English Chess Forum

The excitement is beginning to build. It’s that time of year again when thoughts turn to the British Championships. Now I’ve booked my accommodation (and learned to spell Aberystwyth), it’s time to check out who else might be coming?

Some regulars are already entered and there’s a nice crop of Grand Masters, maybe Kevin Staveley called in his last favour from Mad Pete Trullo?

For me the road journey offers me a fantastic excuse to take a diversion via the village of Baschuch to pay homage to the great Robert Jones and to the amazing Agnes Hunt.

It’s going to be brilliant again. So are you coming?

I am going - booking train tickets is on my things to do list for this month.

My plan is the same as last year, arrive on the Wednesday, spend Thursday sightseeing and play in the weekender.

A formal get-together of EC Forumites should be arranged.

Stewart Reuben wrote:A formal get-together of EC Forumites should be arranged.

With police and ambulances on stand by.

"A formal get-together of EC Forumites should be arranged."

They can meet in an internet café and send PMs to each other.

Chris Rice wrote:

Stewart Reuben wrote:A formal get-together of EC Forumites should be arranged.

With police and ambulances on stand by.

First rule of Fight club?

The famous Lee Bullock will be there Im staying in a Caravan with some imaginary friends

No a few of us are staying in a Caravan and it should be fun I have never done well at the British but am hoping to change it this year. A tournament I will never miss due to the timing of it and the prestige.

Not to mention the fun and banter and laughs it always is

You can also go to Borth, just 7 miles north, which was the source of inspiration for Morrissey's 'Everyday is like Sunday'

This gets better and better! A visit to closed-down hospital at Baschurch (it’s probably a Wetherspoons now) and a trip north to Borth to see what it was that caused Morrisey to write “This is the coastal town. That they forgot to close down” and “How I dearly wish I was not here”. Of course, Dr Joseph Parry composed the great Welsh Hymn “Aberystwyth", although I’ve struggled with the line “Paid am gadael, bydd dy Hunand”, but I dare say there’ll be other chess players visiting Aberysywyth at the end of July who won’t have a clue either! No doubt there'll be a heatwave and it'll be another great fortnight! Don't you just love the British Chess Championships?

...and now I see Simon Williams has joined the fray! The seventh GM entry. Oh it's going to be good!

I’m going to make an effort to get down this year for one of the weekenders - after me running the Leeds Chess Congress the week before, the missus is generally a bit sick of Chess related stuff, so swinging it will be difficult, but fingers crossed

David Gilbert wrote:
It’s going to be brilliant again. So are you coming?

No i am not going but will be watching the chess games online and am hoping Nick Pert can win the championship

Right time for some tea and Thin Lizzy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TehFZ38kt6o

Lot of rain about today so do be carful if your out and about.

I love watching the commentary online, Andrew Martin does a great job, I just hope there are less technical problems this year, the live stream is always a bit ropy, but last year it was unwatchable most of them time, pauses of a minute every 20 seconds or so

Andrew and Ravi at the British do a somewhat uneasy mix of aiming their commentary for the live audience and also the internet one.
Chris Ward aims his commentary at the live audience.
Simon Williams and Irina Krush aim for the internet audience.
Perfection would be two completely separate commentary rooms. That would be expensive.

I quite like the combo of Andrew and Ravi, Andrew is a natural straight man. Yes you can tell the commentary is more for people in the room - but fair play, they’ve made the effort to get there.

To be honest, I really wouldn’t mind as long as I had some sort of Master commentary on the games, where the internet feed actually worked.

Last year I was close to putting fist through computer monitor a few times, when the video froze for the 12th time and the page had to be reloaded - when you did, you had to watch the same infuriating car advert before it would start again

It was just last year though, the feed from Sheffield the year before although a bit glitchy was fine once it got going (and I watched pretty much all of that, because I took the week off work to play in the U120’s championship, and never actually went).

Last year I wound up giving up and just kept an eye on the live boards, but not as much fun.