ECF Online County Championship

Discussion about all aspects of the ECF County Championships.
Simon Rogers
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by Simon Rogers » Wed Aug 26, 2020 5:03 pm

Kevin Thurlow wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:20 pm
"County Champions: Northumberland"

Well done! Nice to see a different winner. Have they ever won the "traditional" one?
Well done Northumberland. It seems to be all happening up there with the first OTB post lockdown tournament taking place next month.

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Joey Stewart
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by Joey Stewart » Tue Sep 01, 2020 6:18 pm

That's great to see Northumberland win it and not the usual suspects
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Jon Underwood
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by Jon Underwood » Fri Oct 09, 2020 7:41 am

Jon Underwood wrote:
Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:04 pm
My view, which I think there was a least some sympathy with, is that if it happens again the format should be somewhat similar but with a knockout/plate structure. Eight rounds would be far too many in anything approaching normal times.

I'd also like to place on record my thanks for the hard work of the controller and others. There were a few innovations which have helped English chess I think.

Also good to see some of the peripheral counties winning things (well I would say that of course), but it is not just due to small populations that Devon and Northumberland haven't won a first team title before.

Mick Norris
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by Mick Norris » Fri Oct 09, 2020 8:57 am

The MCCU online county championships start tomorrow; are any other Unions running their own events?
Any postings on here represent my personal views

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Joey Stewart
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by Joey Stewart » Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:38 pm

I got an email earlier with a very enthusiastic attempt to revitalise the WECU county scene as an online event so hopefully that will bear fruit in due course and there will be several more counties involved
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Jon Underwood
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by Jon Underwood » Sat Oct 24, 2020 5:42 pm

Joey Stewart wrote:
Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:38 pm
I got an email earlier with a very enthusiastic attempt to revitalise the WECU county scene as an online event so hopefully that will bear fruit in due course and there will be several more counties involved
I believe the organiser has 5 and probably 6 of the 7 signed up.

Mick Norris
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by Mick Norris » Sun Mar 14, 2021 12:46 pm

There is a proposal to run the Open and u1800 (replacing the u1825) in June and add an u1400 event

Saturday evenings at 6:30 pm as last year
Any postings on here represent my personal views

Mick Norris
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by Mick Norris » Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:40 pm

Dear Team Captains,
I am pleased to confirm that there will be a second season of the online counties championship as part of a full programme of ECF online events.
Whilst the first season was very much focused on filing the void left by covid-19, season 2 looks to the future as part of the ECF's strategy of broadening its reach and to encourage those who have (re)discovered chess through the pandemic and the attention shed by the Queen's Gambit.
Please see the attached consultation document issued to the Unions which also includes over-the-board proposals.
Whether or not you will be continuing in your role I would appreciate your feedback on the general outline for season 2.
As season 1 developed the administration for captains became more streamlined thanks to the developments with the LMS. Fair play has developed too with a combination of platform and zoom, though the latter brings with in an additional arbiter expense. One of my thoughts is to make use of national promotion to capture players at the outset; which seemed to work for the National 100 and North v South.
I see Season 2 as having an Open and U1800 as before. The debate is whether to have two divisions in the open or introduce an average rating competition. I would like to offer U1400 to build on the new to chess initiatives and ensure there is online county chess for all; though I recognise that from traditional pools of players there was not the interest for season 1. The ECF has a much larger online community now.
I envisage 5 group matches before the second online British Chess Championships and semi-finals and finals after.
There is no ideal time slot and of course the great outdoors beckons for everyone in the summer.
The 5 match dates avoiding the Online National Club Weekend and the potential resumption of 4NCL OTB congress in July fall on Saturdays: 5, 12 and 19 June; 4 and 18 July. Semi-Finals on 21 August and Finals on 28 August (14 August is also available).
I think the 6:30 time slot is the least worst option for a summer competition.
Thoughts please.
Regards
Mark
ECF Controller, Counties Championships
Any postings on here represent my personal views

David Sedgwick
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by David Sedgwick » Sun Mar 14, 2021 10:00 pm

I think that Mark Murrell means 3rd and 17th July respectively for Rounds 4 and 5 of the Group Stages.

The only information so far published by the ECF is the draft calendar at https://englishchessonline.org.uk/ecf-n ... ndar-2021/. That still refers to there being 10 dates for the Online County Championships.

Not surprisingly, this has caused some confusion in recent days between those who were now better informed and the many who were not. Thanks again to Mick Norris for bringing that situation to an end.

I hope that there is a good reason why the 4NCL Weekend Congresses are being given protected status when they resume but the Golders Green Rapidplays are not. Fortunately, as things stand, Saturday 17th July is the only date on which the Online County Championships and a Golders Green Rapidplay coincide.

Kevin Thurlow
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Mon Mar 15, 2021 8:28 am

"I hope that there is a good reason why the 4NCL Weekend Congresses are being given protected status when they resume but the Golders Green Rapidplays are not."

It may depend on your definition of "good".

John Reyes
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Re: ECF Online County Championship

Post by John Reyes » Sun May 30, 2021 2:53 pm

Dear Team Captain,

If you are not your County's online organiser please do forward this email to those who are. I have written separately to all County Association Secretaries and the ECF office on Tuesday will also send notification to the ECF Council County Representatives mailing group. Apologies if this reaches you more than once ! Hopefully though this communication will reach the attention of the relevant officials for your Association who need to see it.

All events need an organiser and hopefully your County can find one among your interested online players. With much uncertainty as to the return of over-the-board competition this summer, this event will continue to provide an outlet for those who wish to play online at a longer time control.

I appreciate that time is short in respect of ascertaining player availability generally and for round 1 on 12 June, so when contacting players do enquire as to both. My apologies for the short lead in. Scheduling and format adoption have been particularly challenging against moving goal posts elsewhere and a wish to prioritise over-the-board activities. This time around I am not so much in the dark as to structure and we can make full use of the LMS from the outset and reduce the paperwork for all.

Team entries Close at 6pm on Friday 11 June.

Initial Player Registration on LMS for R1 closes at 8pm on Friday 11 June

Veiled LMS Team entry by 2pm on match day which for Round 1 is Saturday 12 June at 6:30pm.

Further to the earlier publication of the competition dates we have settled on a streamlined format but preserving the three core Championships from the first season, with Division 2 becoming an average team rated Championship (not exceeding 2020).and keeping the previous 6:30 pm early Saturday evening time slot (there was no consensus as to an alternative).

Open
Minor Open 1900 (average team rated)
U1800 (player rating)
Please see the attached synopsis which hopefully covers the essentials. Captains will be able to agree (with permission) 10 or 11 board matches instead of 12 and are free to increase the number of boards in any match, though only the first 12 boards will count towards tie-break application (save for Match Points, where all boards will count to determine the match outcome).

Qualifying league all-play-all groups have been replaced with a Team Swiss structure to reduce the number of mismatches in each Championship and in the expectation of less interest second time round; though do prove that wrong !

For captains the administration burden has been reduced as much as possible with everything conducted through the ECF LMS. Counties should let me know asap those who will require administrative access to the LMS for player registration so I can arrange logins for those who do not have one.

The Knockout Finals have moved to September. Please note the new date of 11 September for the semi-finals and that in the event that the preseason OTB regional competition is not held, that the semi-finals will brought forward to 4 September and we then expect to use 25 September for the North v South Blackburn Challenge match (currently without a fixed date in the ECF online calendar).

Enhanced Fair Play arrangements will be in place in line with current ECF policy particularly for the knockout Finals Stage.

A modest £20 team entry fee this time around with County Associations to be invoiced directly once entries are submitted. Counties retain control over selection.

I will hold a Zoom Captains meeting on Wednesday 9 June at 8pm primarily to talk through the LMS operation for those new to the ECF league management system and to address any outstanding issues that captains may have.

The National 1400 will return in a regional team format being played on 21 August, the September SF date (11 or 4 Sep) and 18 September.

The Regional OTB Pre-season competition is scheduled for 14 August, 4 & 25 September. More about that later once we know the Stage 4 regulation and guidance, which as you know is somewhat up in the air at the present time.

Regards,

Mark Murrell

ECF Controller, Counties Championships
Any postings on here represent my personal views only and also Dyslexia as well

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