Supratit Banerjee

[LawrenceCooper]

His transfer from Scotland to England has been confirmed on the FIDE website: https://ratings.fide.com/fedchange.phtml?year=2024

ID Name Federation Form.Fed Transfer Date Notification Date

2410079 Banerjee, Supratit ENG SCO 2024-02-15 2024-02-15

Last FIDE event: 2023 FIDE World Cadets Chess Champ Open U10

Citizenship: IND

Date of eligibility to participate in the FIDE events under the new flag 2024-02-16

Transfer fee Euro 500

Date starting from which a player can represent the new federation fee free 2025-10-27

[John Upham]

Do we know who is responsible for paying the transfer fee?

The player, the NGB or some combination of the two.

I suspect that the ECF would pay for myself to transfer to any other NGB.

[Paul Bloom]

Probably the parents as they support him in every way they can . He is a very active member at CCF . This Kid is the next big name in English chess
He will be a GM at a much younger age than Shreyas FIDE is 2137 and he is 9

[John Upham]

As you would probably imagine not everyone was massively pleased with this turn of events.

Chess Scotland:

Federation Transfer Update

Chess Scotland regrets to announce that Supratit Banerjee, one of the top players in the world for his age, has transferred federations from Scotland to England.

Supratit is second in the world for his age with a rating of 2137, only one point behind the leader and almost 200 points above the player in third place.

We wish him well in the future.

I can only imagine how painful and frustrating this must have been for CS: you have my sincere sympathies.

and from an earlier post:

Scotland win Glorney cup for the first time in 65 years, in panic Westminster government decides chess in England needs proper funding and awards them £1/2 million.

I would imagine Alex McFarlane has strong opinions on this matter. As an ECF member I'm not feeling particularly proud of this transfer.

[Ian Thompson]

As an ECF member I'm not feeling particularly proud of this transfer.

Are you suggesting the ECF encouraged or facilitated the transfer in some way (beyond refusing to accept it, as I assume a federation would have the right to do for an undesirable player)?

So what, either way? According to the FIDE transfer record he's an Indian citizen, so you'd expect him either to be registered with India or with the federation he's currently residing in, which I assume is England as he's currently playing club chess in Surrey.

[John Upham]

As an ECF member I'm not feeling particularly proud of this transfer.

Are you suggesting the ECF encouraged or facilitated the transfer in some way (beyond refusing to accept it, as I assume a federation would have the right to do for an undesirable player)?

So what, either way? According to the FIDE transfer record he's an Indian citizen, so you'd expect him either to be registered with India or with the federation he's currently residing in, which I assume is England as he's currently playing club chess in Surrey.

No

and

You are correct but I am less ambivalent than "So what". If it was that trivial then why bother changing?

[Jonathan Rogers]

I see that John is not suggesting that the "ECF encouraged or facilitated the transfer in some way (beyond refusing to accept it, as I assume a federation would have the right to do for an undesirable player)".

Why then did he say earlier that "As an ECF member I'm not feeling particularly proud of this transfer"?

But anyway the question remains - did the ECF facilitate this, i.e, did someone in some position of authority suggest that his chess career would be better served as part of the ECF rather than CS? To my mind there are two possibilities and seemingly like everyone else, including perhaps John, I am absolutely unable to choose between them.

Possibility number one: the parents, having benefited from CS support, but being very impressed with what they have heard about the ECF, take it upon themselves to request a transfer, either before of after paying 500 Euros into the bargain

Possibility number two: the federation which in some quarters (including its membership) appears to be obsessed with securing world beating talent in the hope of reliving the 1980s, and which has form in facilitating international transfers, including transferring a new number one in English chess without telling the rest of the Olympiad team, might just have suggested it.

Well, it could easily be one or the other, surely?

[LawrenceCooper]

From the Chess Scotland forum: https://www.chessscotland.com/forum/thread-2280.html

[John Upham]

Possibly the grant for the ECF from the DCMS recently secured by the good offices of Malcolm and Dominic might tend to suggest that the English NGB would be in a better position to provide funds to support elite coaching, travel bursaries, "conditions" and other levers.

We might not be aware that the Scottish NGB is in no position to supply. I genuinely felt their pain.

It reminded me of the pain I felt when running four 4NCL teams we did not have a team in Division one and juniors supported for some time in lower divisions weighed their 4NCL anchors and jumped ship to a higher division.

However, all of this is mere speculation and probably none of our business or indeed mine.

On a personal level I would like to see chess strength within the UK, or indeed GB, more evenly distributed amongst the home nations. I was delighted to see CS having success in the Glorney Cup.

On an unrelated matter I would like to see junior chess activity more evenly spread across England rather then being hugely London and home counties centric but this is for another time and perhaps another place. Of course a key factor here is the concentration of primary schools with chess clubs surrounding and in London.

[Paul Bloom]

its battle of the super Juniors today at Cambridge open Bodhana vs Supratit

[John Upham]

Before everyone gets too excited we have news of another eight year old doing quite well:

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/8-old- ... 06286.html