British Championship...2011

[Richard Cowan]

Richard, your statement implies (whether you meant it to or not) that Micky Adams was given something akin to the £5000 that was available last year, to the deprivation of others. I can assure you that this is not the case. Last year £500 was available to the first 10 English GMs to enter. No such money was available this year and I can assure everyone that no-one received as much as even that minimal figure this year.

I'm aware of the £500 given last year. Are you sure? Apologies if I've been misinformed, but I indeed understand that to be the case. If the ECF has not given Adams this amount, someone certainly has, as I believe he doesn't play for less than ~£500 a game.

Hopefully, his participation will help increase sponsorship opportunities for the future. Various ECF officials are trying all they can to attract sponsorship. In the currrent climate that is particularly difficult to achieve.

Indeed! It would be beneficial to have a professionally produced document outlining precisely the benefits of soponsership - i.e. target market, history of the event, no of views on websites / etc. And to stress the amount of press coverage / image it projects of the sponsering organisation(s). AFAIK no such document exists?! Without one, trying to get a sponser will be an uphill struggle IMO. Maybe as a carrot we could allow them to nominate someone to take part / open the event? Again, more publicity! It is hard to get sponsership of events if you don't know exactly what you're going to offer the sponsering organisation.

[Carl Hibbard]

I believe there was a plan to sell "advertisement" space on the Championship Live Games section but I am not sure if anything has been achieved yet?

[Richard Cowan]

I did actually mean just the page(s) that the sponser would be displaying their (clickable?) logo on - Presumably the homepage of the championships? I'm fairly sure marketing departments will do evaluations on reach and target market of their advertising... (and applicablility of course)

[Sean Hewitt]

Richard, your statement implies (whether you meant it to or not) that Micky Adams was given something akin to the £5000 that was available last year, to the deprivation of others. I can assure you that this is not the case. Last year £500 was available to the first 10 English GMs to enter. No such money was available this year and I can assure everyone that no-one received as much as even that minimal figure this year.

I'm aware of the £500 given last year. Are you sure? Apologies if I've been misinformed, but I indeed understand that to be the case. If the ECF has not given Adams this amount, someone certainly has, as I believe he doesn't play for less than ~£500 a game.

Alex certainly should be the man to know as he is [joint] congress manager.

Perhaps if you named the source of your information Alex could check it out? Rumours such as this will rightly inflame GMs already unhappy at the prospect of having no conditions.

[Richard Cowan]

Well, I stand corrected in that case.
Indeed, I did not start the rumour - and am pretty certain my source didn't either, I have no wish to name them (and I don't see what perpose it serves).
However, you have to admit that the situation will naturally make those people who've not got conditions this year suspicious, and it's not surprising that rumours start - however, baseless or unfounded they are.
I mean, (and I apologise if I've been misinformed once more,) I believe that the £500 start money was instituted as a response to the (loosely paraphrased) question - would you like £10000 top prize or £500 start money?
Given that a year later there's neither a £10000 first prize nor £500 start money, people are bound to guess/imply where that money has gone.

[Ian Thompson]

Apologies if I've been misinformed, but I indeed understand that to be the case. If the ECF has not given Adams this amount, someone certainly has, as I believe he doesn't play for less than ~£500 a game.

If that figure is right, who's paid for his participation in the just finished Chicago Open? I doubt very much the organisers would have paid anything at all.

Maybe as a carrot we could allow them to nominate someone to take part / open the event?

When Smith & Williamson sponsored the British Championships, their employees and clients were entitled to free entry to all events they were qualified to play in. With the exorbitant entry fee charged for the British Championship it seemed to me that investing a small amount of money with them to get the free entry would have been worth doing.

[Sean Hewitt]

Well, I stand corrected in that case.
Indeed, I did not start the rumour - and am pretty certain my source didn't either, I have no wish to name them (and I don't see what perpose it serves).

It would have allowed Alex to check with the source in case there is any truth in the rumour, or perhaps allow a clarification of a misunderstanding. However, if there is no truth in it then you're right and naming "the source" would serve no purpose.

Given that a year later there's neither a £10000 first prize nor £500 start money, people are bound to guess/imply where that money has gone.

"People" may be better served looking at the accounts which show a loss of £20,000 plus for the last two years, much of which has come from the cost of running the British Championships. I think that gives a much clearer idea of why (rightly or wrongly) there is no start money in 2011.

[Alex McFarlane]

I too had been lead to believe that Micky required a large amount to play. Fortunately my information was wrong.

Obviously I do not know if someone is sponsoring him to play in events but I can assure everyone, especially the GMs who read this, that there is no chance of £4-5000 coming from the congress budget to cover the amount being banded about. I doubt if the ECF could cover this amount from any budget!!

I am also sure that the first prize last year was the same as it is this year. It has been a few years since sponsorship was able to allow the £10000 first prize. If I wore another hat I would say that the prize was cut when Scots started winning it. But seriously, it is a few years ago and I think from memory there was only one year when the prize was cut to cover conditions. In the previous two years the conditions were covered by a sponsor and by a bequest.

I don't want to seem to be having a go at anyone, because in this case I'm not, but I am more than willing to correct or confirm (as far as possible) any 'stories' about the British. I would rather people got in touch with me by email with their concerns first rather than posting inaccurate statements. Having said that I am happier to see such postings than to have misinformed gossip circulating uncorrected.

[Carl Hibbard]

Be nice to see him register on here (of course...) at the moment only Daniel Gormally remains if he wishes to use his real name

[Richard Cowan]

I don't want to seem to be having a go at anyone, because in this case I'm not, but I am more than willing to correct or confirm (as far as possible) any 'stories' about the British. I would rather people got in touch with me by email with their concerns first rather than posting inaccurate statements. Having said that I am happier to see such postings than to have misinformed gossip circulating uncorrected.]

This is a valid point, however, isn't this what forums are for?
I did guess that someone would either know more about the situation, or would further advise me...
I mean, if chess were to be covered more by the press more in this country, (say as much as football?) I'm sure these kind of things would have been speculated upon / investigated / published already?

"People" may be better served looking at the accounts which show a loss of £20,000 plus for the last two years, much of which has come from the cost of running the British Championships. I think that gives a much clearer idea of why (rightly or wrongly) there is no start money in 2011.

Of course, but accounts are normally quite opaque...
And quoting from the budget report - "The British Championship broke even for the year. This is in line with the budget." !

Of course I'm just as glad as everyone else that Adams is playing, but I was of course equally worried others were losing out. I am very happy if this is not the case.

[Jonathan Rogers]

While I too am very surprised that Michael Adams would compete for a first prize of 5,000, with all his own expenses to bear, and would hope for his sake that there is more to it than this (perhaps a mystery private sponsor) - still, I would not rule it out. Not many chess events offer much prize money these days and he has long since lost the rating that guaranteed him substantial starting fees in top closed events. He might reason thus:

a) I am not going to get my rating back up by very much again by just playing League chess, and for the time being I may have to play the sort of events I did twenty years ago to break back into the higher echelons,

b) there are some nice areas in Kent. Heavens, it certainly isn't Russia, at any rate

c) surely I will win the British very easily, and even after expenses and tax etc, an overall profit of some £2,800 or so is still somewhat more than nothing.

[Mick Norris]

Hopefully, his participation will help increase sponsorship opportunities for the future. Various ECF officials are trying all they can to attract sponsorship. In the currrent climate that is particularly difficult to achieve.

Indeed! It would be beneficial to have a professionally produced document outlining precisely the benefits of soponsership - i.e. target market, history of the event, no of views on websites / etc. And to stress the amount of press coverage / image it projects of the sponsering organisation(s). AFAIK no such document exists?! Without one, trying to get a sponser will be an uphill struggle IMO. Maybe as a carrot we could allow them to nominate someone to take part / open the event? Again, more publicity! It is hard to get sponsership of events if you don't know exactly what you're going to offer the sponsering organisation.

Martin Regan produced such a document when he was at the ECF

[Richard Cowan]

Apparently he still recently commanded ~£750 per game in the 4NCL though Jonathan...

When Smith & Williamson sponsored the British Championships, their employees and clients were entitled to free entry to all events they were qualified to play in. With the exorbitant entry fee charged for the British Championship it seemed to me that investing a small amount of money with them to get the free entry would have been worth doing.

Indeed! It's a good plan, but at the moment If I say enquired of a company / organisation to sponser the British, and they asked me what they would get out of it, I wouldn't be able to tell them.
I'm envisaging documents not unlike those we obtained from the University of Kent as part of their proposal to host the British. A general "selling of chess" for sponsoring organisations. Having such a document would enable ECF members to submit and elicit responses for (at least) the organisations which they work. And makes the whole process look more professional and likely to be successful.

Martin Regan produced such a document when he was at the ECF

Excellent! Now where's it got to... Seriously though, why hasn't it been emailed out to all members to aid in the search?
More hands make light work!

[Sean Hewitt]

Seriously though, why hasn't it been emailed out to all members to aid in the search?
More hands make light work!

Not necessarily - a company would get royally p***ed off if it were bombarded by individuals all seeking spnsorship on behalf of the same organisation. It would appear thoroughly amateurish.

That's why you have a Sales or Marketing Director.

[Richard Cowan]

Not necessarily - a company would get royally p***ed off if it were bombarded by individuals all seeking spnsorship on behalf of the same organisation. It would appear thoroughly amateurish.

I would think that there can't be that many organisations which employ more than a few chess players each...
In any case; I would have thought that recieving these inquiries from their own staff would actually help - if their staff / business sector are interested in it, maybe their organisation should be (and their potential employees might be too)?
Once a serious expression of interest is recieved, negotiation should be passed to the Director of Marketing. This is how I envisage the role working - negotiating with the organisations which have expressed an interest. Actually soliciting interest may well be best done by the members themselves - isn't that how charities / teams get sponsership ?
I'm almost certain that my employer would look about 20 times more favourably on an oppertunity which has come from in-house rather than externally. (though, of course all companies / sectors are different).

I mean, there's only so many companies 1 person can contact, and there's a limit to how many companies have been approached. I mean, I gather there was no sponsorship at the previous British, anything is beter than nothing, even if it's the local restaurant paying £50 to sponsor the junior championship. It would be £50 the ECF would not otherwise have had. Provided a process is put in place, I think members helping in the search for sponsorship could work.