English Chess Forum

Does anyone know of, or have access to, a suitable summary or set of data for the amount of chess played in England in a typical season, with locations and so forth? I know that overall data is available for the number of graded games, but was wondering whether in addition to that there is any breakdown by regions, leagues, congresses, other competitions (e.g. the 4NCL and county championships) and clubs?

The reason I'm asking is to get a feel for the most active areas of chess. Not in terms of organisation or visibility, but purely in terms of number of organised competitive chess games played under the aegis of particular organisations. I know this will neglect the social side of things, but I'm not sure if any summary of this sort has been done. I know there is that website that lists lots of chess clubs and leagues, but I can't remember if it attempts to list number of players and games per season.

http://www.gtryfon.demon.co.uk/bcc/Uk_c ... ations.htm

That is useful, but not the site I was thinking of. Ah, here it is:

http://mjh.orpheusweb.co.uk/chingland/cframe.htm

That has a series of 'snapshots', an attempt to see what the size of various leagues were over time:

http://mjh.orpheusweb.co.uk/chingland/snap07.htm
http://mjh.orpheusweb.co.uk/chingland/snap08.htm
http://mjh.orpheusweb.co.uk/chingland/snap09.htm
http://mjh.orpheusweb.co.uk/chingland/snap10.htm

It is something like that I am after, a picture of the state of chess in the UK at various points in time (though mostly now, as most data will be current, hopefully).

One of the questions I hope might be answered is an idea of the numbers of games the larger clubs organise over a season. King's Head and Drunken Knights and Hendon I think are three such in London. Others have multiple teams in multiple leagues, but I'm not sure of the exact numbers.

To take the example of the two local leagues I play in, the Thames Valley League and London League, I think the (anticipated) numbers over all divisions for the 2012-13 season are as follows.

Thames Valley League

http://www.thamesvalleychess.org/index.html

Five divisions. Each division has home and away double-round fixtures.

TVL division 1 - 8 teams, 7 clubs, 8 boards, each team plays 14 matches, 56 matches and 448 games in total.
TVL division 2 - 8 teams, 7 clubs, 7 boards, each team plays 14 matches, 56 matches and 392 games in total.
TVL division 3 - 7 teams, 6 clubs, 6 boards, each team plays 12 matches, 42 matches and 252 games in total.
TVL division 4 - 6 teams, 6 clubs, 6 boards, each team plays 10 matches, 30 matches and 180 games in total.
TVL division 5 (division X) - 6 teams, 6 clubs, 4 boards, each team plays 10 matches, 30 matches and 120 games in total.

Overall for the Thames Valley League, 35 teams and 13 clubs. Total number of games is 1392.

The clubs are (number of teams in square brackets): Richmond [5], Ealing [3], Ealing Juniors [2], Wimbledon [4], Kingston [2], Surbiton [4], Maidenhead [2], Hammersmith [1], Harrow [3], Hayes [2], Hounslow [3], Staines [2], Meadhurst [2]. That is 13 clubs, or 12 if you consider Ealing Juniors part of Ealing (the amount of separation between such clubs varies, some clubs have juniors in their teams without running separate junior teams).

London League

http://www.londonchess.com/

Six divisions. All teams play each other once.

LL division 1 - 12 teams, 10 clubs, 12 boards, 66 matches, 792 games
LL division 2 - 13 teams, 13 clubs, 10 boards, 78 matches, 780 games
LL division 3 - 13 teams, 12 clubs, 10 boards, 78 matches, 780 games
LL division 4 - 12 teams, 12 clubs, 8 boards, 66 matches, 528 games
LL division Major - 7 teams, 7 clubs, 4 boards, 21 matches, 84 games
LL division Minor - 7 teams, 7 clubs, 4 boards, 21 matches, 84 games

Overall for the London League, 64 teams and 29 clubs. Total number of games is 3048.

The clubs are (number of teams in square brackets): Albany [1], Athenaeum [3], Battersea [3], Beckenham & Charlton [1], Cavendish [4], DHSS [2], Drunken Knights [3], Dulwich [2], East Ham [1], Greater London [4], Hackney [5], Hammersmith [3], Ilford [1], Imperial College [1], Kings Head [5], Lewisham [1], London Deaf [1], Metropolitan [5], Morley College [2], Mushrooms [2], Pimlico (HO&J) [1], Richmond & Twickenham [1], Streatham & Brixton [3], Wanstead & Woodford [3], West London [1], Willesden & Brent [1], Wimbledon [2], Woodbridge [1], Wood Green [1].

How do the above two compare to other leagues around the country?

Would anyone be able to supply similar statistics (number of teams, number of clubs, number of boards, and number of games) for other team competitions and leagues (remembering that number of boards does not equal number of players, and number of teams does not equal number of clubs), and number of players and games for congresses? I suppose some of the data is in the grading database somewhere, but the detailed breakdown by club is rarely possible as individual players are listed for many clubs.

This old thread has some details of other London leagues, but mainly that they exist, not how large or small they are, but statistics on those would be great if they exist:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2266

I would imagine the game fee stats, or ECF voting entitlements maybe better, would answer your question broken down by organisation

You can presumably manipulate the ECF grading database to give you the figures broken down by club

The answers to your questions in respect of the Manchester League you can probably get now from the results system, but bear in mind this is the first season we have used it
http://www.manchesterchess.org.uk/index.php

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Would anyone be able to supply similar statistics (number of teams, number of clubs, number of boards, and number of games) for other team competitions and leagues (remembering that number of boards does not equal number of players, and number of teams does not equal number of clubs), and number of players and games for congresses? I suppose some of the data is in the grading database somewhere, but the detailed breakdown by club is rarely possible as individual players are listed for many clubs.

All of this data should be in the grading database, since for every game, it knows who played the game, the competition they were playing in and the club or geographic location that describes them. Whether the ECF is prepared to allow this data to be published or analysed is another matter. The voting register can act as a crude proxy for this. I think that shows Birmingham and Bristol as the two biggest leagues after the London League and the 4NCL, measured by games played.

As far as leagues go, you have two types. There's the type which treats the competition as one Open event, so you are expected to have at least as many players as the numbers of boards in your teams. Most, but not all, of the competitions in London and the South East are of this format. So is the 4NCL. The other type is where the competitions are limited by grade. This allows you to run more teams than available players provided you have enough players of the required grade and willingness to play.

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Would anyone be able to supply similar statistics (number of teams, number of clubs, number of boards, and number of games) for other team competitions and leagues (remembering that number of boards does not equal number of players, and number of teams does not equal number of clubs), and number of players and games for congresses? I suppose some of the data is in the grading database somewhere, but the detailed breakdown by club is rarely possible as individual players are listed for many clubs.

All of this data should be in the grading database, since for every game, it knows who played the game, the competition they were playing in and the club or geographic location that describes them. Whether the ECF is prepared to allow this data to be published or analysed is another matter. The voting register can act as a crude proxy for this. I think that shows Birmingham and Bristol as the two biggest leagues after the London League and the 4NCL, measured by games played.

As far as leagues go, you have two types. There's the type which treats the competition as one Open event, so you are expected to have at least as many players as the numbers of boards in your teams. Most, but not all, of the competitions in London and the South East are of this format. So is the 4NCL. The other type is where the competitions are limited by grade. This allows you to run more teams than available players provided you have enough players of the required grade and willingness to play.

I'm also interested in the number of teams run by individual clubs. I'm not sure this can be extracted from the grading database, but as you said most of the other information can be. Also, some measure of manual analysis is useful to confirm the automated analysis... I'm going to do that for the Manchester league now, and maybe the Birmingham and Bristol ones as well. How many leagues use that results service - is there a full list anywhere?

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: I'm also interested in the number of teams run by individual clubs. I'm not sure this can be extracted from the grading database, but as you said most of the other information can be. Also, some measure of manual analysis is useful to confirm the automated analysis.

The grading website has a list of events graded. From that, you could search for a league or county websites which if you find them, will presumably give full league details and tables.

Mick Norris wrote:I would imagine the game fee stats, or ECF voting entitlements maybe better, would answer your question broken down by organisation

You can presumably manipulate the ECF grading database to give you the figures broken down by club

I'll leave others to manipulate the ECF grading and other databases. Hopefully they will publish the results, or have done so already and I've just missed it when searching for that.

Mick Norris wrote:The answers to your questions in respect of the Manchester League you can probably get now from the results system, but bear in mind this is the first season we have used it
http://www.manchesterchess.org.uk/index.php

Thanks. From that I get the following, showing it is similar to the Thames Valley League in size:

Manchester League

http://www.manchesterchess.org.uk/main.php

Five divisions. All teams play each other once.

ML division A - 10 teams, 7 clubs, 7 boards, 45 matches, 315 games
ML division B - 11 teams, 11 clubs, 7 boards, 55 matches, 385 games
ML division C - 9 teams, 8 clubs, 7 boards, 36 matches, 252 games
ML division D - 6 teams, 6 clubs, 5 boards, 15 matches, 75 games
ML division E - 6 teams, 6 clubs, 5 boards, 15 matches, 75 games

Overall for the Manchester League, 42 teams and 18 clubs. Total number of games is 1102.

The clubs are (number of teams in square brackets): Altrincham & Hale [1], Ashton Community [1], Bolton [4], Bury [2], Chorlton [6], Denton [3], Eccles [1], Great Lever [1], Heywood [3], Manchester University [1], Marple [1], Oldham [2], Rochdale [1], Sale and District [1], Stockport [3], Three Cs [6], Urmston [3], Worsley [2].

You can look at lots of stats in the Player details tab e.g. we have 452 registered players of which 350 are ECF members (so far)

Not sure if you are interested, but there are 4 cup competitions too, so more chess than your initial stats show

On the downside, the University have pulled out after only playing 3 league and 1 cup match - they have actually won a cup the last 2 seasons, and got promoted too, but lost their strongest player, who ran the team, in the summer

Birmingham League

Division 1 - 13 teams, 12 clubs, 6 boards, 78 matches, 468 games
Division 2 - 13 teams, 12 clubs, 6 boards, 78 matches, 468 games
Division 3 - 13 teams, 13 clubs, 6 boards, 78 matches, 468 games
Division 4 - 11 teams, 10 clubs, 6 boards, 55 matches, 330 games (1 team withdrew)
Division 5 - 12 teams, 11 clubs, 6 boards, 66 matches, 396 games
Division 6 - 12 teams, 11 clubs, 4 boards, 66 matches, 264 games (1 team withdrew)

Overall: 74 teams and 26 clubs. Total games 2,394.

There are 4 knockout handicap trophy competitions, an individual competition for each division, a Rapidplay Congress, and a Summer Rapidplay League not included in the above.

Clubs are: Birmingham [2], Boldmere St. Michael's [5], Bushbury [3], Greenlands [2], Halesowen [3], Kynoch [3], Lichfield [4], Mercia [1], Mutual Circle [4], Olton [5], Redditch [2], Rushall [1], Shirley & Wythall [4], Solihull [5], South Birmingham [6], Stourbridge [2], Sutton Coldfield [3], St. George's [2], Tamworth & District [1], Walsall Kipping [3], Warley Quinborne [4], West Bromwich [1], West Midlands Police [2], Westminster [4], Wolverhampton [1].

Oxfordshire League

Division 1 - 7 teams, 6 boards, 42 matches, 252 games
Division 2 - 7 Teams, 6 boards, 42 matches, 252 games
Division 3 - 7 Teams, 6 boards, 42 matches, 252 games
Division 4 - 8 Teams, 6 boards, 48 matches, 288 games

Cup - 18 teams, 17 matches, 6 boards, 102 games.

Total games = 1146

Chris

Teams in the two London League Minor Divisions play each other twice so the figures should read:

LL division Major - 7 teams, 7 clubs, 4 boards, 42 matches, 168 games
LL division Minor - 7 teams, 7 clubs, 4 boards, 42 matches, 168 games

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:

Mick Norris wrote:The answers to your questions in respect of the Manchester League you can probably get now from the results system, but bear in mind this is the first season we have used it
http://www.manchesterchess.org.uk/index.php

Thanks. From that I get the following, showing it is similar to the Thames Valley League in size:

Manchester League

http://www.manchesterchess.org.uk/main.php

Five divisions. All teams play each other once.

ML division A - 10 teams, 7 clubs, 7 boards, 45 matches, 315 games
ML division B - 11 teams, 11 clubs, 7 boards, 55 matches, 385 games
ML division C - 9 teams, 8 clubs, 7 boards, 36 matches, 252 games
ML division D - 6 teams, 6 clubs, 5 boards, 15 matches, 75 games
ML division E - 6 teams, 6 clubs, 5 boards, 15 matches, 75 games

Overall for the Manchester League, 42 teams and 18 clubs. Total number of games is 1102.

The clubs are (number of teams in square brackets): Altrincham & Hale [1], Ashton Community [1], Bolton [4], Bury [2], Chorlton [6], Denton [3], Eccles [1], Great Lever [1], Heywood [3], Manchester University [1], Marple [1], Oldham [2], Rochdale [1], Sale and District [1], Stockport [3], Three Cs [6], Urmston [3], Worsley [2].

D&E divisions are home and away, so each are 30 matches and 150 games

The cups are;
Reyner, 11 teams, 7 boards, 10 matches, 70 games
Wahltuch, 15 teams, 7 boards, 14 matches, 98 games
Hartley, 6 teams, 5 boards, 5 matches, 25 games
Alfred Milner, 5 teams, 5 boards, 4 matches, 20 games

Overall total number of games 1465 if they were all played

Bristol League

Division 1 - 10 teams, 8 clubs, 6 boards, 90 matches, 540 games
Division 2 - 11 teams, 9 clubs, 6 boards, 110 matches, 660 games
Division 3 - 10 teams, 9 clubs, 6 boards, 90 matches, 540 games
Division 4 - 10 teams, 7 clubs, 4 boards, 90 matches, 360 games

Overall: 41 teams and 16 clubs. Total games 2,100 plus 102 games played in 2 team ko competitions

Clubs; Bath (2), Bath University, Bristol University (2), Cabot (2), Clevedon (2), Clifton (5), Downend (7), Grendel, Hanham (3), Harambee (2), Horfield (3), Keynsham (2), Patchway (2), South Bristol (3), Thornbury (2), Yate (2)

North Devon League

2 teams, 1 club, ? boards, 1 or 2 matches, ? games

Clubs; Barnstaple (1)
Non-club teams; Bideford (1)

Many thanks for what has been posted so far. I wasn't expecting this level of response. Hopefully more will be posted, though noting obvious gaps in coverage would help (mainly the larger leagues). Later, I will amend what I posted based on the corrections suggested. It would be nice if snapshot surveys like this could be done on a regular basis, but has it been done in the past or not, and at what level of detail? Do the ECF have detailed stats and only release some in the form of voting entitlements? Do leagues only submit the information needed for the voting register and not usually give a more extensive breakdown?

Other local league websites here if you want to trawl through them!

http://www.stockportchessleague.org.uk/

http://www.manchesterchessfederation.co.uk/page17.html

http://www.elca.org.uk/

http://www.ottie.org.uk/lcc/

http://www.wdcl.co.uk/

I suggest the Yorkshire Leagues are bigger than all of these, and the Merseyside league is quite big too