Bad Light stopped play

[Roger de Coverly]

In today's 4NCL Hull tournament, there was a loud bang about 75 minutes into the round and the lights went out except the emergency ones. Play was paused and after about another hour, the round was abandoned for the Open and Under 2000. I gather the other two tournaments in another room were able to struggle on.

Fifty years ago I would imagine candles would be brought out.

It's not across the whole univeristy and apparantly an engineer is coming from Manchester to attempt to fix the problem,

Current plan is to do a new set of pairings and resume at 3pm in the slot for Round 3. Only one game had finished and round 2 will be treated as abandoned with no result.

(edit) According to chess.com I was a little better. It was my move. There again I wasn't totally happy and if play had resumed I might have punted a draw offer. (/edit)

[NickFaulks]

an engineer is coming from Manchester to attempt to fix the problem

Have all the lighting engineers been driven out of Yorkshire?

[LawrenceCooper]

In today's 4NCL Hull tournament, there was a loud bang about 75 minutes into the round and the lights went out except the emergency ones. Play was paused and after about another hour, the round was abandoned for the Open and Under 2000. I gather the other two tournaments in another room were able to struggle on.

Fifty years ago I would imagine candles would be brought out.

It's not across the whole univeristy and apparantly an engineer is coming from Manchester to attempt to fix the problem,

Current plan is to do a new set of pairings and resume at 3pm in the slot for Round 3. Only one game had finished and round 2 will be treated as abandoned with no result.

(edit) According to chess.com I was a little better. It was my move. There again I wasn't totally happy and if play had resumed I might have punted a draw offer. (/edit)

Thanks for the update. I'd been wondering why no results had appeared and hadn't even realised that there were live boards.

[Andrew Zigmond]

A big shame. Work commitments have prevented me from attending this year but Hull 4NCL is an excellent congress run with passion and dedication.

I have two previous experiences of similar incidents, both at Harrogate CC's old venue Apley Grange, which as some will know was a care home annex. Once during our club night the lights went out due to - later confirmed but we suspected at the time, a fuse blowing. A local league match was still in progress and two games, one involving myself, had to be played in the toilets which were unaffected.

The North Chess Fund used the same venue for their small Harrogate Congress. During the first round a player accidentally pressed the fire alarm thinking it was a light switch which caused the whole site to be woken and evacuated. As the siren raged the controller called for clocks to be stopped but two players were in the middle of a time scramble and carried on anyway!

[Ian Thompson]

Fifty years ago I would imagine candles would be brought out.

Car headlights pointing into the room were used roughly 45 years ago.

Current plan is to do a new set of pairings and resume at 3pm in the slot for Round 3. Only one game had finished and round 2 will be treated as abandoned with no result.

Does a result of "HP" prohibit, or allow, the players to be paired together again in a subsequent round?

[Chris Goodall]

an engineer is coming from Manchester to attempt to fix the problem

Have all the lighting engineers been driven out of Yorkshire?

Is t'moon not bright enough fothy, shall I turn it oop?

[Joey Stewart]

I imagine there were comments asking the lines of "this would never have happened if Thatcher didn't close down the mines"

[Roger de Coverly]

[
Does a result of "HP" prohibit, or allow, the players to be paired together again in a subsequent round?

That was the arbiters' intent. I don't know whether it was automatic or whether they had to hack the data with disallowed pairings.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"A local league match was still in progress and two games, one involving myself, had to be played in the toilets which were unaffected."

It's a sign of the times, that I idly wondered if both players were the same gender. Of course that would not be a problem these days...

Fire alarms going off is the "Curse of Sedgwick" - what appellation will appear for dramatic power cuts?

And I must express utter outrage that the nearest electrician is in Manchester, but at least it explains why the M62 was built.

[Andrew Zigmond]

"A local league match was still in progress and two games, one involving myself, had to be played in the toilets which were unaffected."

It's a sign of the times, that I idly wondered if both players were the same gender. Of course that would not be a problem these days...

The toilets were unisex. In context you went out of the main room into the side area where there was a largeish area with the washbasins and three lockable cubicles (no urinals). In those days there was a fourth toilet located around the back somewhere - the building's original purpose was housing a small school hence the three cubicles and a toilet for the teacher.

All the players involved in the match were male and I can't recall if the one lady member of the time was present.

[Roger Lancaster]

.
Fifty years ago I would imagine candles would be brought out.

You need to be of a certain age, or to have read your history books, to know that Roger is referring (at least, I assume he is!) to the 1970's when there were issues between coal miners and the then government. In those days, the country's electricity supply was heavily dependent on coal so, when the miners went on strike, power cuts took place. Maybe my memory is playing tricks but I still have a recollection of continuing the occasional club match by candlelight (clubs must have included candles in their equipment cupboards) when the lights unexpectedly went out.

[Kevin Thurlow]

There was a Civil Service League match in the 70s, where the lights went out about ten minutes from the end of the session, so two players played on by the window using the moon for illumination. I think all the other games had finished. Unfortunately for white, he had not considered that black pieces are more difficult to see, and the game terminated when a bishop suddenly appeared from a cluster of pieces near the back rank and captured his queen.

[Roger Lancaster]

There was a Civil Service League match in the 70s, where the lights went out about ten minutes from the end of the session, so two players played on by the window using the moon for illumination. I think all the other games had finished. Unfortunately for white, he had not considered that black pieces are more difficult to see, and the game terminated when a bishop suddenly appeared from a cluster of pieces near the back rank and captured his queen.

Kevin, at first I wondered why no basic preparedness in the form of available candles but then I took on board that it was a civil service match.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Kevin, at first I wondered why no basic preparedness in the form of available candles but then I took on board that it was a civil service match."

As it was at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, we could have adjourned from the library (where candles were frowned upon) to the nearest laboratory and played by the light of bunsen burners, having equipped both players with lab coats and safety glasses... Mind you, I think the nearest lab was the controlled drugs area, and they didn't welcome unannounced visitors!

[Paul Heaton]

Fire alarms going off is the "Curse of Sedgwick" - what appellation will appear for dramatic power cuts?

Does anyone have any recent intelligence on how David is getting along?