British Championship Congress 2022

Details of upcoming UK events, please provide working links if possible.
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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Sun Jul 10, 2022 12:42 am

My experience of playing as a filler at Gibraltar is that the Augustus Suite was a bit too cramped to be comfortable, but Nuno's was a good playing area.

Keith Arkell
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by Keith Arkell » Sun Jul 10, 2022 6:29 am

David Sedgwick wrote:
Sat Jul 09, 2022 1:38 pm
Tim Spanton wrote:
Wed Jun 29, 2022 7:17 pm
NickFaulks wrote:
Wed Jun 29, 2022 6:44 pm

You make a good case, but Madras is more appealing.
Ditto Olomouc!
Each according to their own, but the three best venues at which I have played in, officiated at or spectated at chess events are the following (not in order):

1. The venue for the European Team Championships 1997 in Pula, Croatia. For some reason that event has come back into my mind during the last two weeks.

2. The Riviera Centre, Torquay, England.

3. The Augustus Suite, Caleta Hotel, Gibraltar. Sadly, that venue is being demolished.
My all-time favourite three venues were St. George's Hall, Liverpool, the Oldway Mansions, Paignton and, best of all, the Rathaus, Vienna.
.

LawrenceCooper
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by LawrenceCooper » Sun Jul 10, 2022 6:55 am

Keith Arkell wrote:
Sun Jul 10, 2022 6:29 am
best of all, the Rathaus
This means nothing to me..........
Oh, Vienna.

Ian Thompson
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by Ian Thompson » Sun Jul 10, 2022 9:18 am

Keith Arkell wrote:
Sun Jul 10, 2022 6:29 am
best of all, the Rathaus, Vienna.
That's probably a good example of venues not being equal for all. If you played to your usual standard you were probably on a high board all the time. My recollection is that the playing conditions below the top, DGT, boards were very cramped. So good conditions for the top players; not very good conditions for the plebs. Fortunately, I had a good tournament and was on a DGT board for most rounds.

Alan Walton
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by Alan Walton » Sun Jul 10, 2022 10:58 am

IM Jack Rudd wrote:
Sun Jul 10, 2022 12:42 am
My experience of playing as a filler at Gibraltar is that the Augustus Suite was a bit too cramped to be comfortable, but Nuno's was a good playing area.
Agree totally, the only downside playing in Nuno's was your tournament wasn't going too well; in the more recent years because it was much stronger in essence it became a secondary tournament down there and if your below 2200 it was unlikely to ever leave after round 4

David Gilbert
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by David Gilbert » Mon Jul 25, 2022 7:42 pm

Good news! The commentary team has been announced as WIM Natasha Regan and GM Matthew Sadler, with what looks like guest appearances from GM Jon Speelman, WGM Harriet Hunt, Michael Green and FM Jonathan Blackburn. Probably couldn’t afford the popular choice of Lee Bullock and Tim Hilton! The way I’m reading things the commentary could extend beyond the Championship to the top boards in other events.

Entries reached 999 this afternoon. That’s a good number with two weeks still to go and it’s getting closer to the 1200 who played in Torquay in 2019. However, it’s difficult to compare the two because there was a different set-up. In 2019 there were 159 players in one rapidplay and one blitz. This time there are four of the dash events with 269 entries. In the Championship the addition of Chris Ward makes it eight GMs. The Major and the two Seniors' sections (with one GM each) are holding up well, while there’s a bumper 83 names down for the Atkins Weekender, which often attracts a flood of late entries too.

Where things are not looking so hot is for the Rated sections. For Week 1 there are measly 113 entries but for Week 2 that figure drops to just 61 across six sections, with lots of first round byes due to the clash with the fourth round of the Weekender. The combined figure of 174 for both weeks compares adversely with the 324 who played for one week in 2019.

There’s still time for these figures to recover, but on what's known at this point it may have been a mistake to use the same format for both weeks and to accept a round-one collision with round-four of the Weekender. That at least could have been avoided.

The packing Olympics have just started. What else can I fit into a car boot? Hmmm!

Graham Borrowdale
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by Graham Borrowdale » Tue Jul 26, 2022 12:25 pm

David Gilbert wrote:
Mon Jul 25, 2022 7:42 pm
Good news! The commentary team has been announced ……

The packing Olympics have just started. What else can I fit into a car boot? Hmmm!
Thanks for the updates, very informative. However, just have to ask, isn’t it a bit early to be packing the car boot?

Roger de Coverly
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Jul 27, 2022 12:56 pm

David Gilbert wrote:
Mon Jul 25, 2022 7:42 pm
Good news! The commentary team has been announced as WIM Natasha Regan and GM Matthew Sadler, with what looks like guest appearances from GM Jon Speelman, WGM Harriet Hunt, Michael Green and FM Jonathan Blackburn. Probably couldn’t afford the popular choice of Lee Bullock and Tim Hilton! The way I’m reading things the commentary could extend beyond the Championship to the top boards in other events.

From https://www.britishchesschampionships.c ... ommentary/
Commentary will be made available via a wall display in the commentary room for those at the events and also broadcast on the internet via Chess24 and Chess.com
The implication is that the commentators will not be at the venue. Whilst this can improve the technical quality for the benefit of the internet audience it would seem to preclude interaction between the audience at the venue and the commentators as well as the opportunity to get players to talk through their games once they had finished.

The downside of all the coverage is that it makes it easier for support teams to relay moves and ideas to players.

David Sedgwick
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by David Sedgwick » Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:12 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Wed Jul 27, 2022 12:56 pm
The downside of all the coverage is that it makes it easier for support teams to relay moves and ideas to players.
Do you mean that they might do that during a game? Otherwise, I don't see why it's a downside.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:21 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:12 pm
Do you mean that they might do that during a game?
Yes

Essentially it's where spectators are following the games on a phone, tablet or laptop and are in intermittent contact with the player. For example on the way to or from the toilets or the refreshment area.

Mike Gunn
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by Mike Gunn » Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:36 pm

For me not having the commentary team present on site represents a significant reduction in the quality of the experience of attending the British. I was looking forward (after losing my game in the Seniors) to retiring to the commentary room and being able to see commentators at some remote location just doesn't cut it for me. The previous exercise in remote commentary (at LLandudno by Chess24) wasn't a success in my opinion. Bring in some external commentators by zoom by all means but there needs to be a core team present in Torquay (again, in my opinion).

David Sedgwick
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by David Sedgwick » Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:59 pm

Mike Gunn wrote:
Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:36 pm
For me not having the commentary team present on site represents a significant reduction in the quality of the experience of attending the British. I was looking forward (after losing my game in the Seniors) to retiring to the commentary room and being able to see commentators at some remote location just doesn't cut it for me. The previous exercise in remote commentary (at LLandudno by Chess24) wasn't a success in my opinion. Bring in some external commentators by zoom by all means but there needs to be a core team present in Torquay (again, in my opinion).
Try to keep an open mind. Regan and Sadler are excellent.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Jul 27, 2022 2:00 pm

Mike Gunn wrote:
Wed Jul 27, 2022 1:36 pm
The previous exercise in remote commentary (at LLandudno by Chess24) wasn't a success in my opinion.
Did they intend to do the same at Hull in 2018? Charlie Storey did live commentary, but I got the impression that it was a last minute thing and his commentary area was darkened like a cinema. In 2019 at Torquay, the commentary room was in its usual place on the lower ground floor. That was mostly Danny Gormally and Adam Hunt if I recall correctly.

At Warwick in 2015, they tried to broadcast from the commentary room. This lead to numerous complaints about the quality from the chess.com and chess24 audiences.

Mike Gunn
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by Mike Gunn » Wed Jul 27, 2022 2:59 pm

I agree that Regan and Sadler do an excellent job (I watch many of their commentaries) and I suspect this only affects a few dozen of us who go into the commentary room at the British but not having live commentary where you can have audience interaction is a big loss for me.

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AlanLlewellyn
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Re: British Championship Congress 2022

Post by AlanLlewellyn » Thu Jul 28, 2022 5:11 am

what about having speelman commentate on one he is an excellent twitcher, he could give a spiel