British Chess Championships 2010

[Mark Josse]

Hi all

I decided to join the forum as i have been very interested in the different views about this years British. My story is a simple one in that i am playing in my first ever British Championship this year and looking forward to it . I fall into the definition of one of the weaker players under 2200. I think it may be a little early to judge the strength of the event as pointed out already by Richard Bates and in any event it seemed to me last year the event really filled up within the last 4 weeks so fingers crossed.
I gave up chess for many years between 1992-2005 and back then tournament halls were crammed with titled players and things were different .
That said i think the general standard of chess has now gone up and i find there are a lot of players in the 2000-2200 bracket really keen to improve they enter events like e2e4, 4NCL and they work hard at their game and on their day will give a titled player a game. I look at some of the names in the British and they have put money in the pot this year at qualifiers and supported the GMS at regional events and if they win through fair play to them . It is not just about the British if you have played a lot of tourneys chances are you have won through in an event where your entry went to a titled players conditions so in my mind it would be wrong to exclude such people who have after all supported British chess and the Pro game . There is bound to be some negativity if the event is perceived to be missing some of the top players but i would say Adams, Williams, Wells, Arkell. Greet,Pert, Bates,Rudd & co is a good start . I think in a swiss event everybody finds their level and guys like me will have their own tournament on the lower boards and wont have any bearing on what goes on above
So my view is i hope the strong players play i hope my £200 goes to one of the titled boys like Keith or Simon to help them play ( i realise it may not ) . Sean Hewitt is showing the way forward in his tournaments he accomodates the top players by charging the qualifiers so to speak and his format works well . I hope the event proves to be stronger than people are expecting as Adams playing the British for the first time in years will appeal to the Chess Public for sure.

[Richard Bates]

I think in a swiss event everybody finds their level and guys like me will have their own tournament on the lower boards and wont have any bearing on what goes on above

Don't worry i'm sure some of us will be full expecting to be offering consistent IM opposition on the lower boards as well!

[Stewart Reuben]

Mark Josse wrote:
>I think in a swiss event everybody finds their level and guys like me will have their own tournament on the lower boards and wont have any bearing on what goes on above <

Mark, Have you never heard of the 'Butterfly Effect'? A big Swiss gives a better demonstration of that than anything else of what I have ever heard.

Stewart Reuben

[Alex McFarlane]

Hi Mark,

Glad to see that you are coming to the British.

I'm afraid that I can guarantee that your entry fee will not be going to one of the nominated players. Well certainly not in its entirety. All entry fees are subject to VAT so Messrs Cameron, Clegg and Osborne are the ones who will perhaps benefit most.

Any advice on Tax avoidance will be accepted!! Tax evasion is another matter

[Ljubica Lazarevic]

Just out of curiosity... if every player were to pay a cover fee for venue costs (say £20 per person, I have no idea how much these things are, so let's say £20 for argument's sake) and there was an 'agreement' that the players who'd be elgible to pay the remaining £180 of the entry fee would pay that directly to the players who eventually won the prizes, would you still need to pay VAT on the £180?

[Roger de Coverly]

Is any one else having trouble getting to the accommodation booking webpages?

The address http://www.kent.ac.uk/holidays/
just comes up with a completely blank page.

[Alex McFarlane]

Roger,
Just tried the link and it works OK for me.

[Stewart Reuben]

Lyubica Lazarevic >Just out of curiosity... if every player were to pay a cover fee for venue costs (say £20 per person, I have no idea how much these things are, so let's say £20 for argument's sake) and there was an 'agreement' that the players who'd be elgible to pay the remaining £180 of the entry fee would pay that directly to the players who eventually won the prizes, would you still need to pay VAT on the £180?<

That read very like tax evasion to me. Actually the British or the ECF does not pay that much money overall in VAT. This is because vattable expenses are allowed to be set off. Thus the cost of the accommodation for the control team, which is a high expense, is vattable. Telephone lines. Petrol. The restaurant bills for the staff used to be recoverable at one time. I don't know if that is still done. The programme used to be non-vattable. That proportion of the entry fee was not liable. Used to be? The big programme has been given up as unnecessary with the internet.

Lyubica's idea would work better if the player were to 'adopt' a member of the admin team and then have their entry fee waived. Of course it would still be illegal.

What would avoid VAT legitimately would be the ECF not running the event. Perhaps the Unions or a separate company. Then the turnover would be below the VAT threshold. It still would not save that much as then the outgoings could not be recovered. Anyway David Anderton thought that would be evasion when I raised this in the 1980s.

Stewart Reuben

[Ljubica Lazarevic]

Thanks for that! Was a curiosity. Realistically, it's too much like hard work!

[Sean Hewitt]

What would avoid VAT legitimately would be the ECF not running the event. Perhaps the Unions or a separate company. Then the turnover would be below the VAT threshold.

That would certainly be legal, as long as the ECF were not controlling the company.

[David Sedgwick]

I expect David Howell to defend his title.

He won't be defending.

http://www.bielchessfestival.ch/en/gran ... tournament

[Carl Hibbard]

A shame, the strength of the Championship isn't looking that good at the moment

[Alan Walton]

It is really a sad state of affairs when our federation cannot even get the reigning champion to defend his title

[Adam Raoof]

What would be your ideal location for the British?

a) If it could go anywhere on the UK, once and

b) If it had to be in the same place every year

I'd be interested in your reasons for choosing the location, but would also like to know if there is a particular playing venue you have in mind, considering the amount of time you may have to spend inside playing chess!

[Alan Walton]

Adam,

For me personally the location doesn't matter, it is mainly a cost problem, the British as it is isn't the best value for money compared with other tournaments abroad

The best British I had when I played was in Edinburgh in 2003, closely followed by Torquay the previous year