So who's going to the British Chess Championships?

[Paul McKeown]

Stewart, that makes more sense.

However you wrote earlier (and I quote) "Players from all the British Isles, including Eire, have been permitted to play since 1988. Prior to that the Southern Irish were not allowed to play, they, of course, were not then and are not now in the Commonwealth, whose playersd have not been allowed to play since 2004."

I can see the cause of the confusion now - you were referring to players from the Commonwealth, whilst earlier you had been writing about Ireland. All is clear now.
P.

[Paul McKeown]

Pubs, clubs, The streets, More single women than most towns....its got the lot

Jackeens the lot of them

That's what my lady friend from Cavan says anyway!

[Paul McKeown]

When an application was made to FIDE for separate status to Ireland (it never had a chance in my opinion), their advocate used the term Ulster Chess Union. This was because he felt Northern Ireland would seem pejorative to some delegates.

I can understand that - it would be possible to offend someone no whatever it was called. Northern Irish Chess Union would be rejected by some as including the label for a state they do not wish to be part of. Ulster Chess Union, however, as Alex H. has remarked, is a label which would (in name anyway) lay claim to administration of chess affairs of three counties in the Republic, acceptable in an era when it represented a province of Ireland within the Irish Chess Union, but not in an era of an independent northern union. Solomon would struggle with that.

Personally I feel that the breakaway attempt is misguided, as it opens cans of worms best left unopened, particularly in an era of general reconciliation.

P.

[Paul McKeown]

I do think it needs to be recognised that some people come from one country but become resident in another and that nothing is really served by making them choose one or the other. Naturally I have a stake in this, being resident in Spain though a UK citizen, but I am an ECF member as well as being a registered player in Spain. I'm genuinely English and genuinely resident elsewhere. By all means devise regulations which try to prevent people using flags of convenience if you wish (recognising of course that all rules are imperfect) but I think a reasonably generous outlook on this is to the benefit of everybody.

Couldn't agree more. All this whinging about Germans, etc., playing in the British Championship gets right up my nose. If they live here 5 years or whatever, let them play, as British residents. And if they are British, even if they live in Switzerland, France, Australia or the bloody moon for that matter, then they are British citizens, and let them play as such in the British championships. Anything else just seems to be a complaint that the English (it always seems to be the English, if you don't mind, not the Scottish, Welsh, Northern Ireland, etc.) are getting a raw deal somehow or other. What raw deal???

[Alex Holowczak]

I do think it needs to be recognised that some people come from one country but become resident in another and that nothing is really served by making them choose one or the other. Naturally I have a stake in this, being resident in Spain though a UK citizen, but I am an ECF member as well as being a registered player in Spain. I'm genuinely English and genuinely resident elsewhere. By all means devise regulations which try to prevent people using flags of convenience if you wish (recognising of course that all rules are imperfect) but I think a reasonably generous outlook on this is to the benefit of everybody.

Couldn't agree more. All this whinging about Germans, etc., playing in the British Championship gets right up my nose. If they live here 5 years or whatever, let them play, as British residents. And if they are British, even if they live in Switzerland, France, Australia or the bloody moon for that matter, then they are British citizens, and let them play as such in the British championships. Anything else just seems to be a complaint that the English (it always seems to be the English, if you don't mind, not the Scottish, Welsh, Northern Ireland, etc.) are getting a raw deal somehow or other. What raw deal???

The parallel with snooker would be the UK Championship. In the old days, overseas professionals couldn't play in it until they had lived in the UK for 5 years. Patsy Fagan won the 1977 event because he lived in London. Players like Thorburn, Stevens and Werbeniuk had to wait to be eligible to play, but even then didn't regularly appear. Only in 1984, when they made the UK Championship "Open" to all, did they and the likes of Charlton and Francisco take part, but that was more through the fact snooker wanted more ranking events at the time. No one complained about non UK-nationals playing when it was a closed event. Indeed, no overseas player won it (Fagan excepting) until Ding beat Davis in 2005. So, I don't see why they should complain in the British Championship, either. It's the same principle, and no one ever complained in snooker.

[Paul McKeown]

Frankly, all the whinging seems very ungenerous. If a group of English players want an English championship, without Rowson, Aagard and Arakhamia stealing their thunder, funded as the British championship is, and indeed surplanting it, then they should come out into the open about it. As it is eligibility for the "British" would seem to be undergoing the death by a thousand cuts to pacify them.

[Stewart Reuben]

>Frankly, all the whinging seems very ungenerous. If a group of English players want an English championship, without Rowson, Aagard and Arakhamia stealing their thunder, funded as the British championship is, and indeed surplanting it, then they should come out into the open about it. As it is eligibility for the "British" would seem to be undergoing the death by a thousand cuts to pacify them.<

You can find earlier in this string my slant on the advantages of the British Championship not being open to all. I have not heard anybody ever complain about citizens of the UK being allowed to play and nobody has been interested in players from Guernsey, Jersey or Gibraltar being allowed to compete.

Stewart Reuben

[David Gilbert]

What a fantastic first week! Over 950 entries. Fantastic organisation. Great venue. So many talking points. Not least GM Alexander Cherniaev’s remarkable loss (on time) to Alexandra Wilson in final round of the Week One PM Open on Friday? It left the GM high and dry on 3.5/5 and handed the first-in-class rosette to young IM Craig Hanley. The cause of the loss - Alexander could explain if you have a few days to spare and a conveyor belt of wet towel compresses – it was the scoresheets, apparantly, because the columns run to 15 moves not 20. Meanwhile the Under-11s can already count to 40!

[JustinHorton]

An exhibition match between Karpov and Ghaem recently had a rule that games were played on until mate or completely drawn. I saw no adverse comments.

I suspect the term "exhibition" may be crucial here.

[Colin Gardiner]

Hi David Gilbert I see we will be battling in the under 140.Hope they are getting in extra supply of tomatoes.