BRITISH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS - THE GAMES

[Alex McFarlane]

The other 60-70 players could then be combined with the major open to produce a very decent secondary tournament with qualification places for next years main event and so forth. I realise that the price of this would be missing games like Atako-Adams - which are most certainly a benefit of the current system - but the advantage would perhaps be a better version of all the pros which you have listed?I know there might be a funding issue with regards to securing a sufficient number of £200 entry fees etc, but leaving that question aside for a moment, what do you think about the limited field system per se?

I agree and think if we were starting now that would be the case. However, as indicated finance does come into it. Also would you like to be the person to tell dozens of organisers that their event no longer had a BC Qualifying place.

My own preference would be to have a grand prix type structure with the top dozen or so qualifying for the Championship. If Congresses paid a £40 registration to be part of the GP then qualifiers could have free entry. Such a scheme might even encourage more entries to tournaments.

[Paul McKeown]

Hey Nescafe on 6. Frappe!

[Sean Hewitt]

...both Swiss Master and Swiss Manager have recently been confirmed as not pairing to the rules for seeded pairings anyway.

Could you give details as I hadn't seen this before. I'm particularly interested in Swiss Master as this is the software that e2e4 use and according to the FIDE website it is officially endorsed as working according to the FIDE rules.

D. Computer Programs in Swiss Tournaments
To perform big Swiss tournaments the use of Computer programs for handling the players’ data, the pairings and the results is necessary.
To avoid misunderstandings and to support the organisers and arbiters FIDE recommends the use of computer programs which are endorsed by FIDE after a successful endorsement procedure.
The endorsement will last as long as it is not withdrawn because the program does no longer meet the requirements.

Below is the list of endorsed programmes (supported by Microsoft Windows) and their respective capabilities:

SWISS MASTER (Koninklijke Nederlandse Schaakbond NED) Dutch System
SWISS MANAGER (Heinz Herzog AUT) Dutch System
WINSWISS (Franz-Josef Weber GER) Dutch System
VEGA (Luigi Forlano ITA) Dubov System
TURNERING SERVICE (Harald Heggelund NOR) Dutch System
Tournament Director (Neil Hayward ENG) Dutch System

[Justin Hadi]

Are boards 7-14 down ? Can't see them on my comp.

[Daniel Young]

Are boards 7-14 down ? Can't see them on my comp.

They worked once I refreshed the page.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Also would you like to be the person to tell dozens of organisers that their event no longer had a BC Qualifying place.

Yes, people have made this point to me before. It's quite reasonable of course, from a practical financial point of view, but I wonder whether telling dozens of congress organizers that the no longer had a BC qualifying place per se, but had many qualifying places to the secondary event, would be appealing in compensation?

I like the sound of your Grand Prix system too.


PS:
re closed Sicilian for Atako v Adams.

99% likely White's going to be on the wrong end of a one-sided spank anyway, isn't it? Not sure whether the opening - any opening - is going to change that very much. Chino might as well just play whatever he wants to.

[Adam Raoof]

My own preference would be to have a grand prix type structure with the top dozen or so qualifying for the Championship. If Congresses paid a £40 registration to be part of the GP then qualifiers could have free entry. Such a scheme might even encourage more entries to tournaments.

Agreed. You might even generate enough money to put some towards prizes in the ECF Grand Prix!

[Paul McKeown]

Don't like the way Atako's position is going, with Adams launching h5 and Nd4 already. Gonna get ugly quick.

[Maxim Devereaux]

Hunt-Holland on 11 is a replay of the 9. ...d5 Dragon Yugoslav seen in Howell-R.Pert from the last round, but here Black *has* elected to go 19. ...Ra5 and take on a2. It seems from clocks times that Black might be better prepared than White here, so interesting to see how it plays out.

[Sean Hewitt]

Also would you like to be the person to tell dozens of organisers that their event no longer had a BC Qualifying place.

I doubt at the moment whether it would make any difference - it certainly wouldn't to us. That view might well change if there were fewer qualifying events.

[Maxim Devereaux]

Nelson-Hebden looks like a typical position for Mark - it could have arisen from a Spanish too. White is still better, I guess, but must do something now before Black has time to go, for example, ...Rf8, ...Nfg8 and ...f5. Maybe 21.Qe3 now with the idea Ra3 and Rea1.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Talking of Anti-Sicilians, as we kind of were, I see Gormally has punted a very old idea of Basmans.

Shame Black didn't take the bait and go for the

4 ... Nc6, 5 d4 lines

[Matthew Turner]

Jonathan Nelson and Terry chapman seem to have pretty good positions against the seeding. Jonathan's position reminds me of Spassky - Fischer where he calmly tripled on the a-file.

[Maxim Devereaux]

Does Danny really have enough for his pawn after Bxf3 Qxf3 e6 ? I wonder. True, White has a bishop pair, and Black has some queenside White square weaknesses and a knight without a good square at the moment, but he doesn't really have a lot in the way of targets to hit. Will be interesting to see how Danny exploits it assuming that is played.

[William Metcalfe]

Intresting move order by Short v the hyper accelerated dragon is that all theory or something Nigel has home cooked