Certificate of Merit

Questions and Support regarding the Certificate of Merit.
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Matthew Turner
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by Matthew Turner » Thu Mar 25, 2010 8:39 am

Adam,
I have been specific to John, but he asked me not to post those comments here. As you are an ECF Director I will send you them in a PM.

Alex Holowczak
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by Alex Holowczak » Thu Mar 25, 2010 8:47 am

If you try to buy the full COM package, you get linked to the ECF website, which reads:

"The first 100 applicants for the package will receive an autographed copy by the author of the COM booklet and of Chess Opening - Your Choice!"

Just what I always wanted - the signatures of Andrew Martin and Stewart Reuben! :lol:

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John Upham
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by John Upham » Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:10 am

Alex Holowczak wrote:If you try to buy the full COM package, you get linked to the ECF website, which reads:

"The first 100 applicants for the package will receive an autographed copy by the author of the COM booklet and of Chess Opening - Your Choice!"

Just what I always wanted - the signatures of Andrew Martin and Stewart Reuben! :lol:
I offered my signature also but the offer was declined.
Last edited by John Upham on Thu Mar 25, 2010 4:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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John Upham
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by John Upham » Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:16 am

Indirectly I have been asked the consequences of the student deliberately providing either a false postal address or inadequate detail to make a real postal address.

I have thought about this very interesting question and my answer is :

The Certificate and button badge can be either not posted out at all or it could posted to the false address.

Imagine registering a wrong address with eBay or somewhere like that : any purchases will then go the wrong address or be mis-delivered.

You might wonder why someone would ask such a question : so did I! :lol:
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Matthew Turner
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by Matthew Turner » Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:27 am

I forgot my password, so I had to ask for it to be resent. It all worked brilliantly - well done.
I couldn't help noticing something on the the bottom of my E-mail though

CertificateOfMerit, v1.0, Copyright 2010, The UKChess Organisation, All rights reserved, trademarks acknowledged

I wonder who The UKChess Organisation are?

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by Carl Hibbard » Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:40 am

Matthew Turner wrote:I wonder who The UKChess Organisation are?
Another domain of John's at http://www.ukchess.org.uk/ are they?
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Carl Hibbard

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John Upham
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by John Upham » Thu Mar 25, 2010 2:12 pm

Carl Hibbard wrote:
Matthew Turner wrote:I wonder who The UKChess Organisation are?
Another domain of John's at http://www.ukchess.org.uk/ are they?
Why not list them all? Something to do on a wet Thursday afternoon in March. :D
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andrew martin

Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by andrew martin » Thu Mar 25, 2010 3:21 pm

To Alex H :

It's always extremely risky to be insulting about someone you don't really know.

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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by Alex Holowczak » Thu Mar 25, 2010 3:28 pm

It wasn't insulting; my point is that I doubt too many people who purchase it will consider that a perk worthy of trying to be in the first 100. The only chess player the average school headteacher will have heard of is Kasparov or Short. So unless they're signing them, I don't think any chess player's signature is going to enhance the value of the product.

The quality of the material is undoubtedly high, though. I think yourself and John have done a great job in putting it together. I don't think £50 for all that is expensive, either.

Don't think I was being insulting though...

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John Upham
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by John Upham » Thu Mar 25, 2010 3:42 pm

Kevin Thurlow wrote:The ECF website says
"Examinees can practice as many times as they wish. The tests can only be accessed from the website"

Aaaargh! "practise" not "practice" - we are in England not USA.
Twenty practise Q&As have just been uploaded. More to follow. :D
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Matthew Turner
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by Matthew Turner » Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:23 pm

John,
I have progressed to question 12. I have faced two questions twice so far. Unfortunately question twelve has me stumped

Question twelve : Castling. The White King and Rooks have not moved in the game so far. Which of the following is correct?

Unfortunately the White King is on a White square. Frankly this all looks like it has been cobbled together in an afternoon.

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by Carl Hibbard » Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:24 pm

The live annoucement has vanished off the ECF home page for now has it??
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Carl Hibbard

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John Upham
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by John Upham » Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:34 pm

Carl Hibbard wrote:The live announcement has vanished off the ECF home page for now has it??
A telephone call has been received from Tenerife regarding the posting of certificates and the apparent cost.

We await future developments... :shock:
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David Shepherd
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by David Shepherd » Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:44 pm

Mathew to be fair from memory there was at least one IM/GM game recently where the white king hadn't moved and was on a white square (unless it was the black king on a black square), still I think the GM had their king on the correct square. :D

Just kidding though - if it is to sell it must be correct, at least it seems some progess is being made.

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Carl Hibbard
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Re: Certificate of Merit

Post by Carl Hibbard » Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:45 pm

Try selecting Student and continue then ignore the email request and press continue, tells you the email is missing - click "go back" and you a web page error

It isn't hard to break John, perhaps some extra testing is needed?
Cheers
Carl Hibbard

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