English Chess Forum

Due to a player withdrawal, we now have 1 space remaining again for (roughly) 2160+.

This event is now provisionally full. One player is still to confirm, so any ENG players FIDE 2120+ are still welcome to apply to join the waiting list.

Cheap hotel accommodation available through us ( £65/night B&B at the Hampton by Hilton for 1 or 2 people in a room; £15 discount on tournament entry for one player if booking a room through us). Venue: Hampton by Hilton Sheffield, West Bar Green, S1 2DA. Venue is within walking distance of the rail...

We have 1 spaces remaining for ENG norm seekers for this event. Seeking FIDE 2160+. Venue: Hampton by Hilton Sheffield, West Bar Green, Sheffield, S1 2DA. Time control: 90' + 30"/move. Round times: 10.30am and 3.30am each day July 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, with Round 9 at 10.30am on July 10th. Accommodati...

Parking should be free on-site. Players may need to input registration details at Reception (to be confirmed) as one of the car parks is shared with Doncaster Rovers Football Club. We'll put out an email to participants before the event with the specifics. There is a second overflow car park availab...

After the previous organisers retired following many years of a successful event, we've taken over the running of the 33rd Doncaster Congress for 2026 - albeit with some familiar faces from previous years. February 20th-22nd Entries so far: https://s1.chess-results.com/tnr1345038.aspx?lan=1&SNode=S0...

Politics is so demanding as a career that it just got in the way of my chess Is there any evidence to substantiate this claim - "He ... went on to win the British junior under 16s"? I can't see his name on Britbase's list of junior winners . Perhaps he won the championship of some junior organisati...

I may be wrong but I thought it was optional to use the conversion instead of the ELO rating. Yes, teams had a choice at the start of the season . But choices were made using the August grading list and ECF grades can dart about a lot more than FIDE ratings. So converted grades might be more approp...

I've just taken a quick look at the new 4NCL ratings. Three significant factors contribute to causing a problem: 1. The ECF grade ----> FIDE rating conversion formula used is incredibly generous because x8 + 650 really doesn't work well with the 'new' grades. 2. Junior players with FIDE ratings may ...

Does anyone happen to know which teams are interested in entering? Will we definitely be able to send the full quota of 3 teams this year?

Loz, our problem this season has been that some of our opponents (most particularly Cambridge 2) have had stacks of unrated players. Looking at the other division 2 teams/squads, I see some are like Barbican and are mostly all rated players. Others are like Cambridge and have a mixture. The traditi...

I find the idea of a second division swiss frankly bizarre! Heavens, it's hard enough getting rated opposition in division two all the time at the moment. Surely adding the bottom 4 D1 teams (all rated) and possibly the top 2 D3 teams (all rated) would mean you probably have a better chance of gett...

It is to my mind self-evident that one can never seed teams satisfactorily at the start of the season - a conclusion I reached more than ten years ago. The problems have always been worst in the second division, incidentally. No real need to worry about seeding a D2 Swiss. D1 can be seeded accordin...

16 teams, is too many for an 11 round APA and not really enough for an 11 round swiss so the present structure seems to be the least bad option, apart from changing the size of the divisions or number of rounds. I should have added that I think the strength of the 4NCL, Division One in particular, ...