its own site - https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Seniors/ - and the Rhodes post is expanding almost daily as and when I receive anything from my boy Stewart ...

... but thanks for the few kind words, Keith A. You can always reach me at the office, rather than via this forum, where I am very, VERY rarely ...

Terry Chapman lost in round 6 (to Milos Pavlovic), but in round 7 he is one of a group of 5 on 4.5/6, half a point behind his conqueror who is the new leader. Keith Arkell in a group of 6 on 4/6. Round 7 is later today. Terry playing Fabio Bruno.

I guess my criticism went a little OTT, for which apologies to Andrew whom I've just emailed at the ECF Office.

Access to the GP Leaderboard seems not as hard now, and it's been updated to include the last 3 or 4 months of results.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 12, 2019 12:01 pm

Terry Chapman lost in round 6 (to Milos Pavlovic), but in round 7 he is one of a group of 5 on 4.5/6, half a point behind his conqueror who is the new leader. Keith Arkell in a group of 6 on 4/6. Round 7 is later today. Terry playing Fabio Bruno.

Unfortunately Terry lost again; two Blacks in a row at a crucial time was tough, but he still has good chances of a medal (he's joint third and should have the best tiebreak?) and presumably an IM norm?

Today's top boards in round 8 (of 9) in the 50+ are:

ARKELL (4.5) v Sturua (5): Memories of the Worlds in 2014 when Sturua won the event on tiebreak. Time for revenge Go Keith!
Bruno (5) v Danielsen (4.5)
Van den Bers (4) v Pavlovic (4.5)
CHAPMAN (4.5) v WGM Grabuzova (4)

Keith and Terry might have to meet in the last round.

Tony Stebbings is again doing very well in the 65+. He beat Phil Giulian from Scotland yesterday.
Top pairings:
GM Balashov (6) v Kalegin (4)
Stebbings (5) v GM Jens Kristiansen (6)

Finally, a question to anyone reading this who is actually in Rhodes: is there any information yet about the European Senior Team Championships, due to be held in Croatia in September? The ECU calendar still names a different venue from the FIDE calendar although my information is that the latter is correct and the event will be held in Mali Losinj?

Tim Harding wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 13, 2019 12:01 pm

and presumably an IM norm?

Which would be pretty interesting in itself, given that it's a Senior Championship. Terry Chapman is 62 - what precedents are there for IM (or indeed GM) norms earned by older players?