English Chess Forum

As of 1.30pm, the ECF website is unavailable/inaccessible to me. This suggests something very serious is afoot.

Either

The website has been overloaded by a huge surge of people seeking to read past Minutes of the Governance Committee

OR

The new grades are being uploaded - and have stalled at Rogers 2017

At 2.17 pm it is fine for me, but without new grades and without governance committee minutes either.

I'm afraid to say that despite my initial enthusiasm I am finding the red and black a bit over-powering

[However, the Olympiad Team has been announced, so the ECF is just about keeping pace with other outlets].

Yes, website back up for me too. It looks like they have a bit on their plate at the moment with the new Membership Renewal System. Operation has been knocked back until August 7 - after the British

While we may be slow in some areas, I did get the Blitz entry up and running though.

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:46 pm

While we may be slow in some areas, I did get the Blitz entry up and running though.

Just got to decide when it is now!

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:26 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:46 pm

While we may be slow in some areas, I did get the Blitz entry up and running though.

Just got to decide when it is now!

The first line of the webpage wrote:There will be eight 15-round qualifying Swiss tournaments played in different cities around the United Kingdom on Saturday, 8th September.

Only one venue out of the eight south-east of Bristol-Birmingham-North Yorkshire......

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 8:30 pm

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:26 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 6:46 pm

While we may be slow in some areas, I did get the Blitz entry up and running though.

Just got to decide when it is now!

The first line of the webpage wrote:There will be eight 15-round qualifying Swiss tournaments played in different cities around the United Kingdom on Saturday, 8th September.

I don’t know, given that there is no guaranteed route to the final for eg. GMs, knowledge of when that final is might be vaguely useful information, and of value to the format working. November having 4NCL, Kilkenny, British rapidplay, rumours of a possible blitz event in London, and a couple of congresses.

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 9:09 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 8:30 pm

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:26 pm

Just got to decide when it is now!

The first line of the webpage wrote:There will be eight 15-round qualifying Swiss tournaments played in different cities around the United Kingdom on Saturday, 8th September.

I don’t know, given that there is no guaranteed route to the final for eg. GMs, knowledge of when that final is might be vaguely useful information, and of value to the format working. November having 4NCL, Kilkenny, British rapidplay, rumours of a possible blitz event in London, and a couple of congresses.

Given the dates of the 4NCL International Congress and subsequent 4NCL weekends not to mention the British Rapidplay then it may end up being the first weekend in December.

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 9:09 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 8:30 pm

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:26 pm

Just got to decide when it is now!

The first line of the webpage wrote:There will be eight 15-round qualifying Swiss tournaments played in different cities around the United Kingdom on Saturday, 8th September.

I don’t know, given that there is no guaranteed route to the final for eg. GMs, knowledge of when that final is might be vaguely useful information, and of value to the format working. November having 4NCL, Kilkenny, British rapidplay, rumours of a possible blitz event in London, and a couple of congresses.

You mean like the date quoted in the rules on the page?

The webpage wrote:The Finals will be played on Saturday, 25th November, 2018.

It is meant to be Saturday, 24th November, however - my traditional inability to get days of the week and their corresponding date has let me down, and my proofreader failed to spot it too.

Apologies, even if this could perhaps have been put in the summary announcement. Somewhat controversial choice of date, whatever ones thinks of the British rapidplay. Still, i’m rubbish at blitz anyway

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 10:21 pm

Apologies, even if this could perhaps have been put in the summary announcement. Somewhat controversial choice of date, whatever ones thinks of the British rapidplay. Still, i’m rubbish at blitz anyway

That's a fair comment about where the date is.

There's no reason why we need to be on that date, so I'll move it to Saturday, 1st December. I hadn't realised there was a clash with the British Rapidplay. Normally I receive emails about it from Brent, but they seem to have found their way into my spam folder this year - a fact I only discovered a short while ago when I read this message. So now that I know the date of the British Rapidplay, moving it is no problem.

Before people point out a potential clash with the London Chess Classic, suffice to say that while those dates aren't completely public yet, 1st December won't clash with it.

"The final fixes are already taking place and my expectation is that the July list will be on the website around 24th.

Brian Valentine
Manager of ECF grading, aka Chief Grader"

I note you did not actually specify the 24th of which month

I think the critical word was "around".

You may never know what one of the team has done to overcome force majeure.

Anyway:enjoy

Many thanks Brian, to you and all the team, for the efforts up to and beyond the call of duty!