English Chess Forum

I'm disappointed the governance committee did not discuss the decision not to publish the results of the direct members election. It is hard to understand why no one on the committee considered it important given their chair considered it within their jurisdiction at the time. I would also have exp...

The minutes of the Governance Committee from 9 October 2026 have appeared:

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-cont ... r-2026.pdf

I am very saddened to hear this news. I played Andy numerous times in Notts league matches over the years and always found him very affable and good-humoured. He was a strong county player and became Nottinghamshire under 18 Champion in 1960-61. Just before the pandemic, Andy wrote an interesting pi...

The minutes of the Finance Committee from Sunday 4 October 2026 have been published:

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-cont ... inutes.pdf

The minutes of the Finance Committee for 25 June have appeared:

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-cont ... e-2026.pdf

The funeral of Tony Gillam was held earlier today:

https://funeral-notices.co.uk/notice/gillam/5316304

This is the online tribute: https://anthony-gillam.muchloved.com/

RIP

The minutes of Board meeting 177 from Friday 17 July have appeared: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Board-Minutes-No.-177-July-2026.pdf together with the draft minutes of last Friday's Board meeting 178: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Draft-Minu...

Good thinking, usually this is the type of idea that someone would have in 2035 and by then it would be too late. I'm reminded about a book that Robert Richmond wrote, or was was getting fine tuned before going to a publisher about the 1936 tournament. Was it ever published. I did find this in a gl...

Clearly, the next version of the FIDE Laws needs to incorporate "Banana Split".

The election process was reviewed by the Chair of Governance and the Voting Registration Officer and was found to be in order – David Eustace, Chair of Council" I'm glad governance reviewed it. Still surprised it was acceptable to them though. I look forward to reading their committee minutes at so...

An interview with Emily Maton was played on BBC World Service News hour this evening. This was the first I'd heard of the 'She Plays to Win' team earning their promotion to Division 1, and frankly coverage like this is a complete own goal for the 4NCL and English chess in general. ..... I've never ...

Congratulations to the four successful candidates and commiserations to the three who didn't make it over the line. I hope that those elected are able to work well together, where that is necessary or desirable. I'm happy to see that my prediction of perhaps forty-fifty votes for the successful cand...

I suppose it depends on your definition of “soon”, with the ECF website saying “ We expect to announce the successful candidates on the ECF website soon afterwards.” It's about time we had a thread for conspiracy theories on why the result still hasn't been announced. I assume the candidates will h...

....... I'm not at all comfortable with the sweeping and speculative assumptions regarding 'nerve' and 'embarrassment' - some individuals do not need nerve (maybe they've been involved in numerous elections before) and to suggest that they might be embarrassed is frankly unnecessary and might be co...

The minutes of Board Meeting 176 from Friday 10 April 2026 have been published:

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-cont ... -ECF-1.pdf