English Chess Forum

Neil Graham wrote:Perusal of the Queen's Birthday Honours List just announced again ignores chess as far as I can see.

Are you sure chess has been ignored in so much as not thought of? Has anybody bothered to nominate one of our own for services to chess?

If not is it something we want the ECF to address? Just a thought.

Ihor Lewyk wrote:

Neil Graham wrote:Perusal of the Queen's Birthday Honours List just announced again ignores chess as far as I can see.

Are you sure chess has been ignored in so much as not thought of? Has anybody bothered to nominate one of our own for services to chess?

If not is it something we want the ECF to address? Just a thought.

Exactly. Any individual can nominate anyone for an honour. It doesn’t have to come from an organization. I’ve seen citations written by a mother and one from an individual nominating himself! But if there are no citations for chess players or organizers then there’s no chance of anyone receiving an honour.

It begs the question about what a chess individual needs to have done to warrant an award. Jonathan Penrose received an OBE after winning ten British Championships. That’s the sort of achievement necessary and many of our best players don’t regularly turn up at the British for all sorts of reasons. So it means winning a world title or the team gold at an Olympiad, or maybe a European title, and added to that it’s the wider contribution they have made to promote and improve chess in this country. I can’t think of anyone playing at the moment who fits that criteria, can you?

I recall there was a No10 internet petition to give Chris Powell, the Charlton manager, a knighthood. There were thousands of signatures to support him. He played football at the highest level and is now a manager, but he is also a tremendous man. As a player he gave much time to local community projects and spent part of at least one Christmas Day on the Childrens’ Ward at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich handing out presents with parents and nursing staff. Chris Powell didn’t get his honour, but it’s often what people do above the line that stands them out when they are being considered.

On the organizing front people don’t seem to hang around long enough at national level to warrant a nomination for voluntary long service. It is hard to single out people working at county or local level, even those people who have done fantastic work for many, many, years, because there are tens of thousands of such volunteers doing a fantastic job not just in chess, but in a huge range of sports and other activities.

Why bother? The Honours system is largely corrupt

For the past three years I have recommended four persons to the ECF President (of the time) for honours.

Two of these persons are / were not players of any note. All four have made outstanding contributions to the development of chess in England that all of us would be aware of.

It would agreed that these were noteworthy recommendations.

As far as I know none of them have been put forward by the ECF.

I could bore you with copies of the emails and the replies saying that the awards committee was busily preparing nominations: I won't as I guess I will have to nominate these persons myself.

So I Googled 'MBE + Chess' follwed a few links and stumbled upon this.
(It's off topic, but I don't think this forum is going to get us any chess playing OBE's or MBE's
But it may help someone who is planning on becoming a grandmaster.)

http://calnewport.com/blog/2010/01/06/t ... able-life/

The Grandmaster in the Corner Office: What the Study of Chess Experts Teaches Us about Building a Remarkable Life

"…chess players at the highest skill level (i.e. grandmasters) expended about 5000 hours on serious
study alone during their first decade of serious chess play – nearly five times the average amount
reported by intermediate-level players."

To become exceptional you have to put in a lot of hours, but of equal importance, these hours have to
be dedicated to the right type of work.
(that is where I've been going wrong. Studying opening traps for 40 years does not appear to have worked.)

A decade of serious chess playing will earn you an intermediate tournament ranking. (opening traps will get you to 2000, I'm proof.)
But a decade of serious study of chess games can make you a grandmaster."

-------

So you are only 10 years away from becoming a grandmaster.......and building a remarkable life.
(only if you study the correct things, devote ½ a day to opening traps.)

When you make it and give Carlsen a good thrashing let us know and we will put you up for an OBE.
(phew!...back on topic.)

Today I made the perennial fruitless search of the Queen's Birthday Honours List and found zero entries for chess.

Here is a question for the ECF Manager of the Awards System:

How many individuals have been nominated for either of the annual honours lists in the last five years?

I think we know the answer already.

John Upham wrote:Today I made the perennial fruitless search of the Queen's Birthday Honours List and found zero entries for chess.

Here is a question for the ECF Manager of the Awards System:

How many individuals have been nominated for either of the annual honours lists in the last five years?

I think we know the answer already.

Who is the Manager of the Awards System?

Frankly I am appalled that there are no awards this time for bee-keeping (unless I missed them). However there were awards for services to road sweeping, clinker boat racing and re-homing of labrador dogs. Chess must wait it's turn unless you live in Gibraltar.

Update for the New Year List 2015

No chess honours and no-one connected with chess as far as I can see

But if you're given service to Gaelic Singing, Rough Sleepers, Bat Conservation or indeed Sea Angling, Taekwondo or Water Polo you've been honoured this time.

Apologies to Tom Hanks but:

Here is a question for the ECF Manager of the Awards System:

How many individuals have been nominated for either of the annual honours lists in the last five years?

I think we know the answer already.

What would it cost to put some names forward?

A few minutes of time?

Malcolm Pein is an immediate name that comes to mind and there are many others.

John Upham wrote:Apologies to Tom Hanks but:

Here is a question for the ECF Manager of the Awards System:

How many individuals have been nominated for either of the annual honours lists in the last five years?

I think we know the answer already.

Did we ever find out (as in my note above) who is or if there is an ECF Manager of the Awards System?

Neil Graham wrote: Did we ever find out (as in my note above) who is or if there is an ECF Manager of the Awards System?

According to this place we have:

Awards Committee – Stewart Reuben (Chairman), Roger Edwards, Stan Goodall, William Metcalfe, ex officio the Membership Director

Contact details for all of the above are not given at the above place: perhaps a matter of choice?

Also listed is:

Charity and Recognition Committee – David Eustace (Chairman), David Anderton, William Watson, Melville Rodriguez, Richard Fries, John Higgs and Chris Mattos

Is anyone willing to explain the remit of the "Recognition Committee"?

John Upham wrote: Is anyone willing to explain the remit of the "Recognition Committee"?

At a guess the term refers to an ECF objective to have Chess recognised as a sport in the UK. The Charity part was to have the ECF transformed wholly or in part into a charity. That's now been dropped as unworkable within the constraints of charity law regarding payments to professionals but the lesser objective of holding the long term funds of English chess in charitable form is still being pursued. Most of the funds not already part of charities are held in the "Permanent Investment Fund" of the BCF.

As far as I am aware the remit of the Awards committee is to make awards by the ECF, not to lobby governments for national honours. So it would be things like website of the year, book of the year etc.

I used to be a member at Guildford Chess Club, and remember a guy called Harry M. Carter.
Is this him:-

ORDER OF THE BATH
Harold Mark Carter. Deputy Legal Adviser Legal Advisers’ Branch, Treasury Solicitors. For services to Government Legal Services and services to the community in Guildford, Surrey. (Guildford, Surrey)