English Chess Forum

Have they gone too far with banning all watches? Almost certainly. Banning headgear and earpieces makes sense as well if intending to thwart hidden communications. The problem is that you think the distinction between a cheap £10 watch with a plastic strap and a mechanical clockface, and a smartwat...

soheil_hooshdaran wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 06, 2020 3:44 am

What does the comment "Grist for the mill!" mean?

It means that the former programmer of the ECF grading software has fallen out with a miller, who is about to put him through a mill.

More seriously, take a look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gristmill

In the NFL playoffs, Tennessee played New England in the first AFC Wildcard game yesterday. An interesting situation arose where Tennessee were 14-13 ahead, and had 4th & 4 at the Patriots 36 with 6 minutes to play. Maybe too far away for a Field Goal, quite close for a Punt, but perhaps within rang...

Paul McKeown wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:50 pm

Thank you, Alex Holowczak, for a reply that is cogent, relevant, interesting and useful! (A rarity on the forum...!)

I shan't make a habit of it.

The problem with going down that route is that there are no drugs which are performance enhancing for chess. I am in no position to comment, but in the opinion of the qualified doctor with whom I spoke, it is wrong to say that there are no drugs which are performance enhancing for chess. He did acc...

While I was in Moscow for the World Rapid & Blitz, I had a conversation with the apparently very level-headed and sensible Chairman of the FIDE Medical Commission, Dr. Marape Marape. There were anti-doping tests in Moscow, as part of FIDE's continuing drive to tick boxes as part of a bid to be part ...

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 03, 2020 6:44 pm

The linked report doesn't make any mention of chess (for which we might be grateful, if it is indeed the same person)

It does mention that he studied languages at University though, and his blog describes himself as a translator amongst other things.

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:12 pm

Do we know when it starts yet?

The start time each day is 1530. So that's 0730 here for Games 1-6. The time difference in Vladivostok is 10 hours rather than 8, so that will be 0530 here for Games 7-12.

Since I am not a subscriber to the BCM (I see only occasional issues electronically), may I ask what corrections, if any, the magazine has published? With thanks, - O.G. Urcan As my question of a week ago has not been answered, I assume that the BCM has published no corrections at all. This may be ...

We also know that the arbiters are IA Shohreh Bayat (IRI) and IA Marika Japaridze (GEO). Bayat has been a Deputy Chief Arbiter at the Women's World Championship before when it was a 64-player knockout, and the Women's Candidates as part of this cycle. Japaridze was Deputy Chief Arbiter at the Olympi...

Adam Raoof wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 02, 2020 1:04 pm

thanks Alex, that makes sense - and it worked. Doesn't SM use Java for the pairings engine?

Yes, via JaVaFo, which requires Java. But I don't think the part of the program in question uses it.

anyone else having problems importing the new lists into Swiss Manager? It might be as simple as installing a new version of SM, but I wondered - sometimes the files at FIDE are corrupted and nobody can download them! I don't know if you understand the difference between an Array and an ArrayList i...

Alex McFarlane wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 01, 2020 3:53 pm

Shropshire 2 will be unable to field a team in rds3 and 4.

An altered set of fixtures will appear this evening or tomorrow morning. (I'm a bit busy at Hastings.)

Alex

At least you have experience of changing a set of published pairings at Hastings this week.

II should probably add that Kobylianskyi sent the results for rating himself and is also listed as the Tournament director and the only arbiter of all the games he has played. The FIDE Arbiters Commission is strongly against this practice. In the February 2016 edition of their magazine for arbiters...

There was one example in the Rapid of Nakamura ... knocking a Rook over with his hand when it was on its way back from pressing the clock and standing it up almost immediately. ... Nakamura was given a warning ... For what? It would be interesting to know what the arbiter told Nakamura he should do...