English Chess Forum

Tim Spanton wrote: ↑

Wed May 25, 2022 10:18 am

By contrast my next tournament, in Mallorca Jun 4-12

They like their evening play in Spain.

Round times 1-7 are 8 pm each evening and it's longer than a nominal four hour session.

9 round Swiss: rounds 1 to 7 from 4th to 10 th June every day at 8pm; round 8
saturday 11th June at 3:30pm; round 9 Sunday 12th June at 10am
Time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves + 15 minutes to finish the game with 30
second increments from the first move.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Wed May 25, 2022 10:56 am

Tim Spanton wrote: ↑

Wed May 25, 2022 10:18 am

By contrast my next tournament, in Mallorca Jun 4-12

They like their evening play in Spain.

Round times 1-7 are 8 pm each evening and it's longer than a nominal four hour session.

9 round Swiss: rounds 1 to 7 from 4th to 10 th June every day at 8pm; round 8
saturday 11th June at 3:30pm; round 9 Sunday 12th June at 10am
Time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves + 15 minutes to finish the game with 30
second increments from the first move.

Late starts had always put me off many otherwise-attractive Spanish tournaments, but in October 2020 I felt obliged to plunge in and play at Calvià (also in Mallorca) as the only port in a pandemic storm. I found I got on really well with 8pm starts, and so returned last October to play there again. One thing about finishing around midnight is it tends to keep you out of mischief ...

For those of you who don't fancy a late night in the heat of Spain, I've found some more events taking place in England (including a couple of new ones), which I'll post over the next couple of days.

Decent turn-out at Poulton-le-Fylde Chess Club last night.
11 people were there. No one fell asleep this time.

8 of us here at Poulton chess club tonight. Some interesting friendly games.
Should be busy in two weeks time.

Simon Rogers wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 13, 2022 8:36 pm

Should be busy in two weeks time.

What is happening then?

Poulton-le-Fylde analysing all the Surrey - Lancashire games?

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 13, 2022 10:21 pm

Simon Rogers wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 13, 2022 8:36 pm

Should be busy in two weeks time.

What is happening then?

A number of members who have not been for a while are returning.
Our whizzkid, Ben Fearnhead is back from Churchill College, Cambridge for the summer. Ben beat Malcolm Peacock of Preston with the black pieces, earlier in the league season.
Looks like also we have a few new members coming aswell, including one of the bar staff at Carleton Bowling Club, who wants to join.
We also have a promising new junior who plays for Walsall Kipping Chess Club, with his dad, attending our club and will return soon.

Nick Grey wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 13, 2022 11:57 pm

Poulton-le-Fylde analysing all the Surrey - Lancashire games?

Hi Nick.
Yeah I might have a look at the Surrey games.
I notice on the Surrey County Chess Association website yesterday there was a post about all the Surrey teams progressing to the finals of the County Championship.

6 members at Poulton-le-Fylde Chess Club tonight, including two Latvians that have not been for a while. 2 new juniors at Cleveleys last couple of weeks.
Eyes down to the Congress Diary Category, here comes some more events.

Simon Rogers wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 04, 2022 8:28 pm

...........
Eyes down to the Congress Diary Category, here comes some more events.

Simon.
Any news of the Preston Congress?

No not yet Paul, I'll email Malcolm Peacock and find out.
I've found some more events which I'll post in Congress Diary when I get home from work tonight.

Bedford Chess Club has managed to complete its annual championship, based on all-play-all divisions with games played on club nights through the season. Only one season had to be cancelled.
2019-20: halted March 2020, resumed July 2021, completed by November 2021.
2020-21: cancelled
2021-22: squeezed successfully into November 2021-June 2022.

Another club in the Bedfordshire League meets only for matches, but we are proud to have maintained a championship structure of two, three or even four (in the halcyon days of the 1970s) divisions. We haven't been good at keeping detailed records but the names on our championship trophy go back unbroken to the 1956-57 season.

In recent years we have found that a top division of nine players works well. That's nine rounds, one per month October through June. Immediately pre-Covid we had 23 entrants and reluctantly went for a large second division of 14. When this was completed by November 2021 we then had 27 entrants for 2021-22, neatly dividing into three sections of nine. Promotion/relegation is 2 up/2 down. There is a round by round schedule of fixtures. Players who fail to meet the monthly deadline are given one round's grace, then have to commit to a date, however far ahead that is. This has successfully deterred players from avoiding certain opponents or leaving games unplayed by the end of the season.

The slight increase in active membership bucks the trend of many clubs in other spheres where return to face-to-face contact has been slow. Certainly most bridge clubs are scarcely back to half pre-Covid numbers. With bridge I think this is partly due to players discovering the convenience of online play. The RealBridge platform involving camera and microphone makes cheating less easy, while in online chess there is no equivalent in general use to mitigate the problem we all know about.

We have had a couple of really good nights at Holmfirth with Adult and Junior Simuls to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer. It was organised by our Junior Manager and Club Secretary Rob Mitchell, with a very healthy turn out. Details here (including Rob's just giving link) on Steve Mann's excellent Yorkshire Chess New site: http://mannchess.org.uk/YNotices/2022-0 ... Millan.htm

Paul Habershon wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:59 pm

The slight increase in active membership bucks the trend of many clubs in other spheres where return to face-to-face contact has been slow. Certainly most bridge clubs are scarcely back to half pre-Covid numbers. With bridge I think this is partly due to players discovering the convenience of online play. The RealBridge platform involving camera and microphone makes cheating less easy, while in online chess there is no equivalent in general use to mitigate the problem we all know about.

The demographics of Bridge players do also bias really old. Much more so than the 'ageing' chess leagues we worry about. Not so surprising if they're being really cautious about returning. I hope the economics are holding together for the clubs.

The keener bridge players do obviously have a much wider spread of ages but that's a small proportion of the bridge playing public.