English Chess Forum

The 2026 Olympiad starts in Samarkand tomorrow, with presumably the first round pairings appearing sometime today.

Slightly surprised that there has not been any discussion here yet, other than the England selection criteria being debated in another thread.

Perhaps he or you could ask the questions on this forum We had this interminably before and during the MCF AGM last month :roll: They believe that adding dummy game(s) against a notional 1800 player, rather than a notional 1400 player, is wrong; they'd be much better taking it up directly with the ...

I've seen the list of GMs participating. The tournament seems quite a bit weaker than what it used to be. Is there a reason for that? I don't think they've yet announced the participants for this year's event. Presumably you are looking at the list for those in the 2025 Masters. I will let those wh...

Imagine my delight when the player that walked out became a qualified arbiter the next year! Well, when I say qualified... I think people who think it's OK to ignore the Laws of Chess shouldn't be arbiters. Slightly off topic - but I know of someone else, who I had thrown out of the playing area wh...

It's not just juniors. I reported on my on experience, back in 2023, in a separate thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13648&p=299699#p299699

Apologies if this has been available elsewhere, but this BBC programme from 1977 "Where Karpov is King" has just been made available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/O50kD8x2_a0?si=TpZYkQTuee9nkbQl Primarily a profile of Anatoly Karpov, it covers much more, including the state of chess in the UK and abr...

At the 4NCL a couple of seasons ago my opponent asked me "Why didn't you play the London System?" As I've never gone near that opening, I found that he'd spent his preparation time looking at Graham Neil's games rather than mine. I have an exact namesake whose games are mixed in with mine when you ...

Is there a limit to how many can qualify for a playoff? Someone will be able to dig out the regulations... Maximim of 5 could tie on 7/9 - can the playoff format accommodate 5 people? Last year it was only two, Peter Roberson being the unlucky third. IIRC Roberson did partipate last year in the pla...

Maximum allowed in a play-off is eight, so everyone who could potentially qualify will participate.

Now that the vote counting for the ECF Gold Members Representatives has concluded, the counters have now moved on to count the Greater Manchester Mayoral by-election, which seems to be progressing equally speedily.

I have been at congresses which at which bag thefts have occurred - I remember this happening at Adam Raoof's Hampstead event a couple of times. We were asked to challenge anybody who didn't look like a chess player! At another event, where I was the last game to finish in the evening, with the arbi...

There were restrictions on entering St George's Hall in Liverpool last year, which were discussed on this forum at the time. There was a suggestion (not by me) in the thread to have some form of accreditation, so that legitimacy of those entering entering the venue could be checked easily. Personall...

I was briefly blocked from the site by Cloudflare today. I think the issue may have been the bookmark I was connecting via was http not https. Also I find that I am being logged out of the site with ever increasing frequency, despite telling it to remember me.

(The other problems are finding accommodation, and the fact that I had a hernia operation a fortnight ago and am will still walking round in a kind of support girdle affair for a few weeks.) There is accommodation available on site in student flats on the campus. I used it when the British was last...

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 15, 2026 12:19 pm

I was vaguely thinking of playing the Seniors but if I am reading this properly, it's two games a day, is that right?

No - one game per day over seven rounds.