European Senior Teams Championships Swidnica 2023

[Tim Spanton]

Team lists have been updated at https://chess-results.com/tnr729101.aspx?lan=1&art=8

[Tim Harding]

Team lists have been updated at https://chess-results.com/tnr729101.aspx?lan=1&art=8

Good luck to all the players on GB teams; hope to see some of you in Leicester afterwards.

First round Wednesday afternoon I think?

[LawrenceCooper]

Team lists have been updated at https://chess-results.com/tnr729101.aspx?lan=1&art=8

Good luck to all the players on GB teams; hope to see some of you in Leicester afterwards.

First round Wednesday afternoon I think?

Yes, the countdown on the official site is to 13:30 on Wednesday.

[Mick Norris]

Official site

65+ has 18 teams including 3 English and a Welsh team

50+ has only 10 teams including England women, 3 other English teams, and Scotland

It's presumably too obvious to suggest that hosting this in the UK might make sense 1 year

[Leonard Barden]

50+ has only 10 teams including England women, 3 other English teams, and Scotland

Seemingly the host nation Poland could not field a competitive team for either event.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"It's presumably too obvious to suggest that hosting this in the UK might make sense 1 year"

Yes! One of the attractions of Senior events is that you can play against Germany I or England I, or just a normal club side (or even a bunch of friends) as long as all players are from the same federation. There are usually lots of German club sides, so a UK venue could attract lots of UK club teams.

Another delight is noticing some of the male senior players have jet-black hair, when most have grey or white or no hair...

[Tim Harding]

50+ has only 10 teams including England women, 3 other English teams, and Scotland

Seemingly the host nation Poland could not field a competitive team for either event.

Yes it is rather odd that there was so little interest in Poland, but it could be connected with the fact that they were originally to be hosts in 2020.
Their rights were held over to 2021 and then 2022 but both years other countries had to step in to run the event.
They did manage to run the European Senior individuals last year.

It would certainly be good if ECF could bid but the organisers have to be a company that is a recognised FIDE organiser and the 2024 competitions are already spoken for.

ADDED: Bids for the 2024 World Senior Teams and individual championships close in a few days. See https://events.fide.com/

[Mick Norris]

Ok, so 2025 would be the earliest; maybe the IoM might be interested, maybe Tim could persuade Ireland to have a look, both Scotland and Wales have senior teams, but might be worth speaking to Nigel Povah about England hosting

Anyway, I digress, good luck to all the England teams

[Tim Harding]

Now that the Swidnica event is about to start, there are new chess-results links for the two sections.

https://chess-results.com/tnr791373.aspx?lan=1
The 50+ will be a 10-team round-robin so all team pairings can be seen already.
Today the Scots play the Danes, England 3 play England-1, England-2 play Slovakia and the English women play the Polish amateurs.
I couldn't see board pairings for the 50+.

You can get to the 65+ championship by another tab on the same link or go direct to:
https://chess-results.com/tnr791374.aspx?lan=1&art=0

This is an 18-team 9-round Swiss.
England-1 v Lower Silesia-1
England-2 v Germany-1
Wales v Strasbourg
England-3 v Kreuzberg chess club

The official tournament home page is https://www.estcc2023.pl/

Round 1 starts 2pm BST, 1500 local

I don't know if there will be live games. If someone can find a link when the event starts please post it here.

I will try to update the Seniors pages on chessmail.com after round 1.
http://www.chessmail.com/seniors/Seniors-news.html
For now I have just put up a revised introduction and the new chess-results link.

Finally, I don't think Ireland would have the resources (people or money) to run one of these events. I know the Irish Chess Union chair was thinking about it but next year Ireland will run the European Schools Championships. If that goes well maybe they can try for a seniors, but I think England should definitely put in a bid for one of the team events- maybe prepare to bid for 2025.

Ireland are not playing at Swidnica but efforts are afoot to arrange teams for the World event at Ohrid in September.

[Roger de Coverly]

I don't know if there will be live games. If someone can find a link when the event starts please post it here.

lichess have links
https://lichess.org/broadcast/european- ... 1/Hq0z7ahM
https://lichess.org/broadcast/european- ... 1/oBZnpWcI

There isn't any content yet.

[Tim Harding]

I don't know if there will be live games. If someone can find a link when the event starts please post it here.

lichess have links
https://lichess.org/broadcast/european- ... 1/Hq0z7ahM
https://lichess.org/broadcast/european- ... 1/oBZnpWcI

There isn't any content yet.

Thanks, Roger.
In my experiencer the first round will start late because of announcements and they may broadcast with some delay.
We shall soon find out anyway!

[Mick Norris]

50+ both Slovakia and England 1, who meet in the final round, have won their first 6 matches

Stephen Dishman doing well as usual for England 2

65+ England 1 lost to Slovakia in round 3

[Phil Neatherway]

In the 50+, England look to be favourites on paper in the final round clash with Slovakia. Both teams have now won their first 8 matches.

[Mick Norris]

Good luck to the England teams today

65+ board rankings have John Nunn and Chris Baker in 1st, with Kosten, Stebbings and Large in 2nd

50+ have Hebden, Flear, Ward and Emms 1st, Keith 2nd; Graham Buckley 3rd, Stephen Dishman 2nd, Phil Crocker 3rd, Natasha Regan 2nd and Robert Noyce 3rd

[Mick Norris]

England win the 50+ ahead of Slovakia and England 2

Well done to all the players