British Championship 2023

[Mick Norris]

Good luck Keith

[Keith Arkell]

Cheers Mick.

[David Gilbert]

Records are there to be broken. It’s reported in the 100 years History of the British Chess Championships that Edinburgh 2003 had the biggest attendance recorded of 1009. Numbers had been boosted by about 100 players from India. With only two ENG players in the Championship top 10 and the Indians taking various junior titles, that was the end of that and the invasion from the sub-continent ceased. One of the other records set in Edinburgh was getting 155 players to the Weekender - regarded then as a massive entry which did wonders for the income column of the accounts.

Twenty years ago things were a little different. The Championships were played over two weeks. There were also titles for the Under-13s, Under-11s and Under 9s. The Under 8s and 9s were played as 6-round and 7-round rapid plays and attracted large entries. Finishing 4th in the Under-9s and 13th in the Under-8s that year was Daniel Fernandez now one of the favourites for the Championship itself. There were four rated sections, two 5-day opens and a record breaking entry in the three weekender competitions. Just one Seniors event - you had to be over-60 in those days. While pensions are being paid later, chess seniors have got younger! There were no blitz events, but there were two rapid plays. I wonder what ever happened to the Harry Baines - Weeks 1 and 2. These were nine-round Opens with four days of two games and one game on Friday.

Anyway, the point of all this is that those records from 2003 are in the rear-view mirror. At Torquay in 2022 there were 1142 entries, 191 of these for the weekender. David Guthrie up-thread was asking back in May whether entries for 2023 would pick-up. Well this morning, for the British in Leicester (of all places) records have been smashed with 1295 on the list so far including a rollicking 226 volunteering to play in the weekender, and it’s not done yet. Anyone - What’s the address for the Guinness Book of Chess Records?

Later: 1301 entries, including 228 for the Weekender

[Roger de Coverly]

Records are there to be broken.

A more meaningful statistic for historic comparisons would be number of distinct entrants, but even then more recent events have been boosted by counting in blitz tournaments and having more one-day quickplay ones.

I wonder what ever happened to the Harry Baines - Weeks 1 and 2. These were nine-round Opens with four days of two games and one game on Friday.

I think it failed to survive the Isle of Man visit in 2005 where the number of entries was about half the number of rounds.

[David Gilbert]

One more thing. I hope we're all in the same Hall (and there'll be enough tables & sets!). On the Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons there'll be 500+ players.

Photographers - It's going to make a great picture.

[Roger de Coverly]

I hope we're all in the same Hall

I would rather hope we aren't, particularly during Rapidplay and Blitz tournaments when the clock bashing and milling around at the end of rounds and between rounds can disturb the concentration of those playing longer games.

[David Gilbert]

I hope we're all in the same Hall

I would rather hope we aren't, particularly during Rapidplay and Blitz tournaments when the clock bashing and milling around at the end of rounds and between rounds can disturb the concentration of those playing longer games.

Agreed - there's a junior blitz event starting at 6.00pm on Tuesday but hopefully that's elsewhere in the building. The 500+ afternoons with the same 2.30pm starting time (Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday) are all standard play - the Championship (63), Major (73), Over-50s (38), Over-65s (48) have longer time controls to the U16s (24), U14s (42), U12s (64), U10s (44), U8s (24), U2050 (27), U1750 (37) & U1450 (14).

[James Pratt]

A problem emerged somewhile back when the number of entrants and the number of entrees was discovered to be different. I'll say that again for fear of falling. Players playing in 2 events, for example, were counted as two and not just one individual. Several statistics quoted were therefore not comparable. I would like to know whether Leicester will be a record, seems it is. Thus all I enquire into is the purity of the total.

[David Gilbert]

The clock’s ticking. Another 32 entries were added over the weekend. The overall figure is now 1348. It’s a record 244 names down for the weekender and there’s bound to be a few more before Wednesday’s deadline - late entries are par for the course at weekend congresses. While half of Europe boils in extreme temperatures, the forecast for Leicester next week is for rain, rain and more rain - I’ll be leaving my Factor-50 at home. I’m off to buy an umbrella.

[Alan Walton]

A problem emerged somewhile back when the number of entrants and the number of entrees was discovered to be different.

I personally believe both numbers should always be quoted, my personal preference in the number of unique individuals rather than entries; this shows how marketable the event would be to immediate area, if you said you have a 1000 entries, but only 200 people coming, then it is highly misleading; number of entries is more of an internal measure for the ECF and it's cost/income ratio

[Rob Ensor]

A problem emerged somewhile back when the number of entrants and the number of entrees was discovered to be different. I'll say that again for fear of falling. Players playing in 2 events, for example, were counted as two and not just one individual. Several statistics quoted were therefore not comparable. I would like to know whether Leicester will be a record, seems it is. Thus all I enquire into is the purity of the total.

Copying the entrant lists in to Excel and counting unique values only gives 780 entrants.

[David Gilbert]

Cool! Another 52 entries since yesterday morning. The figure has now smashed into 1400 blowing away the previous record high of 1142 from Torquay last year. A fabulous response from the chess community - a pat on the back to all those who have entered. Who'd have thought Leicester (of all places) would be the City to attract record numbers. Sean Hewitt would undoubtedly have known!

A problem emerged somewhile back when the number of entrants and the number of entrees was discovered to be different. I'll say that again for fear of falling. Players playing in 2 events, for example, were counted as two and not just one individual. Several statistics quoted were therefore not comparable. I would like to know whether Leicester will be a record, seems it is. Thus all I enquire into is the purity of the total.

Copying the entrant lists in to Excel and counting unique values only gives 780 entrants.

In revenue terms it's the overall entry that's most important. The budget line for this year's event is for breakeven at £80k. So the "only" 780 players (without today's count) is less crucial. But for the sake of comparison my old spreadsheet has 691 names among the 1142 entries for Torquay last year - and at the time it was (probably) a record high! On Saturday and Sunday afternoons there could be as many as 400 players in the Hall, and on Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday afternoons that will swell to more than 500. Okay its not quite up to the level of the 500 board match held at my Club in 1927, but it's going to be amazing, isn't it. See you there.

[Wadih Khoury]

The player's count is important if you are trying to leverage support from councils or get rates from hotels.

The French junior championship manage to get cities bidding against each other to host the event (paying around 400k for the right to host) as the event provide 4 thousand people (including parents, coaches) of economic benefit to the region for a week.

[Wadih Khoury]

Does anyone know if one needs to register/confirm attendance and also when are the pairings for round 1 expected to come out?
The organisers must be very busy now so I'd rather not bombard them with questions I'd someone here knows the answers.

[Reg Clucas]

when are the pairings for round 1 expected to come out?

See https://www.britishchesschampionships.c ... -pairings/