English Chess Forum

Nice little variant on the old rook-blocking-the-passed-pawn skewer trick there, doing it on the 6th rather than the 7th.

A game in which at least one player is rated 2400 or over can only be FIDE standardplay-rated if the time allowed to reach move 60 is at least two hours per player.

This sort of game is going to be very rare in practice; you can't do it in a position where there is any counterplay, or in which you don't have the spare pawn moves to avoid the 50-move rule. And the position needs to be good enough that the win is worth seeking, but not so good that the opponent w...

Lazavik was playing in the Grand Swiss.

That was a one-shot resetting for everyone, though: FIDE recognised that rapid and blitz ratings were generally out of kilter and moved them all up until they were no more than 100 points below the player's standardplay rating.

On the other hand, Britain mostly doesn't go for the board order restriction that these events typically go for; that of having to play your players in the same order every match.

Perhaps more importantly, 4/9 for a GM norm.

(Also, this tournament has an average rating of over 2600, which may help some arbiters climb up the rankings.)

(This is, I'll admit, a ludicrous scenario when it comes to threefold repetition, but it's more realistic when it comes to 50-move-rule claims.)

Consider the (unlikely, I know) situation where you make the move, and then your opponent responds with checkmate before you can stop the clock.

There are plenty of top-class sportsmen who have had struggles with their mental health over the years; Ronnie O'Sullivan is a well-known example.

The form in question: https://britchess.wufoo.com/forms/ecf-a ... rm-202324/

One thing which strikes me as slightly strange, from a sporting point of view, is that a player who has already qualified for the candidates can have a big influence on who gets the places from this event. That might be by agreeing a quick draw in the last round with a friend or compatriot, or defe...

Your norm calculations are the same as mine, Chris. The other round 9 norm chance is that I think Li Wu needs a draw for an IM norm.

Haven't yet looked at norm possibilities in the women's event, but there probably are some.

Royal is one of three IMs in the tournament currently performing at or above the GM norm level; the others are Rodrigue-Lemieux (playing at 2649) and Zhalmakhanov (playing at 2755). The latter is probably getting a GM norm even if he loses his next two games.

Minimum score for a GM norm, or any other norm, is 35%. (I've seen a WIM norm fail on that basis.)