(Chess) Life Returning To Normal

[Paul Robert Jackson]

At the moment your chess playing possibilities in comparable tournaments appear to be:

Groningen - going ahead unless something changes to prevent that. Detailed arrangements to be published in September.

Groningen is now going to be cancelled unless the situation in the Netherlands has improved by mid-November.

... and now it has been cancelled.

I wonder if this will affect Tata Steel 2021?
.....with its amateur sections.

[Tim Spanton]

CzechTour events looking problematic:

PRAGUE, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on Thursday voted to extend the country's COVID-19 state of emergency until Dec. 12.

The government's original proposal aimed to extend the state of emergency -- previously set to expire on Nov. 20 -- to Dec. 20.

The deputies were split over the decision, but they eventually accepted a compromise proposal submitted by the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM).

The daily increase in COVID-19 cases has slowed down in response to the government's strict measures, but officials, among them Health Minister Jan Blatny, have warned that the situation is still not under control.

[Simon Rogers]

I think I spotted on the news yesterday that some more travel corridors have opened up from England to the following countries: Israel, Sri Lanka, Namibia, Rwanda and Uruguay. There was also a number of island nations included.

[John Sellen]

"I think I spotted on the news yesterday that some more travel corridors have opened up from England to the following countries: Israel, Sri Lanka, Namibia, Rwanda and Uruguay. There was also a number of island nations included."

You are correct Simon
The only problem is that of the 8 countries only Rwanda is open to British tourists
Namibia is partially open and the other 6 are totally closed to tourism
It seems crazy the Government trumpeting travel corridors to countries which are not accepting tourists

[Kevin Thurlow]

"It seems crazy the Government trumpeting travel corridors to countries which are not accepting tourists"

Some of the countries might trade with us? The ones mentioned above would not be on my list of holiday destinations.

[Simon Rogers]

"I think I spotted on the news yesterday that some more travel corridors have opened up from England to the following countries: Israel, Sri Lanka, Namibia, Rwanda and Uruguay. There was also a number of island nations included."

You are correct Simon
The only problem is that of the 8 countries only Rwanda is open to British tourists
Namibia is partially open and the other 6 are totally closed to tourism
It seems crazy the Government trumpeting travel corridors to countries which are not accepting tourists

Thanks John for finding the information.
Things chop and change all the time. I don't know which allow tourists and when the travel corridors are open and closed. The only OTB tournaments I've found so far are in countries where tourists are generally not accepted like New Zealand, Australia and Canada and some are quite obscure.
There seems to be a lot of OTB events already taking place in New Zealand next year.

[NickFaulks]

The ones mentioned above would not be on my list of holiday destinations.

Really? I cannot imagine a better holiday destination than Sri Lanka. I have always wanted to go to their annual chess festival.

[Tim Spanton]

The ones mentioned above would not be on my list of holiday destinations.

Really? I cannot imagine a better holiday destination than Sri Lanka. I have always wanted to go to their annual chess festival.

Sounds interesting

[Kevin Thurlow]

I'm not being Sri Lankist. I had some medical issues in India which would probably recur in Sri Lanka. On the plus side, Sri Lankan tea is very good and they probably have the best national anthem in the world.

[Tim Spanton]

I'm not being Sri Lankist. I had some medical issues in India which would probably recur in Sri Lanka. On the plus side, Sri Lankan tea is very good and they probably have the best national anthem in the world.

I find Liechtenstein's anthem is strangely stirring

[Wadih Khoury]

Soviet/Russian is probably the best, with French close second. Honourable mentions for the UK, Germany (also the DDR!), Turkey and Albania.

[Simon Rogers]

My favourite is also the Soviet/Russian national anthem.
Was it Estonia that pinched the Finnish national anthem?

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Soviet/Russian is probably the best, with French close second. Honourable mentions for the UK, Germany (also the DDR!), Turkey and Albania."

Well, yes, all good - I had to remind myself of the Albanian one (which not everyone will believe), but it has rousing lyrics. Italian is good as well.

[Ian Thompson]

Just received this from Sitges:

Fortunately, the situation in our area is way much better than it was in March or April. In October and early November we had more contagions as there were in summer, but the situation has been improving and they are now starting to lift some restrictions that we had. They announced that next Monday, on November 23rd, bars, restaurants and sport centers will open again (maybe with some restrictions still), which is almost the only thing that has been closed for about 4 weeks now. Anyway, no quarantine to enter Spain is mandatory (although maybe it’s just necessary to have a negative test before you travel, depending from the country you are coming from).

That's very different from the announcement made by the nearby Barcelona e-open organisers just one day earlier -
Cancellat el Barcelona World E-Chess Open - Ciutat de Barcelona 2020 (or Google translated to English).

"Given the health situation in which we are still and the low probability of being able to carry it out as around the world the health situation is no better than in our country, the organization of the Catalan Chess Federation has decided to cancel the Barcelona World E-Chess Open - City of Barcelona 2020."

[Tim Spanton]

But things looking better (overall) in Czechia, according to a report today:

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The number deaths in the Czech Republic linked to COVID-19 doubled in November and passed the 7,000 mark, health ministry data showed on Saturday.
Recorded fatalities reached 7,021 as of Saturday, compared with the 3,523 recorded by the end of October, according to the figures.
The country, one of the worst hit in Europe by the pandemic, has seen a fall in the number of new cases and hospitalised patients in recent weeks, allowing the government to ease some curbs.
The health ministry reported 5,809 new cases for Nov. 20, less than a half the peak numbers seen at the turn of October and November.
The number of hospitalisations dropped to 6,307 compared with a peak of 8,283 recorded on Nov. 6.