MCCU Team Tournament

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Alan Ruffle
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:52 am

MCCU Team Tournament

Post by Alan Ruffle » Fri May 16, 2014 8:52 pm

Dear MCCU chess player
Please find the below, an open letter circulated to the MCCU board seeking their advice, there has been some updating and I now open it up to you for the same reason.
The principle objective is to raise funds to support any young MCCU chess player selected by the ECF to represent England at the World, European or Glorney/Faber competitions.......It simply is not fair to honour young people with this role and then ask parents to pay for it.
Secondly I believe it's a very exciting competition which is what we are all in this game for.
Dear All
Ray and I have been working on the idea of a Closed MCCU team tournament and a sectioned individual tournament. We now submit our thoughts for your information and advice.
Individual Swiss chess tournament with seven sections i.e. Open, u200, u180, u160, u140, u120 and u100 coinciding with the grading limits which apply to the ECF county championships. Organisers retain the right to amalgamate sections, clashes of players from the same county will be avoided
There will be seven team tournaments i.e. an Open and then six further team tournaments created by eliminating sections from the top downwards. Teams will consist of any number of players, for the purpose of the team event games scored in the open will be worth seven points, in the u200 six points, down to the u100 where each game point will be worth one point. In clarification this means a team in the u100 section would be involved in all seven team tournaments.
Arbiters to be paid £50-00/day plus 45pence/mile for travel
All entry fees from juniors under the age of 16 will be banked by the MCCU in a high interest account. This will be paid out to assist any junior under the age of 16 incurring expenses after being selected by the ECF to play in the World, European or Glorney/Faber competitions.
Possible format for the entry form-
Name
County
Home Address
email address
Telephone number
Mobile
ECF grade/Reference number
ECF membership number
Age/Date of birth
Bye in round requested 1 2 3 4
Entry fee £30-00 w/e
Donation
Non ECF member surcharge - £6-00
Over 60’s entry fee £20-00
Players graded 200 plus--------- Free entry
Total-
Event- date to be fixed
Venue to be fixed -Police Social club 'Tally Ho' possibly the best venue in the country £1,250/week end. Other hotels i.e. Park Inn West Bromwich about £400-00/week end
Prize fund subject to entries received but I would like to encourage entries to the open as a means of publicity.
Team-Trophy ? (Open/u200 eight men per team, u180, u160, u140. six men per team. u120 and u100 four men per team)
Book prizes ?
MCCU junior championships ?
Entries received during the seven days prior to the event-£10-00 late fee
Entries on the day will not be accepted.
I ask that MCCU board officials liaise with their County Championship captains with a view to attracting entries and seeking out in particular their level of enthusiasm for this competition. Please note this chess tournament is open to anyone to enter but it would be nice to have it filled by MCCU players from the start.

All the best
Alan Ruffle/ CEO Ray Dolan

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IM Jack Rudd
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Location: Bideford
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Re: MCCU Team Tournament

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Fri May 16, 2014 9:07 pm

Sounds an interesting idea.

I see you're proposing a discount for seniors. May I, with my ECF role hat on, propose a similar discount for disabled players?

Roger de Coverly
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Re: MCCU Team Tournament

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri May 16, 2014 9:23 pm

IM Jack Rudd wrote:Sounds an interesting idea.
Far too ambitious in any number of directions I would have thought.

I have to say I don't follow the format. Is it to be run as an Individual Swiss, a team Swiss or some hybrid like the "best total from four players " format you sometimes see in Congresses? I'm assuming from the context, it's a weekend, but is that Saturday and Sunday only and restricted to four rounds?

The recent National Club in Wycombe more or less worked as a format, but attracted barely enough entries to make a viable competition. That was a simple minded team Swiss with grading restrictions, not directly on individual players, but on the team fielded as a whole.

Martyn Harris
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Location: Kendal
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Re: MCCU Team Tournament

Post by Martyn Harris » Sat May 17, 2014 12:42 am

So
a Closed MCCU team tournament
which is an
Individual Swiss chess tournament
and
is open to anyone to enter.

Further the teams in this individual tournament
will consist of any number of players

although
Team-Trophy ? (Open/u200 eight men per team, u180, u160, u140. six men per team. u120 and u100 four men per team).
I'm guessing that the teams are restricted to players from the same county.

In essence a seven section four round weekend congress overlaid with a vague team ethos.
Sounds neither fish nor fowl.
Might appeal to those who like playing weekend chess but need a captain to organise them to do so.
However I confess I won't be looking out for the date of this proposed event.

PeterFarr
Posts: 624
Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2013 11:20 pm
Location: Horsham, Sussex

Re: MCCU Team Tournament

Post by PeterFarr » Sat May 17, 2014 10:41 am

Alan Ruffle wrote: (Open/u200 eight men per team, u180, u160, u140. six men per team. u120 and u100 four men per team)
Might need some re-wording.

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Alan Ruffle
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:52 am

Re: MCCU Team Tournament

Post by Alan Ruffle » Thu May 22, 2014 4:49 pm

Dear All

Thank you for your responses, they are appreciated and incorporated.


Dear MCCU chess player
Please find the below, an open letter circulated to the MCCU board seeking their advice, there has been some updating and I now open it up to you for the same reason.
The principle objective is to raise funds to support any young MCCU chess player selected by the ECF to represent England at the World, European or Glorney/Faber competitions.......It simply is not fair to honour young people with this role and then ask parents to pay for it.
Secondly I believe it's a very exciting competition which is what we are all in this game for.
Dear All
Ray and I have been working on the idea of a Closed MCCU team tournament and a sectioned individual tournament played over five rounds. We now submit our thoughts for your information and advice.
Each section will be run as an individual Swiss i.e. Open, u200, u180, u160, u140, u120 and u100 coinciding with the grading limits which apply to the ECF county championships. Organisers retain the right to amalgamate sections, clashes of players from the same county will be avoided
There will be seven team tournaments i.e. an Open and then six further team tournaments created by eliminating sections from the top downwards. Teams will consist of any number of players. For the purpose of the team event games scored in the open will be worth seven points, in the u200 six points, down to the u100 where each game point will be worth one point. In clarification this means a team in the u100 section would be involved in all seven team tournaments.
Arbiters to be paid £50-00/day plus 45pence/mile for travel
All entry fees from juniors under the age of 16 will be banked by the MCCU in a high interest account. This will be paid out to assist any junior under the age of 16 incurring expenses after being selected by the ECF to play in the World, European or Glorney/Faber competitions.
Possible format for the entry form-
-
Name
-
County
-
Home Address
-
email address
-
Telephone number
-
Mobile
-
ECF grade/Reference number
-
ECF membership number
-
Age/Date of birth
-
Bye in round requested 1 2 3 4
-
Entry fee £30-00
-
Donation
-
None ECF member surcharge - £6-00
-
Over 60’s/disabled players - £20-00
-
Players graded 200 plus--------- Free entry
-
Total-
-
Event- date to be fixed
-
Venue to be fixed -Police Social club 'Tally Ho' possibly the best venue in the country £1,250/week end. Other hotels i.e. Park Inn West Bromwich about £400-00/week end.
-
Prize fund subject to entries received but I would like to encourage entries to the open as a means of publicity.
-
Team-Trophy ? Open/u200 best total from eight players,
u180, u160, u140. best total from six players
u120 and u100 best total from four players
-
Book prizes ?
-
MCCU junior championships ?
-
Entries received during the seven days prior to the event-£10-00 late fee
-
Entries on the day will not be accepted.
-
I ask that MCCU board officials liaise with their County Championship captains with a view to attracting entries and seeking out in particular their level of enthusiasm for this competition. Please note this chess tournament is open to anyone to enter but it would be nice to have it filled by MCCU players from the start.
-
All the best
Alan Ruffle/ CEO Ray Dolan

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Alan Ruffle
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:52 am

Re: MCCU Team Tournament

Post by Alan Ruffle » Sun Aug 17, 2014 9:29 pm

Subject -Proposed MCCU team tournament
Dear Ray
I have the benefit of advice from Ray Collett, David Anderton, Andrew Farthing and yourself.
Prize structure i.e. First 'Open' team of eight players ............... 1, 2 and 3 in the over 200 section with free entry to all, a grade of 200 or higher is mandatory.
Concentrating the prize fund will hopefully encourage our top players to play, with the opportunities for sponsorship and publicity that go with that.
In the open section..............team points raised to ten points per game point.
All other sections will play for a trophy alone.
It is vital that players are aware of the position of their team before the start of each round, and it has been suggested that this should be computerised............a name has been provided and I am making the necessary approach.
Entry fees achieved for this initial event be utilised to underwrite the second.
MCCU officials are invited to recruit captains who are further invited to recruit four man teams to play in their section.
If your happy with these proposals please circulate to the MCCU board for their information.
Cheers
Alan

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Alan Ruffle
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:52 am

Re: MCCU Team Tournament

Post by Alan Ruffle » Sat Aug 23, 2014 7:08 pm

Dear All

I have visited 'Derby Assembly Rooms', a former venue for the MCCU tournament, and more recently 'Tillington Hall Hotel, Eccleshall Road, Stafford ST16 1JJ, where I spoke to Ms Heidi Marsh [email protected], the assembly rooms were of course eminently acceptable, but Tillington Hall struck me as absolutely splendid, so much so that I will be recommending this venue to David Welch 4NCL and Sean Hewitt e2d2.

-

Briefly Tillington Hall offers one huge room suitable for tournament play, I ask that Heidi advises me re-maximum capacity of this room using six foot long tables with two games per table (four players) a lounge room with a bar suitable for post game analysis and a small private room for tournament officials.

-
I invite MCCU committee members to visit Tillington Hall and tell me what they think, I am also open to suggestion re-dates and level of entry fee.

-
Although these are early days to discuss level of entry I am keen to get the best entry possible from MCCU players and in any event to ensure that the tournament is a financial success I ask that enquiries are made of 'County team captains' about players intentions.................twenty man teams or more are invited.

-
Cheers

Alan Ruffle

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Alan Ruffle
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:52 am

Re: MCCU Team Tournament

Post by Alan Ruffle » Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:18 pm

Dear All
I have recently attended the tournaments held at Worcester and Manchester and am in receipt of emails from other interested parties. I offer the below clarifications and invite further advice about implementation.
-
The objective of the MCCU team tournament is to raise funds, to assist financially, MCCU based young players selected by the ECF to represent England at the World and European championships. At this moment they receive nothing.
-
I invite MCCU county officials to encourage players to form a team of any number of players to represent their county, Tillington Hall Hotel is a splendid venue with a capacity for 180 players. I am asking The MCCU committee to under-write the event to an initial £1000-00 to support them and the cause. Early entry will solve a lot of headaches. To assist with this, there will be a money back guarantee for anyone who withdraws before the first round (subject to an admin charge)
-
The tournament will be run as an individual Swiss just like any other weekend tournament except that there are seven sections based on the ECF county championship bands i.e.-
Open (No upper grade limit) u200, u180, u160, u140, u120, u100.
The team tournament seems to be the main source of confusion -my apologies for that. It is in fact only a case of applying an arithmetical exercise. The important thing is to make the competition attractive. It is vital that teams know exactly where they stand before the start of each round and to achieve this I have recruited a computer expert. I cannot emphasize enough how important this role is. Prompt submission of results is vital.
There are seven team tournaments i.e.
Open - Top eight team point scoring players from the same team over the entire event.
u200 - Top seven team point scoring players from the same team from u200 section and below.
u180 - Top six team point scoring players from the same team from the u180 section and below
u160 - Top five team point scoring players from the same team from the u160 section and below.
u140 - Top four team point scoring players from the same team from the u140 section and below.
u120 - Top four team point scoring players from the same team from the u120 section and below.
u100 - Top four team point scoring players from the same team from the u100 section

Team points will be attained on the basis of game points-
Open-one game point = 10 team points
u200 - one game point= 8 team points
u180 - one game point = 6 team points
u160 - one game point = 5 team points
u140 - one game point = 3 team points
u120 - one game point = 2 team points
u100 - one game point = 1 team point
changes above are based on advice received from some Manchester tournament players
Cheers
Alan Ruffle

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Alan Ruffle
Posts: 96
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Re: MCCU Team Tournament

Post by Alan Ruffle » Mon Nov 03, 2014 1:06 pm

Unfortunately I have not been able to get this event off the ground I would like to thank Alex Holowzak and Ray Dolan for their practical advice and support.

Alan Ruffle

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