English Chess Forum

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 07, 2020 7:36 pm

I note in the 50+ event a team called "USA Four Brothers", comprising four players called Jhunjhnuwala. There has been discussion of multiple players from one family in a team elsewhere, but I don't think we have had four before.

Actually the Jhunjhnuwala brothers (originally of Hong Kong?) played in both the 2018 and 2019 World Senior Teams.

ADDED: Dolgitser (quite a well-known correspondence player in America) cracked in the ending so Flear and England have won after all.

"Actually the Jhunjhnuwala brothers (originally of Hong Kong?) played in both the 2018 and 2019 World Senior Teams."

Thanks for that - in any event, they seem to have set the record even if I didn't notice for two years!

Glenn managed to win, maybe 53....f5 was a mistake but I would hate to defend that position against a GM. A good day for England 2 and England women as well.

Douglas Bryson drew, but seemed to be better earlier - nevertheless he was out-rated by 80 points and had black. His team-mates put up a good performance as well.

After three rounds, seven teams have won all three matches, and these seven are also the top seven seeds.

Round 4 pairings:
ENG 6 (9.5) v USA 6 (11)
ICE 6(9) v CZE 6 (10)
LASKER 6 (9.5) v SVK 6 (9.5)
CZE 2 4 (7.5) v YAMAL 6 (10.5)

Lasker are not nominally GER1 but have just beaten that team, while Yamal are effectively RUS 1.

So it's heavyweight clashes tomorrow, and a chance for England, against the odds, to do better than the stronger on paper ENG team which lost the gold medal match to USA in 2019.

Well done Glenn, good result in the end; let's hope that tomorrow goes well, should be an interesting match

Pity about the result yesterday, draws from Mark & Glenn not enough; as well as the USA, Czech 1 won, but Lasker drew with Slovakia as Graf lost to Ftacnik on top board

Today we have:
1 USA 8 (14) : 8 (12½) CZECH REPUBLIC 1
2 YAMAL 6 (12) : 7 (11½) LASKER SCHACHSTIFTUNG GK
3 SLOVAKIA 7 (11½) : 6 (10½) ENGLAND 1

Keith is rested today after a tough couple of games

Bo. 5 SLOVAKIA FED - 4 ENGLAND 1 FED 0 : 0

3.1 GM Ftacnik, Lubomir SVK - GM Hebden, Mark L ENG
3.2 GM Stohl, Igor SVK - GM Flear, Glenn C ENG
3.3 FM Motuz, Karol SVK - GM McDonald, Neil ENG
3.4 IM Petran, Peter SVK - GM Plaskett, H James ENG

Without wishing to spoil anything, keep an eye out for the England Women as well. Sheila Jackson's finales in the last two round have made pleasant watching!

A worrying development as reported by the BBC today.

11:25
Czech Republic to close schools
The Czech Republic has announced it is closing schools indefinitely and has banned events of more than 100 people.

The country has 40 reported cases of coronavirus.

Under the new measures, schools and universities will close but kindergartens will remain open.

From Tuesday evening, a ban on events such as film, theatre, sports and religious gatherings will come into effect.

Hope the Seniors event in Prague will not see immediate consequences as a result.

Ihor Lewyk wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 10, 2020 1:18 pm

A worrying development as reported by the BBC today.

11:25
Czech Republic to close schools
The Czech Republic has announced it is closing schools indefinitely and has banned events of more than 100 people.

The country has 40 reported cases of coronavirus.

Under the new measures, schools and universities will close but kindergartens will remain open.

From Tuesday evening, a ban on events such as film, theatre, sports and religious gatherings will come into effect.

Hope the Seniors event in Prague will not see immediate consequences as a result.

See https://www.fide.com/news/429.

Mark & Glenn have drawn; Jim has won; hoping Neil can hang on to win the match

100 people is an incredibly low threshold. In general you'd get worse potential exposure just going to the supermarket. Events with greater than x people does not mean x people making x contacts. Going to the cinema is basically just like going to any small scale social event.

They might as well just tell people not to go out at all.

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 10, 2020 9:29 pm

100 people is an incredibly low threshold. In general you'd get worse potential exposure just going to the supermarket.

You might, but if people can't shop they are not going to be able to eat.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 10, 2020 9:35 pm

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 10, 2020 9:29 pm

100 people is an incredibly low threshold. In general you'd get worse potential exposure just going to the supermarket.

You might, but if people can't shop they are not going to be able to eat.

Indeed, but my point is that by setting such a low bar for certain types of “gatherings” whilst effectively retaining an enormous amount of activity with either equivalent or far greater degree of risk will just cause economic or social damage to isolated parts of the country, with little upside in in fact controlling the virus.

At least 100+ every carriage every journey...

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 10, 2020 10:22 pm

Indeed, but my point is that by setting such a low bar for certain types of “gatherings” whilst effectively retaining an enormous amount of activity with either equivalent or far greater degree of risk will just cause economic or social damage to isolated parts of the country, with little upside in in fact controlling the virus.

Well, that might be right or it might be that cutting out some areas of potential transmission does have some effect - there does seem to be some empirical evidence to support this - and that such measures can (and probably will) be intensified if necessary.

I don't in principle disagree with you but in practice it's hard to see how governments can implement large-scale shutdowns on the basis of very low figures for fatalities in their area: and if course a fortnight (or whatever) later, when those figures are much much higher, they will be seen to have done too little too late.