British 2015 Round by Round

[Alan Tate]

How many would fall into that category, out of interest?

Over the next few years, potentially somewhere between 5 and 10 of active Scots. Wales have 2 players above 2400 at present. As an afterthought, there would be no harm in the individual competition created by such an incentive. Anyway, probably better to resolve this privately rather than blurting out the first thought that enters my head

[Brian Towers]

How many would fall into that category, out of interest?

Over the next few years, potentially somewhere between 5 and 10 of active Scots. Wales have 2 players above 2400 at present. As an afterthought, there would be no harm in the individual competition created by such an incentive. Anyway, probably better to resolve this privately rather than blurting out the first thought that enters my head

Do you mean "Barnet Formula for Chess"?

[Mick Norris]

How many would fall into that category, out of interest?

Over the next few years, potentially somewhere between 5 and 10 of active Scots. Wales have 2 players above 2400 at present. As an afterthought, there would be no harm in the individual competition created by such an incentive. Anyway, probably better to resolve this privately rather than blurting out the first thought that enters my head

What do Chess Scotland and their Welsh equivalent do to support their stronger players financially to enter tournaments?

What do the Scottish and Welsh Championships offer to English GMs (or IMs)?

[NickFaulks]

What do the Scottish and Welsh Championships offer to English GMs (or IMs)?

This question seems to assume that the British Championship is really the English Championship. Perhaps it is, but in that case it should change its name.

[Roger de Coverly]

What do the Scottish and Welsh Championships offer to English GMs (or IMs)?

The Welsh Championships are an exclusively Welsh event, only English players who could fulfil family or residence qualifications for WLS being eligible.

The Scottish championships in most years have a few invited players from outside SCO. This gives Norm chances for Scottish players and seems a generally agreed policy unlike in the Republic of Ireland where many are against invited players.

This is this year's final result. It styled itself as an Open, so anyone could play, even if titles were reserved for the top Scottish players.
http://www.scottishchesschamp.co.uk/SMWSite/index.html

Ignoring fillers, it attracted a respectable total of 98 players, albeit with a low rated tail.

The 2014 event was also the Commonwealth Championship so there was a large group of Indian players
http://www.chessscotland.com/scottishch ... mpionship/

2013 featured Gawain Jones, Mark Hebden and Danny Gormally
http://www.chessscotland.com/event2014/ ... _Open.html

2012 also had Mark, Danny and Jonathan Hawkins
http://www.chessscotland.com/scottishch ... index.html

[Mick Norris]

Thanks Roger, there are clearly different approaches across Wales, Ireland and Scotland

Do you happen to remember what the live coverage, if any, was like in those events?

[Roger de Coverly]

Do you happen to remember what the live coverage, if any, was like in those events?

Reverse engineering from what's on the chessbomb site

Scottish Championship
http://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2015-scotland

The Welsh Championship was also broadcast, but no links remain
http://www.welshchessunion.com/national ... 2015-games

I'm not aware that either championship had on-line commentary.

I don't think the Irish Championships had any more than pgn files through chess-results.

[John Saunders]

I've now posted the 2015 British Championship games on Britbase:

http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/201 ... iewer.html

A second reminder that Hawkins-Arkell, Rd 11, ended 26...Rd4 resigns (1-0). I note that this correction has now also been made to the chess-results website PGN. Mark Crowther is aware so it should also be correct on the next TWIC.

If anyone detects any other British Championship games afflicted with LMS (last move syndrome: where a nonsensical last move is generated by the electronic board when the arbiters or players attempt to record the result; or else the players move pieces on the board after the game ends but before the result is thus recorded), please let me know.

[Peter Shaw]

120...Ke4 was not played in Howell-Gormally round 3.

[Carl Hibbard]

Has there been much social interaction from the ECF as it seems very quiet?

[John Saunders]

120...Ke4 was not played in Howell-Gormally round 3.

Many thanks, Peter - I have removed the spurious move and updated the file.

I have now uploaded all the games from the subsidiary events in one big file...

http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/201 ... iewer.html

Tournament identifiers standardised and shortened, plus one or two other minor tweaks, ECO codes added, etc. I'm told the excessively long tournament identifier - starting "2015 British Chess Championships - ...." - was an unfortunate by-product of the chess-results software used. If you add the games straight from the chess-results PGNs into your hard disk database, you'll find that ChessBase truncates the overly long tournament identifiers, with the result that games from different events are treated as if they were from the same one and a big mess results (for example, you can't use the handy ChessBase facility which shows you the final crosstable). For which reason, those wanting to keep their ChessBase database tidy and logical would be better off downloading my Britbase PGNs and using those. Or, of course, wait for tomorrow's TWIC when you can be sure that Mark Crowther will have sorted it out too.

[John Philpott]

Carl Hibbard wrote

Has there been much social interaction from the ECF as it seems very quiet?

It will probably take another day or so for members of the control team to regain sufficient energy to interact with anybody.

[Carl Hibbard]

Carl Hibbard wrote

Has there been much social interaction from the ECF as it seems very quiet?

It will probably take another day or so for members of the control team to regain sufficient energy to interact with anybody.

Do not worry from a set of minutes it says:

> Should the issue of communications arise, this should be dealt with by BK and CF.

[Gareth T Ellis]

by Mick Norris » Sun Aug 09, 2015 10:20 am

What do Chess Scotland and their Welsh equivalent do to support their stronger players financially to enter tournaments?

The Welsh Chess Union supports ALL of it's players financially to enter it's championship, the stronger players play because they want to, not because they are paid to do so.

This year the entry fee was £5 next year it's £10 with increased prize money.

[Tim Harding]

The Scottish championships in most years have a few invited players from outside SCO. This gives Norm chances for Scottish players and seems a generally agreed policy unlike in the Republic of Ireland where many are against invited players.

Do you happen to remember what the live coverage, if any, was like in those events?

I don't think the Irish Championships had any more than pgn files through chess-results.

The Scottish Championship this year was an Open so that in theory somebody could become Scottish Champion without playing (m)any Scots opponents.

I think the 2010 Irish Championship was run as an open but I wasn't in it.
Judging from my database there wasn't great interest from abroad and the above objection probably applies, i.e. some people wouldn't enter if it wasn't an event restricted to IRL-registered players (as it was this year and last) or at least genuine residents.

The Scots probably have several IM norm candidates; in Ireland there are only a handful of untitled players with IM norms or prospects of norms. Players seeking norms have no alternative but to play abroad,

By the way, the Irish Championship has always been for players in the whole of Ireland; so the reference above to the Republic of Ireland is incorrect.

In 2014 there were some live boards, borrowed from Bunratty I think. (A Bunratty organiser was arbiter.)

This year there were no live boards but all the games were input by the arbiter (GM Baburin's son Ivan) and were eventually posted at
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr179720.aspx?lan=1.

To understand the scores, and why some players didn't have nine games, Philip Short won his first round game by default because his opponent Crichton did not arrive in time from England. There was also a full point bye in each round which usually went to a player from the bottom of the table - except in one round when O'Connell took a half point bye for personal reasons.

The final few moves of the board 1 game in round 9 may intrigue people who care to look at it critically. White offered a draw with his 58th move; a draw gave him a share of the title with another player whose game had already ended. Black (who declined the offer) could share the title instead if he won but neither player was in time trouble and 30-second increments applied.

Please do not look at my awful games.