e2e4 Grand Prix

[Alex Holowczak]

2009 British: Eden, Kolbus

Doh! One's my club mate and I played the other, a rather long game...

If it makes you feel better, Loz forgot to list his team mate (Maciol) in the 2010 list.

[LozCooper]

2010 British: Slavin, Tymrakiewicz, Maciol, Padilla Cabero, Vrubl, Krzyzanowski,
2009 British: Eden, Kolbus

[Sean Hewitt]

2010 British: Slavin, Tymrakiewicz, Maciol, Padilla Cabero, Vrubl, Krzyzanowski,
2009 British: Eden, Kolbus

I suspect that this is fine whilst the players are paying an entry fee and not strong enough to win the event. If a strong GM were to move the the UK though...

[Alex Holowczak]

2010 British: Slavin, Tymrakiewicz, Maciol, Padilla Cabero, Vrubl, Krzyzanowski,
2009 British: Eden, Kolbus

I suspect that this is fine whilst the players are paying an entry fee and not strong enough to win the event. If a strong GM were to move the the UK though...

I think this whole conversation is rather loony.

If a Polish citizen has a FIDE nationality of Poland, why is he any more British if he is a Polish citizen but with a FIDE nationality of England?

If a British citizen - I'm thinking of dual citizenship here - has a FIDE nationality of Poland, would he be any more British if his FIDE nationality became England?

[Roger de Coverly]

It seems fundamentally wrong to me that there should be any possibility of the British champion being anything other than British.

Setting aside the Indians, historical precedent has both Yanofsky (Canadian 1953) and of course Bob Wade (1952 and 1970). Bob varied over time as to whether he was ENG or NZL.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I suspect that this is fine whilst the players are paying an entry fee and not strong enough to win the event. If a strong GM were to move the the UK though...

It's already happened in both directions: Aagaard won the title in 2007 as a naturalized Scot (he has since transferred back to Denmark), and UK-born Gallagher won the title in 2001 under the Switzerland flag.

[Adam Raoof]

2010 British: Slavin, Tymrakiewicz, Maciol, Padilla Cabero, Vrubl, Krzyzanowski,
2009 British: Eden, Kolbus

I suspect that this is fine whilst the players are paying an entry fee and not strong enough to win the event. If a strong GM were to move the the UK though...

I think this whole conversation is rather loony.

If a Polish citizen has a FIDE nationality of Poland, why is he any more British if he is a Polish citizen but with a FIDE nationality of England?

If a British citizen - I'm thinking of dual citizenship here - has a FIDE nationality of Poland, would he be any more British if his FIDE nationality became England?

I'm not really that bothered about 'British', so I don't regard either example as relevant. But I do genuinely believe that anyone who wants to play in the Championship event should be, first and foremost, registered with one of the BICC nations. I don't care too much if that doesn't happen, but let's use these examples;

1) Let's make the event an Open, where anyone can play. How do you decide who should win the title of the British Champion?

2) Sebastian Feller comes to study in Oxford University for a year. Should he be allowed to play at the British in the Championship event?

As Sean points out it doesn't really trouble anyone if they are relatively weak players, but once they look like they might win the event, it does give cause for thought. Your FIDE affiliation is the first indicator of your eligibilty for most events, and if you want to query who we allow to become ENG and how then that's another topic. If someone lives here and wants to play in the British, then they should register with [ENG etc] if we allow them, and if we don't then they can't. The problem with that is if everyone did that we might not have enough non-English players for our norm events - but I can't see that in practice this would happen. For one thing, those players would lose their invitations to norm events based on their non-host nation status, and for another thing, we wouldn't allow that to happen!

In the examples that Jack quotes, I wouldn't have allowed Gallagher to play. I would have allowed Aagaard to play, but I would have made it very hard for him to transfer in and out of SCO so quickly.

[Sean Hewitt]

In the examples that Jack quotes, I wouldn't have allowed Gallagher to play. I would have allowed Aagaard to play, but I would have made it very hard for him to transfer in and out of SCO so quickly.

And there is your dilemma. Joe is and always was (I suspect) a British Citizen.

[Alex Holowczak]

I'm not really that bothered about 'British', so I don't regard either example as relevant. But I do genuinely believe that anyone who wants to play in the Championship event should be, first and foremost, registered with one of the BICC nations. I don't care too much if that doesn't happen, but let's use these examples;

1) Let's make the event an Open, where anyone can play. How do you decide who should win the title of the British Champion?

2) Sebastian Feller comes to study in Oxford University for a year. Should he be allowed to play at the British in the Championship event?

(1) The same as you do for something like the Warwickshire Open. The winner of the Warwickshire closed title is awarded to someone who has a connection to Warwickshire. This year, first place was shared between Sygnowski, Maciol and Weaving. Sygnowski and Maciol are Polish. Sygnowski had no claim to Warwickshire, so didn't win the closed title, but as British resident qualified for the British. Maciol and Weaving thus shared the Warwickshire closed title. Weaving lives in Warwick, Maciol lives in Bordesley, and attends Aston University.

(2) Feller is a bad example; he shouldn't be allowed in for other reasons. If Etienne Bacrot studied at Oxford for a year, yes, he should be allowed to play in the British Championship. He's clearly resident here, and would probably play in events like the 4NCL, London and the Varsity match, all of which are important English events.

As Sean points out it doesn't really trouble anyone if they are relatively weak players, but once they look like they might win the event, it does give cause for thought. Your FIDE affiliation is the first indicator of your eligibilty for most events, and if you want to query who we allow to become ENG and how then that's another topic. If someone lives here and wants to play in the British, then they should register with [ENG etc] if we allow them, and if we don't then they can't. The problem with that is if everyone did that we might not have enough non-English players for our norm events - but I can't see that in practice this would happen. For one thing, those players would lose their invitations to norm events based on their non-host nation status, and for another thing, we woudn't allow that to happen!

Who becomes ENG is effectively the domain of the Director of International Chess. If you want someone to play in the British, I'm quite happy for you to insist they should be ECF Direct Members. If Bacrot were forced to change to England, he'd have to pay £10,000 or more. Who are the ECF to insist he should pay such a fee, just to play chess in the British Championship?

In the examples that Jack quotes, I wouldn't have allowed Gallagher to play. I would have allowed Aagaard to play, but I would have made it very hard for him to transfer in and out of SCO so quickly.

You have zero power to stop Aagaard transferring in and out of Scotland, in just the same way you have no power to stop an Argentine Grandmaster transferring to Italy.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

In the examples that Jack quotes, I wouldn't have allowed Gallagher to play. I would have allowed Aagaard to play, but I would have made it very hard for him to transfer in and out of SCO so quickly.

I think not allowing Gallagher to play would have been harsh. As for making it difficult to switch federations, I think FIDE already make it difficult. There are some complicated rules and amounts of money you (or the federation) have to pay, and the amounts are eye-watering in some cases. Speaking of Aagaard, does he still live in Scotland? I presume so as he is listed as qualified to play in this year's British.

To raise another example, the Russian GM Alexander Cherniaev is certainly qualified by rating to play at the British, and seems to have been in the UK for ages, but isn't listed (maybe he turns up at congresses all over Europe, I wouldn't know). I don't want to pry if residency matters are private, but it made me wonder if residency matters are largely on the public record or not?

PS. Would making a list of the non-ENG players listed here be potentially counter-productive?

http://www.britishchess2011.com/qualifi ... 11.htm#all

I assume they are all resident in the UK - or does it work some other way? How does it work with Ireland again?

[Alex Holowczak]

To raise another example, the Russian GM Alexander Cherniaev is certainly qualified by rating to play at the British, and seems to have been in the UK for ages, but isn't listed (maybe he turns up at congresses all over Europe, I wouldn't know). I don't want to pry if residency matters are private, but it made me wonder if residency matters are largely on the public record or not?

They declined his entry for the British a few years ago, and he ended up having to make do with the Week 1 and Week 2 Afternoon Opens. I suspect this is a residency problem.

[Adam Raoof]

In the examples that Jack quotes, I wouldn't have allowed Gallagher to play. I would have allowed Aagaard to play, but I would have made it very hard for him to transfer in and out of SCO so quickly.

I think not allowing Gallagher to play would have been harsh. As for making it difficult to switch federations, I think FIDE already make it difficult. There are some complicated rules and amounts of money you (or the federation) have to pay, and the amounts are eye-watering in some cases. Speaking of Aagaard, does he still live in Scotland? I presume so as he is listed as qualified to play in this year's British.

To raise another example, the Russian GM Alexander Cherniaev is certainly qualified by rating to play at the British, and seems to have been in the UK for ages, but isn't listed (maybe he turns up at congresses all over Europe, I wouldn't know). I don't want to pry if residency matters are private, but it made me wonder if residency matters are largely on the public record or not?

Why would it have been harsh? If someone changes FIDE afflilation in order to play in the Swiss Championship and represent Switzerland, I think they have clearly indicated where their loyalty lies.

Cherniaev doesn't live here.

But what if he did?

[Roger de Coverly]

To raise another example, the Russian GM Alexander Cherniaev is certainly qualified by rating to play at the British, and seems to have been in the UK for ages, but isn't listed (maybe he turns up at congresses all over Europe, I wouldn't know). I don't want to pry if residency matters are private, but it made me wonder if residency matters are largely on the public record or not?

Just as a guess, I'd imagine you would have to demonstrate to the ECF or whoever controlled the eligibility list that you were qualified by residence. Talking of Oxford University, Amon Simutowe might be eligible, but if he isn't interested in playing, then presumably hasn't done anything about getting himself on the list.

The Scottish Championship is often run as an Open so as to get sufficient titled players for Norm chances. The Champion is best Scot but that definition includes residency. Isn't the current Scottish champion originally from Cornwall?

[IM Jack Rudd]

Cherniaev doesn't live here.

But what if he did?

Then he'd be eligible to play. He'd also be extremely unlikely to win it; he's not strong enough.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The Scottish Championship is often run as an Open so as to get sufficient titled players for Norm chances. The Champion is best Scot but that definition includes residency. Isn't the current Scottish champion originally from Cornwall?

http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/e ... ships-2010

"Andrew Greet won the tournament with 7.5/9 and became eligible for the title as he has lived in Scotland for two years (working for the Quality Chess company)."

Dunno about Somerset.