Living in the Past: The Chiltern League

[John Townsend]

Floreat Chilterniana! Another drubbing for Berkshire yesterday, but they say you learn more from your lost games. It's gratifying to see that grading of the matches played so far will make the November update.

[Roger de Coverly]

What is the current format?

20 boards, double round. Open, but teams selected with regard to those willing to play rather than absolute strength.

Remarkably, the average strength of the Berks and Bucks teams in yesterday's match was equal at 1798. Both teams fielded a player whose rating had become inactive with the Berks player likely above the team average and the Bucks player below. The match score of 13.5 to 6.5 in Bucks favour defied the equality of the ratings.

"Luck" may have been on the side of the Bucks team, certainly in my game.

This position was reached with Black to move.

3r2r1/p1Q4p/1p2p1k1/3P4/4p3/PP2NqP1/1B3P2/6K1 b - - 0 1

It will be noticed that White is two exchanges down with the only vague compensation that the Black King is a bit in the open.. The last move had been d4-d5 which opens lines for the previously blocked Bishop on b2. Black should now play Rd8-f8 forcing White to retreat the Queen to defend f2. However Rg8-f8 was played allowing Qg7+ with mate to follow.

[John Townsend]

Oh, well played, David Roberts! No wonder we don't win!

The two sides were equal on grading and, moreover, Bucks. had further to travel. The only other factor I see is that the players were told who their opponents would be a day or two beforehand. Do Bucks. prepare better, or even have team meetings?

[Phil Neatherway]

Yesterday, Berks defeated Oxon 11-9 at the excellent Cumnor Old School venue. All the clocks were digital!

[John Townsend]

Thanks, Phil. I wonder if there is a result card to be found somewhere.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Thanks, Phil. I wonder if there is a result card to be found somewhere.

https://www.oxfordfusion.com/oca/ViewRe ... 3935&Org=8

[John Townsend]

Thank you, Jon. I see Oxfordshire had higher average ratings as well as the home venue.

[Graham Borrowdale]

Thanks, Phil. I wonder if there is a result card to be found somewhere.

https://www.oxfordfusion.com/oca/ViewRe ... 3935&Org=8

A few names on that team sheet from when I first played for Berks in 1976. Living in the past indeed!

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

Thank you, Jon. I see Oxfordshire had higher average ratings as well as the home venue.

There were a few outliers on the bottom two boards of the Berkshire team. I spoke to a couple of the Oxfordshire players at the Cowley Christmas Blitz tournament last night and their feeling was that Oxfordshire lost the match on the bottom 10 boards where the score was 5-5 even though Oxfordshire outgraded Berkshire on all but one board.

[Roger de Coverly]

https://www.oxfordfusion.com/oca/ViewRe ... 3935&Org=8

The results site was updated very soon after the matches had been completed. What isn't happening is an update of the ECF rating system. For example the results for the Bucks-Hants match which took place in November still have not been added to the ratings of match participants. It can be done, the results of the first round of Chiltern matches were updated on the ratings site very rapidly.

For the record, users of the ECF LMS will see results updated on the ratings site on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of each month. Users of chess-results and local LMSs that can directly generate rating files can see the rating results almost immediately depending on someone doing the necessary submission. Alternatively they may have to wait a week or two or in the case of the Chiltern League even longer.

[John Upham]

Inspecting the ECF LMS I'm struggling to find an entry for the Chiltern League:

untitled.jpg

[NickFaulks]

Inspecting the ECF LMS I'm struggling to find an entry for the Chiltern League

Why would you? They use Oxford Fusion.

[John Townsend]

I think Nick is right about this. Oxfordfusion.com can create grading files in ECF's required format and some of the people involved seem to prefer that method to using the ECF LMS. I'm not au fait with the pros and cons, but perhaps they should be left to get on with that, if it is their preferred method. John Upham seems not to be among the fans of Oxfordfusion.com, for some reason, but perhaps he will take a shine to it.

[Roger de Coverly]

I'm not au fait with the pros and cons, but perhaps they should be left to get on with that, if it is their preferred method.

The problem is that are not following a sensible timetable. They should work to a timetable that gets the files loaded to the rating system before the end of the month in which the match was played. I thought that had been agreed following the Berks AGM and the first set of matches were loaded to the rating system in a timely manner, which proved the concept. It now seems broken again as evidenced by the absence of the most recent pair of matches.

[John Townsend]

Does the issue of which method is to be used not have some bearing on the timescales?