British Championship Congress 2020

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Chris Rice
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British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Chris Rice » Mon Aug 19, 2019 9:54 am

The Qualifying Regulations for this have just been posted on the ECF site. An amendment to the previous qualification regs caught my eye:

Section A: Qualification from the British Championships

1 – British Champions
2 – British Ladies/Women’s Champions
3 – Top 20 players and ties in the previous year’s British Championship
4 – Top 10 players and ties in the previous year’s Major Open
5 – 2019 British Under 21 Champion
6 – 2019 British Under 18 Champion
7 – 2019 British Under 16 Champion
8 – 2019 British Over 50 Champion

For A3 and A4, only players playing in all rounds will be considered.

I'm wondering what the thinking is behind this. Is it perhaps aimed at people dropping out? There were players in the Championship who didn't play all rounds for a number of reasons, sickness, poor results, upset at falling foul of the mobile phone rule etc. Would that affect anyone who played at Torquay, who would not now be eligible by any other route, or is it just a warning that such reasons are no longer acceptable?

There were players who took byes which certainly would affect the qualification places in the Major Open for instance. But surely that would be an unintended consequence no doubt ruled out by the catch all term "will be considered" In general it's quite surprising that, in principle, drafting a new regulation that changes how the qualification works after the previous British has finished, when players would not have been aware of it, is seen as acceptable. I imagine there was nothing untoward in mind and no player will be disadvantaged by this but its not a good precedent to set or am I missing something?

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:05 am

Does this include wins on default?

Richard Bates
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Richard Bates » Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:07 am

It means the people who came 21st this year have now qualified?

EDIT: or maybe just theoretically rules people out but not people in.
Last edited by Richard Bates on Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:11 am, edited 2 times in total.

Chris Rice
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Chris Rice » Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:08 am

Kevin Thurlow wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:05 am
Does this include wins on default?
I'm guessing not! Sections E & F are also new and I presume are aimed at up and coming players scoring great results in tournaments.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:35 am

Chris Rice wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:08 am
]Sections E & F are also new and I presume are aimed at up and coming players scoring great results in tournaments.
Section E isn't new as it's always been possible to qualify from the London Classic, Hastings etc.

What has been scrapped is the under publicised qualification Grand Prix. Now it's back to qualifying for the British by a one-off exceptional result with the change that it's based on rating performance rather than tournament ranking.

What's missing is a qualification place for the Over 65 Champion(s). Also there's nothing for high scoring players in the regular Grand Prix.

The Perts qualify by title anyway, but if the ""all games" condition is applied (and to Palliser?) does this result in more qualifiers lower down?

Roger de Coverly
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:44 am

Chris Rice wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 9:54 am


There were players who took byes which certainly would affect the qualification places in the Major Open for instance.
Top 10 in the Major Open and ties goes down to 6/9 including 14 players.
https://chess-results.com/tnr458548.asp ... =4&flag=30

Two had byes, one in the first round and one in the eighth.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Mon Aug 19, 2019 11:00 am

I'm interpreting the rules as saying "players who withdrew do not count as part of the top ten or top twenty, players who took or were given a bye on their way to their final score do count as part of the top ten or top twenty".

Ian Thompson
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Ian Thompson » Mon Aug 19, 2019 3:30 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:35 am
Now it's back to qualifying for the British by a one-off exceptional result with the change that it's based on rating performance ...
... or maybe by not such an exceptional performance. 3.5/4 against players with an average rating of 2000 would be enough (TPR 2330); 4/4 against players with an average rating of 1900 would also be enough I think (TPR 2300?).

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Mon Aug 19, 2019 4:10 pm

Ian Thompson wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 3:30 pm
Roger de Coverly wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:35 am
Now it's back to qualifying for the British by a one-off exceptional result with the change that it's based on rating performance ...
... or maybe by not such an exceptional performance. 3.5/4 against players with an average rating of 2000 would be enough (TPR 2330); 4/4 against players with an average rating of 1900 would also be enough I think (TPR 2300?).
2700, not that it really matters.

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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by John McKenna » Mon Aug 19, 2019 4:58 pm

That may be true but strange...

Always thought - like losing all your games and thereby having performed some way below the rating/grading of your opponents - that winning all your games was a performance some way above the rating/grade of your opponents, but that your resulting rating/grading performance was indeterminate in both the win-all, lose-all instances.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Aug 19, 2019 5:02 pm

Ian Thompson wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 3:30 pm

... or maybe by not such an exceptional performance. 3.5/4 against players with an average rating of 2000 would be enough (TPR 2330);
That's much like the old route of scoring 3.5 from 5, being 3.5 against the 180s and a loss to the IM/GM. If you are feeling lucky it's maybe an incentive to enter the stronger FIDE rated weekend Opens.

Ian Thompson
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Ian Thompson » Mon Aug 19, 2019 5:45 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 5:02 pm
Ian Thompson wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 3:30 pm

... or maybe by not such an exceptional performance. 3.5/4 against players with an average rating of 2000 would be enough (TPR 2330);
That's much like the old route of scoring 3.5 from 5, being 3.5 against the 180s and a loss to the IM/GM. If you are feeling lucky it's maybe an incentive to enter the stronger FIDE rated weekend Opens.
I'd have thought you'd need a weaker open because you need 3.5 out of the first 4 games, so you don't want to play any strong players before round 5.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Aug 19, 2019 11:34 pm

Ian Thompson wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 5:45 pm

I'd have thought you'd need a weaker open because you need 3.5 out of the first 4 games, so you don't want to play any strong players before round 5.

Using the "rule of 400" as an approximation, a score of 3.5/5 against 4*2000 and 1*2500 should be enough. I'm guessing the "only four rounds count" rule is to eliminate the temptation to withdraw. Equally they could and perhaps should insist that any such qualification score involved playing all five rounds.

I wonder who is going to do all the performance calculations necessary. Perhaps they will rely on players to make the claims.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Mon Aug 19, 2019 11:45 pm

A 70% score is TPR = Field +149, so you'd need to face an adjusted field of 2151 for a score of 3½/5 to be enough.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: British Championship Congress 2020

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Aug 20, 2019 12:00 am

IM Jack Rudd wrote:
Mon Aug 19, 2019 11:45 pm
A 70% score is TPR = Field +149, so you'd need to face an adjusted field of 2151 for a score of 3½/5 to be enough.
Weekend tournament players with ambitions to qualify for the British are going to need some ready reckoners as to what opposition is needed for a given score.

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