Tim Spanton wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 12:25 am
Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:37 am
MartinCarpenter wrote: ↑Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:02 am
I think I read that for double vaccinated people
That is the promise. Anything else is equivalent to an admission that vaccines don't work very well. If arranging a chess match, the respective match captains should between them know their players contact details. That wouldn't include spectators and those acting as unpaid taxi drivers.
The ECF may have to decide whether it on the side of enabling OTB chess to take place, or opposed to it. The longer the list of requirements it imposes on players and potential organisers, particularly ones that are "just in case", the more it becomes a body hostile to chess activity.
At the recent 4NCL Congress, there was no explicit requirement to check in with contact details, whether phone based or otherwise. The 4NCL organisers and the hotel would have these details anyway. Spectators were however banned. I don't know whether this was restrictions on room capacity placed by the hotel or lack of contact detail. Both perhaps. But then that event could have fallen under strict "rule of six" interpretations and been illegal anyway. The hotel was offering buffet food as well, which I think had not been allowed under one of the many sets of lockdown rules.
The difference, surely, is that the 4NCL makes most of its money from people playing chess, while the ECF makes most of its money from people joining it.
For example, I have not played OTB in England since March 2020, so the 4NCL has not made any money from me, but I did renew my ECF membership last August, so the ECF has.
I have been asked to elaborate.
My point is that, from a financial view, it makes sense for the 4NCL to maximise participation by having as few covid restrictions as possible as the ultra-cautious will probably not return to OTB chess for many months, if at all, whatever protocols are in place.
The ECF, on the other hand, knows that any English people playing tournament chess in England will more-or-less have to join the ECF. From the ECF's financial view, then, it makes sense to recommend as many covid restrictions and protocols as possible in the hope of attracting the ultra-cautious, while knowing those who want to play with as few restrictions as possible will be obliged to join the ECF come-what-may.
In other words, the 4NCL and the ECF should, from a financial view, aim at opposite ends of the spectrum.