English Chess Forum

Sounds good for a £5,000 fine to me.

Matthew Turner wrote: ↑

Tue May 25, 2021 8:11 am

A somewhat worrying development for the return of OTB chess

Also in the Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... pots-covid

According to the guidance, which appears to have been updated on 21 May and is not law, journeys to and from the affected areas – Bedford, Blackburn and Darwen, Bolton, Burnley, Kirklees, Leicester, Hounslow, and North Tyneside – should be avoided “unless essential”. Exemptions include travel for work, where working from home is not possible, and education.

North Tyneside is where a Congress is scheduled for the end of September.

I'm not sure I understand the point of advising against travel and then not really telling anyone about it.

BBC analysis:

No new law covering the affected areas has been signed. So that means the advice given to the eight areas is just that: a recommendation of what's in the best interests of the community. That means police officers have no power to break up indoor gatherings that are permitted elsewhere in England - and they can't fine people for taking non-essential journeys out of an area.

And as far as a September congress is concerned - the vast majority of adults should be fully vaccinated some time before that.

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Tue May 25, 2021 2:01 pm

And as far as a September congress is concerned - the vast majority of adults should be fully vaccinated some time before that.

I've just had a look at the Northumberland Chess Congress website.
As of today there are already 36 entries.

Simon Rogers wrote: ↑

Tue May 25, 2021 7:24 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Tue May 25, 2021 2:01 pm

And as far as a September congress is concerned - the vast majority of adults should be fully vaccinated some time before that.

I've just had a look at the Northumberland Chess Congress website.
As of today there are already 36 entries.

There's a number of deferments from last year, so too much into that ought not to be read.

Given that I successfully survived my first tournament as organiser, I am thinking of organising another on the 26th-27th.
Which made me realise, that it would occur post the lifting of all pandemic restrictions.

What I might do, is allow adult registrations after the 21st.
Do you think I could attract many adults in a junior heavy tournament?
Would I need to move away from trophies and towards cash prizes (are there any legal aspects I need to think about if I do it this way?)? Or would adults be happy to participate in any challenging OtB event?>
Or should I just stick with a pure junior event?

I would suggest that you will have enough to think about at the moment, so stick with juniors and see if there are way to improve your offering. You mentioned that the games were too long for some, so could first round losers move to a quicker time control for example?

I saw the suggestion, but I don't want to increase the workload needed to manage more rounds. I was alone in managing everything most of the time, I wouldn't cope managing a rapid section on top.
There are events catering for rapidplay, I'll stick to standard.

Dont worry too much about cash prizes. Have an Open section for all 18÷ and encourage parents to take part as well. PS how much space have you got in your venue? (asking for a friend)

Adam Raoof wrote: ↑

Mon May 31, 2021 5:48 pm

Dont worry too much about cash prizes. Have an Open section for all 18÷ and encourage parents to take part as well. PS how much space have you got in your venue? (asking for a friend)

The venue is a school building. Normally Joe and I use the top 4 classrooms for the games (4 boards per room for pandemic safety), one room for arbiter, and 7 rooms downstairs for the parents (4-5 families per room).
Without pandemic restrictions, it could go much higher, though I would say 6-8 boards per room * 4 should be ideal capacity, so 48 to 64 should be a comfortable max. Actually you could go much higher as some of the downstairs room could be suitable as a playing area, but then you run out of break areas. And you need to take into account the fact that the school is a rather quiet area of town, so players need some space in between rounds (there is a big courtyard if the weather is good).
Also the more players you have the more you need to manage access to the site (reception is manned in morning and evening, but in between you rely on access cards and tracking who has them).

"I saw the suggestion, but I don't want to increase the workload needed to manage more rounds. I was alone in managing everything most of the time, I wouldn't cope managing a rapid section on top."

Understandable! You seem to know what you're doing so you may already have done this, but it might be worth asking if any of the parents can assist. A friend of mine was recruited to do charts (much better than I can, ok maybe you're using print-outs), and also acts as bodyguard for the arbiter. When I'm busy and people are being a nuisance, she heads them off and tries to find out the problem, so I'm not necessarily bothered with it (unless I have to be).

I was also delighted at a weekender at the end, when I thought, "Groan. Now we have to put all the sets and furniture away." A very polite junior approached, apologised for interrupting me staring mournfully into space, and said, "Do you need help putting sets away?" On the speedy answer, "Yes, please!" He said, "Right, I'll get some others!" and they went round like a helpful swarm of locusts and the room was cleared in a few minutes.

People who are not playing often volunteer to help, as it's better than sitting around. You can do the complicated stuff, but you should find enthusiastic helpers.

I would have thought almost any OTB would be welcomed these days by a sufficiently large number of keen would-be players even if many others feel it is too early

Wadih Khoury wrote: ↑

Mon May 31, 2021 6:03 pm

The venue is a school building. Normally Joe and I use the top 4 classrooms for the games (4 boards per room for pandemic safety), one room for arbiter, and 7 rooms downstairs for the parents (4-5 families per room).
Without pandemic restrictions, it could go much higher, though I would say 6-8 boards per room * 4 should be ideal capacity, so 48 to 64 should be a comfortable max. Actually you could go much higher as some of the downstairs room could be suitable as a playing area, but then you run out of break areas. And you need to take into account the fact that the school is a rather quiet area of town, so players need some space in between rounds (there is a big courtyard if the weather is good).
Also the more players you have the more you need to manage access to the site (reception is manned in morning and evening, but in between you rely on access cards and tracking who has them).

Before the pandemic I ran an LJCC qualifier there with 100 kids in total across three of the classrooms. It was more crowded than for the recent events

For my next event I am going from 4 boards = 1section/ room to 8 boards = 2 sections/ room (with phase 3 and coming down from 2m+ separation to 1m+ separation between boards; I will still keep 2m+ separation between sections).

In my view though the biggest need is to keep the parents separated, they are much more significant covid transmitters than the children, and this is the biggest restriction on overall capacity - ensuring there is enough waiting space for the parents. I am operating capacity 48 for June and July events there.

If anyone else wants to start using the venue please can we all keep in touch so that there are not multiple organisers clashing on the same weekend!

Wadih Khoury wrote: ↑

Mon May 31, 2021 5:23 pm

I saw the suggestion, but I don't want to increase the workload needed to manage more rounds. I was alone in managing everything most of the time, I wouldn't cope managing a rapid section on top.
There are events catering for rapidplay, I'll stick to standard.

I was just throwing it out there. How about this then for a more crackpot idea. Give your 4th highest graded player a bye in rd1, your 3rd highest a bye in Rd 2, your second a bye in rd3 and your top player a bye in round 4. They then give a coaching session for the ones who finish quickly starting say an hour into the round. That way everyone is kept busy and players develop new skill sets.