English Chess Forum

Entries are now open for the 2025 event which runs from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 April 2025 at the same University of Surrey venue as before.
5-round Swiss in four sections:
• Open
• Major – U2000
• Minor – U1600
• Senior – aged 60+ on 1 January 2025.
All sections ECF-rated and FIDE-rated.
Time control G90 + 30s, reducing to 10s after move 100.
Total prize fund £3300.
Entry fee £45 (ECF Gold / Platinum), £57 (ECF other / non-member), £46.50 (other FIDE).
Boards 1–10 in the Open will be live-streamed.
The Open is also the SCCU Championship 2025. The winner qualifies for the British Championships 2025.
All details including an online entry form are online at https://www.guildfordchessclub.com/activities/GFC.html.

There has been a change to the entry fee structure following publication of the new ECF charges for 2024/25:

Entry fee
The entry fee is the same for all sections:
£45 – ECF Gold / Platinum members.
£60 – All others (i.e. +£15).

This reflects the new ECF arrangements for Membership, Pay to Play and Game Fees 2024/25. For more details see https://www.englishchess.org.uk/members ... 024-25-v1/.

James Toon wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 25, 2024 11:04 am

£60 – All others (i.e. +£15).

This reflects the new ECF arrangements for Membership, Pay to Play and Game Fees 2024/25.

You decided not to take advantage of the £ 6 pay to play concession for junior non-members.

Yes. I prefer to keep things as simple as possible.

By the way it's not clear to me whether the £6 Junior P2P concession applies to Juniors from other FIDE Federations as well as to ENG registered Juniors.

For information there were 57 Juniors in the Guildford FIDE Congress 2024. Of these, 50 were Junior Gold, 6 were Junior Silver, and 1 was from another FIDE Federation. No Junior Bronze.

The Guildford FIDE Congress will now take place on the weekend of 25 to 27 April 2025, and not the weekend of 11 to 13 April 2025 as earlier advertised. The University of Surrey have told us that the venue is no longer available on the original date as they have had to accommodate a large university event on that date at short notice.

James Toon wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 29, 2024 2:23 pm

The Guildford FIDE Congress will now take place on the weekend of 25 to 27 April 2025, and not the weekend of 11 to 13 April 2025 as earlier advertised.

The entry on chess-results is still showing the earlier dates.
https://chess-results.com/tnr1066498.as ... turdet=YES

You now have a clash with the English Seniors scheduled for the 24th to 28th April.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 02, 2025 10:55 am

James Toon wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 29, 2024 2:23 pm

The Guildford FIDE Congress will now take place on the weekend of 25 to 27 April 2025, and not the weekend of 11 to 13 April 2025 as earlier advertised.

The entry on chess-results is still showing the earlier dates.
https://chess-results.com/tnr1066498.as ... turdet=YES

You now have a clash with the English Seniors scheduled for the 24th to 28th April.

Roger
Thanks for pointing this out. The entry on chess-results has now been updated. The clash with the English Seniors is unfortunate but the new date for the Guildford FIDE congress is the only date on which the venue was available.

Congress numbers are much lower than expected: only about 70 so far, compared to 135 in 2023 and 160 in 2024. The reasons are unclear. There is competition from other events – but that was the same before.

The congress is no longer viable as currently structured. We decided to keep it in the calendar but we have had to merge some of the sections and reduce the prize money accordingly. All entrants have been notified and anyone who withdraws will receive a full refund.

Essentially we have dropped the Minor and Senior sections, and moved their players into the Major, except for Seniors rated 2000+ who have been moved to the Open. The revised entry lists are on Chess-Results.

So the congress details are now as follows:

The 2025 event runs from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 April 2025 at the same University of Surrey venue as before.
5-round Swiss in two sections:
• Open
• Major – U2000
Both sections ECF-rated and FIDE-rated.
Time control G90 + 30s, reducing to 10s after move 100.
Total prize fund £1700.
Entry fee £45 (ECF Gold / Platinum), £60 all others.
Boards 1–10 in the Open will be live-streamed.
The Open is also the SCCU Championship 2025. The winner qualifies for the British Championships 2025.
All details including an online entry form are online at https://www.guildfordchessclub.com/activities/GFC.html.

James Toon wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 15, 2025 1:33 pm

Congress numbers are much lower than expected: only about 70 so far, compared to 135 in 2023 and 160 in 2024. The reasons are unclear. There is competition from other events – but that was the same before.

The English Seniors has 65 entries across both tournaments at the time of writing, many of whom are Congress circuit regulars. It's also a daunting tournament for players under 1700 being full of ageing sharks.

It's often the case that people now leave it to the next to last minute to enter tournaments particularly if they don't need to book accommodation or travel.

I cannot help but feel that the U2000 is already too large with a wide spread of ratings and will likely get more so with late entries. The Open on the other hand doesn't seem particularly well subscribed despite having the SCCU title and a British Championhip place on offer.