(Chess) Life Returning To Normal

[Simon Rogers]

Coulsdon Chess club which all games are FIDE rated monday evenings

Welcome to the Chess Forum, Paul.
I enjoyed reading your first post. Some good ideas and very thorough.
Is Coulsdon the biggest Chess Club in the country?

HI Simon thank you very much I am surprised that you are the 1st to comment on our way of getting back over the board which has been well thought out using an adaption of the Blind player system .
yes we certainly were the biggest club with over 100 active members and 4 arbiters 2 FIDE and 2 national however our system is working really well this is our 4th week back this monday and nobody ever comes within 2 meters of any one else but currently only 36 members have signed back up with kind of suits us as we can have 9 matches with players playing every other week . no daytime club currently on wednesdays as these were mainly older members that are still shielding. we could not do our International Jessie gilbert festival of chess this year in August {usually just after the british} but at least we are back playing fide rated chess OTB

Hi Paul.
Not you sure if you are aware. But I started a number of Topics about Events that were going ahead until recently like Northumberland and Fareham in Congess Diary as well as Manx Championship. I try to keep positive as to OTB Chess going ahead. I also posted regularly the number of entries.
I've always been supportive of Coulsdon, despite living far away near Blackpool.
I use to photocopy the entry forms for the Coulsdon congresses and rapidplays. Bit of a shame that the PDF forms were stopped.

[Paul Bloom]

HI Simon yes I am following your topic of events taking place I have transferred my accommodation for this years cancelled British championships over to 2021 {hope we will be ok by then} and was considering playing in Fareham but wanted to wait until last min in case it was cancelled such a shame and for the organisers of all other events that have been cancelled I can kind of understand about Northumberland as they seem to have covid rising faster up there . We have no plans for any Tournaments at Coulsdon currently but if will do I shall let you and all other members of this forum know . OTB chess so much better than online but If anyone wants to play a good online well organized chess tournament I highly recommend they check out Adam Raoof's Tornelo tournaments most weekends and Thursday eves it really is a great chess platform very realistic given that you can see your opponent on zoom call the arbiter even chat with other players during breaks between rounds so there is a social side which is missing from most online chess

[Paul Bloom]

Coulsdon is playing on site?
It's not the biggest of premises. But if there is a way, might be worth joining the club for the OTB experience. But a one hour drive each way during school week doesn't sound like a great idea...

HI Wadih its great to be able to interact with players even if its only on here . Just to let you know we had players coming from much further away before lockdown Leicester Guilford and the other side of Kent we still have 2 players not connected with each other coming from Brighton to play I am guessing its because we are one of the only clubs to FIde rate all of our internal games as well as external . which can be a big plus for Juniors and Adults wanting to improve their FIDE ratings .

[Wadih Khoury]

Coulsdon is playing on site?
It's not the biggest of premises. But if there is a way, might be worth joining the club for the OTB experience. But a one hour drive each way during school week doesn't sound like a great idea...

HI Wadih its great to be able to interact with players even if its only on here . Just to let you know we had players coming from much further away before lockdown Leicester Guilford and the other side of Kent we still have 2 players not connected with each other coming from Brighton to play I am guessing its because we are one of the only clubs to FIde rate all of our internal games as well as external . which can be a big plus for Juniors and Adults wanting to improve their FIDE ratings .

Yes I know, I try to bring Theo to all CCF Congresses, but didn't consider before the Monday games as it's quite tiring for a 10 year old (potentially home for midnight, with school next day)
But maybe now with the lack of OTB opportunities it may be something we'll consider.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Yes I know, I try to bring Theo to all CCF Congresses, but didn't consider before the Monday games as it's quite tiring for a 10 year old (potentially home for midnight, with school next day)"

Quite right - I played in an event there (with Fischer timing) and found myself leaving at about 0015, with two juniors (one quite young) still in a complicated middlegame. Apparently they finished about 1 am...

[Paul Bloom]

You are correct Kevin the fisher timings can cause the matches to go on a lot longer than without . we are lucky in as much that CCF owns the building and don't have quite the same time restraints as most clubs . My understanding is that if you want it to be FIDE rated and have players over 2200 competing then Fisher timings are a must . I am suggesting to most juniors attending adult club atm that they play once every 3 weeks rather than every fortnight . Average finish times are 9.30 to 11pm a few of the games can go beyond but we a talking about a range of players from 1000 through to 2200 +

[Andrew Zigmond]

What does that mean for chess? If clubs are meeting in public venues (and complying with the rule of six and any other regulations) then that is an obvious workaround. The question then is what happens if the club meets in a private venue. I initially thought my club could continue along those lines but came around to the view of the wider committee that this was impractical.

Community venues can be allowed more than six people in a room. The problem being how to demonstrate that they aren't "mingling". Still if you start at half past seven, the bar closes at ten and you have to wear masks all the time, that isn't an attractive night out regardless of whether you are expected to be frozen by opening all the doors and windows or be paranoid about touching pieces that your opponent may have also touched.

You can have more than six people in a community venue just as you can have more than six in a pub, provided the different groups don't interact. An important point to remember about the 10PM rule is that pubs don't just close at 10PM but all customers have to be off the premises by that time - no drinking up period after last orders is called.

Other safeguards may indeed take the fun out of the evening (not just chess - the thought of having to mask up in a pub when not at the table is not exactly filling me with glee) but it's not as if the ECF can do anything about them, which was the initial question here.

[Roger de Coverly]

My understanding is that if you want it to be FIDE rated and have players over 2200 competing then Fisher timings are a must .

That's not the case. The requirement is that the notional session length be at least four hours. All the moves in two hours is legal for FIDE rating, as is 40 moves in 100 minutes plus 20 to finish. Without increments you may need arbiter intervention in the event of a claim of unable or not attempting to win by normal means with two minutes or less remaining.

[Nick Grey]

Parents ought not allow them to play so late.

But `1030 finish 2 minutes early when Howard was losing is not (Chess) Life Returning To Normal.

[NickFaulks]

I have always considered evening games with 30 second increments to be a terrible idea.

[Simon Rogers]

I recieved a text and phone call earlier today, from the Organiser of the Bristol League Open Blitz Championship, Igor Doklestic.
He has asked me to inform you all that regrettably the Bristol League Open Blitz Championship in Bristol, scheduled for Sunday 22nd November has been cancelled due the current Covid situation.

[Wadih Khoury]

To those following the European OtB scene, any suggestions for a tournament end October in a country without quarantine in both directions?

[Paul Bloom]

To those following the European OtB scene, any suggestions for a tournament end October in a country without quarantine in both directions?

Problem is that the situation can change at either end so quickly as we have seen countries added weekly at short notice last thing you want is to pay out for flights accommodation entries etc then spend loads of time trying to get it back . Even in this country people thought they were on course to play a congress and have it cancelled at the last min .
As i say CCF are in a better place than most venues to run something being we own the venue although we could not offer refreshments due to restrictions covid rates are not to bad here south east of London but given the distancing between matches size of venue as most organizers will tell you to make it financially viable is near on impossible eg 20 players would give you 2 sections say £20 each to enter £160 prize money for each section given a 1st 2nd and grading prize leaves £80 to pay for 2 arbiters and cost of lighting and heating for the day

[Simon Rogers]

To those following the European OtB scene, any suggestions for a tournament end October in a country without quarantine in both directions?

I've found quite a few very quickly.
One in Ireland, one in Georgia and one in Azerbaijan.
There are links on the Irish Chess Union website calendar.
Paul Bloom is right though.
The quarantine rules are constantly changing.
You are probably best looking at the Coulsdon events.

[MartinCarpenter]

To those following the European OtB scene, any suggestions for a tournament end October in a country without quarantine in both directions?

If the UK keeps going on anything like current trend, then I'd be really quite surprised if we could go anywhere without being quarantined on arrival by late October.

I don't think its spiking as fast in Europe, so you might potentially get away with it on the way back.