(Chess) Life Returning To Normal

[Simon Rogers]

Number of entrants for Northumberland Chess Congress has increased to 57. One of the new entrants is a 226 grade.
Castle Chess Fareham Congress entries have increased to 19.

[Tim Spanton]

Interesting Q&A at BBC News:

We have a small bingo club (about 30 people) who meet in a hall with tables two metres apart and contact details of everyone. Can we still carry on with the new rules from Monday?
from Stephen Tew, Northampton

BBC News
If you are operating in a designated hospitality venue, such as a licensed bingo hall, then this would be allowed, provided people do not sit or congregate in groups of more than six. You must also keep records of everyone’s contact details for test and trace.
However, if you have hired a communal venue such as a village hall to put on your own bingo, then it is unlikely to be permitted.

[Wadih Khoury]

Interesting Q&A at BBC News:

We have a small bingo club (about 30 people) who meet in a hall with tables two metres apart and contact details of everyone. Can we still carry on with the new rules from Monday?
from Stephen Tew, Northampton

BBC News
If you are operating in a designated hospitality venue, such as a licensed bingo hall, then this would be allowed, provided people do not sit or congregate in groups of more than six. You must also keep records of everyone’s contact details for test and trace.
However, if you have hired a communal venue such as a village hall to put on your own bingo, then it is unlikely to be permitted.

So does it mean that running a congress at a Covid-safe hotel is ok, but organising it in a school hall is not? But a pub would be ok?

[Nick Grey]

Boris has other views and clear that tes and trace is not working.
October sports events in review. 6 max for Christmas at home.
Hospitality will be bust if closes on Monday.

[Tim Spanton]

Interesting Q&A at BBC News:

We have a small bingo club (about 30 people) who meet in a hall with tables two metres apart and contact details of everyone. Can we still carry on with the new rules from Monday?
from Stephen Tew, Northampton

BBC News
If you are operating in a designated hospitality venue, such as a licensed bingo hall, then this would be allowed, provided people do not sit or congregate in groups of more than six. You must also keep records of everyone’s contact details for test and trace.
However, if you have hired a communal venue such as a village hall to put on your own bingo, then it is unlikely to be permitted.

So does it mean that running a congress at a Covid-safe hotel is ok, but organising it in a school hall is not? But a pub would be ok?

Possibly! it would seem Hastings' Horntye Park would be an ideal venue ... oh, wait a minute: https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2020/08/ ... story.html

[Kevin Thurlow]

"‘I’ve just read what the WHO have issued. That’s the same WHO which wasn’t recommending face masks, and didn’t even know this was a pandemic. In my opinion they should keep their mouths shut.’

– Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis responds to the World Health Organisation after the agency criticised Prague’s public health authorities for considering reducing contact tracing and testing, amid a spike in mostly asymptomatic cases."

That's the spirit!

[Chris Goodall]

Interesting Q&A at BBC News:

We have a small bingo club (about 30 people) who meet in a hall with tables two metres apart and contact details of everyone. Can we still carry on with the new rules from Monday?
from Stephen Tew, Northampton

BBC News
If you are operating in a designated hospitality venue, such as a licensed bingo hall, then this would be allowed, provided people do not sit or congregate in groups of more than six. You must also keep records of everyone’s contact details for test and trace.
However, if you have hired a communal venue such as a village hall to put on your own bingo, then it is unlikely to be permitted.

So does it mean that running a congress at a Covid-safe hotel is ok, but organising it in a school hall is not? But a pub would be ok?

If you have a space that's CoViD-19 Secure, where everyone has to have temperature checks, sanitise and fill in Track&Trace, there is a school of thought that you might as well fill that space with as many people as possible, since they are probably at greater risk of catching the virus outside it than in. [I am not a medic, this is not medical advice, ignore everything I say, see a doctor if you get symptoms, leave the house at your own risk]

[Nick Grey]

Contacts are large multiples of additional contacts. Good luck.

[Tim Spanton]

GM Keith Arkell among five ENG entries in the main tournament at Pardubice:

http://chess-results.com/tnr530505.aspx ... ES&flag=30

[Tim Spanton]

Masks extremely unlikely as it is part of the CzecTour (I played at Prague last month) - BUT Czech government is under pressure from WHO to do more, so I guess the organisers could be forced to change their policies

I have just received an email from the organisers assuring me that masks will not be required.

The Czech health ministry website in English seems to confirm this.

Facemasks are now compulsory "during indoor mass events for more than 100 participants" but a long list of exceptions includes "athletes or persons exercising during training sessions, exercising, games, competitions, etc."
The advice also says "the maximum permitted attendance at indoor events in buildings is 500 persons." But it adds: "if the premises are divided into partitioned sectors, premises with a capacity of up to 1,000 persons and over 1,000 persons may be filled under specific conditions."
Not exactly sure what the last bit means, but the rest seems fairly clear.

[Tim Spanton]

Some juniors and quite a few other chessplayers may also be exempt as exceptions include:

"children under two years of age"
"persons with intellectual disorders"

[David Sedgwick]

Possibly! it would seem Hastings' Horntye Park would be an ideal venue ... oh, wait a minute: https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2020/08/ ... story.html

It's rather ironic that, after the Hastings International Chess Congress Committee had been criticised for years for failing to secure adequate commercial sponsorship, we are now being criticised for having succeeded in doing so.

For the record, Horntye Park is no longer available as a venue owing to redevelopment plans. But for Covid-19, the Hastings Congress 2020 - 2021 would have taken place as normal, but at a different location.

[Paul Cooksey]

Remarkable blog. On the whole I'm in favour of thanking people who sponsor chess events, rather than comparing them to Hitler.

[Leonard Barden]

Hastings could still be staged this year using the format of 1939-40, the first of the war years before the blitz, as a model:https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=79968. It could be filled almost entirely by GMs and IMs who are Hastings regulars or have a local connection. It would not need Horntye Park,and the moderate cost should be within the Caplin Systems and other sponsor budgets for a normal congress. And yes, I have already suggested this directly to Hastings.

[David Sedgwick]

Hastings could still be staged this year using the format of 1939-40, the first of the war years before the blitz, as a model:https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=79968. It could be filled almost entirely by GMs and IMs who are Hastings regulars or have a local connection. It would not need Horntye Park,and the moderate cost should be within the Caplin Systems and other sponsor budgets for a normal congress. And yes, I have already suggested this directly to Hastings.

From the Congress Committee's statement at http://www.hastingschess.com/committee- ... ress-news/:

"Caplin Systems and the organisers of the Congress will run an alternative small event in 2020-2021. Details of this will be announced in the near future."