British Chess Championships 2010

[Nick Thomas]

Someone na hour (or day) before the game could have been writing a note while leaning on top of the scoresheet...

[Mike Truran]

Little b*****d. He wouldn't have lasted long under the Khmer Rouge. He probably has specs and an intellectual accent too.

[Matthew Turner]

Alex,
It looks like Sebatian Muheim has played ay Hastings, so that accounts for a lot of the games. I don't really see any reason to presume he is resident in the UK. The vast majority of his FIDE are from France. I wonder if he is eligible.

[Alex Holowczak]

are you sure that the U-11 wasn't pressing on his sheet with the other end of his pen/equivalent? It would leave a mark on the lower sheet without leaving one on the upper sheet

The marks are in the form of chess moves. It's not just random scribbles.

Someone na hour (or day) before the game could have been writing a note while leaning on top of the scoresheet...

It has happened three rounds in a row though, for the same player. Yesterday, I thought it was a co-incidence. Now I think there's something fishy going on.

Little b*****d. He wouldn't have lasted long under the Khmer Rouge. He probably has specs and an intellectual accent too.

I'm pretty sure a quiet word in his ear is enough to diffuse the problem.

[Alex Holowczak]

Alex,
It looks like Sebatian Muheim has played ay Hastings, so that accounts for a lot of the games. I don't really see any reason to presume he is resident in the UK. The vast majority of his FIDE are from France. I wonder if he is eligible.

I will mention this to Dave Welch in the morning then.

[Sean Hewitt]

Is the top seed in the U16 Swiss or French? How is he eligible to play?

Sébastien is French. He had a French address when he played 9 games at Uxbridge earlier this year. However, his mother is English. I don't know if that counts for eligibility.

I also notice that their is a Luxembourg player in the U16 who also played at Uxbridge. I don't know how he is eligible for the British.

[Carl Hibbard]

Ok...

In total there are 32 users online :: 8 registered, 2 hidden and 22 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)

10:32pm

Who is everyone - come on register people

[Jonathan Bryant]

are you sure that the U-11 wasn't pressing on his sheet with the other end of his pen/equivalent?

Of course the real question is ... is it a giant pencil or a normal sized one?

[Ian Thompson]

Ok...

In total there are 32 users online :: 8 registered, 2 hidden and 22 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)

10:32pm

Who is everyone - come on register people

I only ever log in while I'm writing a post, although that doesn't always result in a post as I sometimes change my mind halfway through writing it, so you'd normally see me as a guest. I often leave the forum open in a browser window whilst doing other things, so I'd appear as a guest a lot of the time (or would I, if I'm not doing anything?). I don't leave myself logged in because I prefer the logged out view of the forum to the logged in one.

[Steve Rooney]

Ok...

In total there are 32 users online :: 8 registered, 2 hidden and 22 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)

10:32pm

Who is everyone - come on register people

I only ever log in while I'm writing a post, although that doesn't always result in a post as I sometimes change my mind halfway through writing it, so you'd normally see me as a guest. I often leave the forum open in a browser window whilst doing other things, so I'd appear as a guest a lot of the time (or would I, if I'm not doing anything?). I don't leave myself logged in because I prefer the logged out view of the forum to the logged in one.

I'm here too. Just catching up with British while stopped at Newport Pagnell services on long diverted route home from Gatwick. I too prefer the view when not logged in.

[Phil Makepeace]

We deal with everything Spartacus today.

[Richard Bates]

Accelerated pairings:

1) The point about the decisive phase of the tournament being brought forward is very valid. It is much better to get over the supposed mismatches in the early rounds.
2) Is it fair or justified that the player(s) at the very top of the field (ie. those who don't have an early accident) have such a difference in field strength compared with others who might approach the final rounds only a point or half a point behind?
3) Is one of the fundamental justifications for accelerating draws undermined by FIDE's ill thought through extension of the rating list to 1200 causing such an increasing number of arguably significantly underrated juniors? It's getting to the stage where it is necessary to consult the ECF(!) grading list to gain any realistic idea of a player's strength.

[Alex Holowczak]

I spoke to Dave Welch about the scoresheet problem. He suspected that there was another scoresheet that the player was writing on, and that this was being shown on the scoresheets underneath; hence the problem. He was almost exactly right. At the start of the round, the junior in question was seen to be tearing off the pink copy (third copy) of his scoresheet, and filling that in, because the ink from his pen could not be seen on it. To save space, he then put the pink copy on top of the white copy while filling bits in. This could then be seen on the yellow copy. Mystery solved!

[David Sedgwick]

Is the top seed in the U16 Swiss or French? How is he eligible to play?

Sébastien is French. He had a French address when he played 9 games at Uxbridge earlier this year. However, his mother is English. I don't know if that counts for eligibility.

I also notice that their is a Luxembourg player in the U16 who also played at Uxbridge. I don't know how he is eligible for the British.

The players in question are eligible to play if they are British (or Irish) citizens, even if they have dual nationality and/or they don't live in the British Isles. I don't know anything about the facts of either case.

[Stewart Reuben]

Richard Bates >2) Is it fair or justified that the player(s) at the very top of the field (ie. those who don't have an early accident) have such a difference in field strength compared with others who might approach the final rounds only a point or half a point behind?
3) Is one of the fundamental justifications for accelerating draws undermined by FIDE's ill thought through extension of the rating list to 1200 causing such an increasing number of arguably significantly underrated juniors? It's getting to the stage where it is necessary to consult the ECF(!) grading list to gain any realistic idea of a player's strength.<

Jonathan Mestel once wrote an article in BCM. He offered the opinion that there is nothing wrong with ANY Swiss Pairing System, what is wrong is assigning the placings according to raw score.
If you used TPR you would get a more 'valid' result. But raw score is clearly much easier to understand.
A lottery pairing system does not take into account pre-conceived ideas of playing strength from ratings. However, each event will throw up different anomalies.
The Burstein system relies after 3 rounds on Bucholz. I abhor it personally, although it is conceptually logical.
The Dubov system seeks to balance off strength of opposition and is heavily reliant on accurate ratings.
We have flirted with all these systems and others.
In case Adam doers not realise, descriptions of these systems can be found in my book. It was not written for 11 year olds, few of whom are organisers. I would enjoy seeing him explaining what electricity is to a group of 11 year olds.

I couldn't agree less with Richard Bates' statement about the FIDE Ratings going down to 1200. The intention was announced in 1999 (at my suggestion) to go eventually down to 1000 and I expect that to be reached next year. Surely that has been adequate advance notice for him to lodge objections? Since Acceleration makes use of ratings, I cannot understand why he thinks it would be better to have no rating at all. He could argue, if he wishes, for the system to use Ratings down to the age of 16 and Grades under that, but it would be cumbersome. Anyway, so far the British this year is an excellent advertisement for the system used.

Stewart Reuben