English Chess Forum

Unfortunately the University of Wales choose not to hold a presentation at this years British Championships in Torquay.

So does anyone have any information about Aberystwyth?

I have been told that:

a) The venue is several miles from the town.

b) The venue is up a steep hill.

c) The national bus pass is not accepted in Wales.


If this information is correct it would seem that the venue for the 2014 British Championship is not suitable for seniors.

No idea about the venue but your bus pass definitely won’t work. Welcome to devolution.

Mind you, by the same token all the English venues are unsuitable in this way for Welsh OAPs, I guess.

Not a problem for this Senior, because I live in Monmouthshire, near the English Border. It would still take me a whole day to reach Aberystwyth, with 1/2 changes. We only have Rhoose Airport (Cardiff), and that is a long way from Aberystwyth. The town can be reached by train, but is likely to require 1/2 changes from England, unless travelling from Shrewsbury or Birmingham. As you say, so much for devolution. I have to pay full bus fares in England, and Scotland. A car is really essential for reaching Aberystwyth. If the venue is out of town, I would doubt if the local bus service is adequate, particularly on a Sunday.

The venue, if the campus in Penglais, is from memory well outside the town; certainly not part of the town. And, again from memory, uphill from the centre. But quite a lot of Wales is uphill. Indeed the town is atop a steep cliff-face when viewed from the prom. No buses on Sunday? No anything on Sunday as I recall: stuff just closes. And if it rains...I think I'll leave it there It is pretty though.

In my limited experience, the venue is signed off as satisfactory if it provides:

a) suitable rooms for the arbiters;
b) a cavernous playing hall, free; and
c) somewhere handy for lunch

According to google maps the venue is 1 mile from the town centre. (I don't know about the hill.)

Mike Gunn wrote:According to google maps the venue is 1 mile from the town centre. (I don't know about the hill.)

Fresh air and hills, are guaranteed, around Aberystwyth.

Ken Norman wrote: So does anyone have any information about Aberystwyth?

According to the University website, there are three campuses at the University. http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/maps-travel/

I don't think any of the announcements have stipulated which one will be used for the Congress.

The Gogerddan Campus looks to be well outside the town
http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/maps-travel/maps/gogerddan
LLanbadarbn and Penglais are back from the seafront but otherwise appear to be in town.
http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/maps-travel/maps/llanbadarn/
http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/maps-travel/maps/penglais/

English bus passes aren't valid in Wales. There is a regular train service from Birmingham, but it only runs every two hours. By road it's about two hours beyond Telford or Worcester.

Conference facilities are located at both the Penglais and Gogerddan sites
http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/visitors/confe ... ns-prices/

I suppose as with Canterbury, the Congress might be in a Sports Hall.

Rosser Hall, which is the "posh" accommodation is on the Penglais site
http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/visitors/accommodation/

The ECF calendar has it as the Llanabadarn campus. Google maps has it at 1.3 miles from the bus station in town, which is itself near the railway station, so it is a little way from the town. There seem to be buses about once every half an hour, which presumably only take 10-15 mins. Can't immediately see a Sunday service, though there may be one.

Aberystwyth is 4 hours from Manchester by train or 5 hours from London (compared to Torquay, which is 3 and a bit from London and 5 from Manchester, this isn't so bad). A peculiarity is that it's 4 hours from Cardiff by train, as you have to go up to Shrewsbury and then across.

PeterFarr wrote:The ECF calendar has it as the Llanabadarn campus.

The post code locates it as the Stapledon building, although that may just be the address for correspondence.

It would appear to be in an "elevated" position.

Ken Norman wrote: I have been told that:

a) The venue is several miles from the town.

b) The venue is up a steep hill.

c) The national bus pass is not accepted in Wales.


If this information is correct it would seem that the venue for the 2014 British Championship is not suitable for seniors.

The thread seems to have established that the answers to Ken's points are

(a) several miles is an exaggeration, but it's out on the edge of town.
(b) yes, the map has contour lines close together and a handful of steep hill symbols.
(c) yes - not that there's any better than an hourly service outside of term time.

It all rather implies that bringing your own car is going to be necessary.

I was doing some research of my own to see how practical the event was for me as a non driver. It does look as if I'll be reliant on taxis to get me to and from the venue and wherever I end up staying which will be a nuisance. That said I've only been to one British before (Torquay - a tourist town where everything was mega convenient) so I don't know how this compares.

Either way the appeal (playing chess in the company of the best of British while enjoying a part of the country I've never visited) is the same as for this year.

Andrew Zigmond wrote: It does look as if I'll be reliant on taxis to get me to and from the venue and wherever I end up staying which will be a nuisance.

As it's a University, I would imagine they are looking to sell some nearby student rooms for accommodation.I would expect that accommodation to be within walking distance of the venue, but probably not a level walk. The difficulty would be if you wanted to go into town. Actually that's downhill like the University of Kent to Canterbury, it's getting back that could be the problem.

If there are 700-800 people at the congress, we could assume there would be say 200 cars.

It strikes me that, if local public transport really is that limited, then it ought to be possible to run an informal shuttle / car-sharing system to help out non-drivers, particularly given that it's not actually that far from the town centre to the venue. Some bright person could perhaps design a "lifts offered vs lifts required" schedule for each day.

Just a thought.

I would have expected either Alex H or Sean Hewitt who have visited the site to have answered your questions by now.

Neither Lara nor I have visited. Indeed I was barred from attending the site visit.

I can tell you that it is Penglais and three rooms will be used for the British (Two in one building and one in another I think). All three rooms have refreshment areas.

Medrus Suite is the main hall (see plans and pictures on University website.

Again I'm sorry that we cannot provide more info.

Alex McFarlane wrote: Medrus Suite is the main hall (see plans and pictures on University website.

Given that the question of space was raised about Torquay, you wonder if that is big enough should the Congress attract anywhere near the numbers of Torquay. The data for the main room gives a banquet capacity of 192 inside an area of approximately 25 metres by 10
http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/media/departme ... enbryn.pdf

By contrast the Arena at Torquay quotes a banquet capacity of 910 inside an area quoted as 1750 metres squared.
http://www.rivieracentre.co.uk/userfile ... _arena.pdf
The maximum playing at Torquay at any one time was around 300, if I remember the announcement correctly.

Judging from the site plans, the Medrus is within easy distance of the likely accommodation on campus.

I've been checking some other venues. The Ocean Room at Scarborough is 771 square metres and in 2001 it felt on the verge of being cramped with both the Major Open and British Championship in residence.