2011 BUCA Championship (February 26/27)

[Alex Holowczak]

The Barceló Oxford Hotel will host its second BUCA Championship on Saturday, 26th February and Sunday, 27th February 2011. The Barceló Oxford Hotel offers four-star accommodation at a discount rate, as well as dinner, bed & breakfast for those playing in the tournament. BUCA hopes to build on the success of the inaugural competition in 2010.

Chris Dorrington, James Jackson, Paul Griffiths and Xie Yun Hap were the inaugural winners for Bath in 2010.

[Justin Hadi]

Will the games be FIDE rated?

[Alex Holowczak]

No, for several reasons:
1) Games too short; incorrect time control
2) Can't get 5 rounds over 2 days for FIDE-rating unless you have 3 4-hour games
3) Important to remember most players aren't going to be ECF members. You can get 2200s and 1400s in the same competition.

[IM Jack Rudd]

2) Can't get 5 rounds over 2 days for FIDE-rating unless you have 3 4-hour games

Well, you can, but not for a rating-unlimited event like this.

[Alex Holowczak]

With 39 minutes until the late fee deadline, I think the following are our entries:
Seed University Grade
1 Oxford 213
2 UCL 1 182
3 Warwick 158
4 UCL 2 156
5 Aston 147
6 Bristol 143
7 Durham 140
8 Southampton 134
9 LSE 116
10 BCU 91

Will post full teams on the BUCA website tomorrow with some luck. I remain hopeful of some late entries. A bit of a shame there's no entry from Bath (defending champions), Cambridge (who you'd think would be good!), and Imperial (whose 2nd team came close to winning it last year).

[Alex Holowczak]

We now have 12 entries with the addition of Swansea and Bath. A spreadsheet of the teams and seeds can be downloaded from the website.

[Alex Holowczak]

BUCA has a new Twitter account, which can be followed at https://twitter.com/bucachess

Updates will be tweeted from the event...

[Sean Hewitt]

BUCA has a new Twitter account, which can be followed at https://twitter.com/bucachess

Updates will be tweeted from the event...

Hopefully, not by those still playing

[Matthew Turner]

I was a little bit surprised by the gradings of the teams, I had expected they would be a bit higher. Looking at the teams, it is amazing how many have a foreign player on top board. Oxford look to be very hard to beat, but UCL 1 might have a shot if their unrated Russian on board 4 is a decent player and if he comes ahead of Chantal Sirisena and Jacob Bigio he should be pretty good.

[Phil Makepeace]

Oxford look to be very hard to beat, but UCL 1 might have a shot if their unrated Russian on board 4 is a decent player and if he comes ahead of Chantal Sirisena and Jacob Bigio he should be pretty good.

Iaro's on 1/4 v 2130 in the 4NCL this season as well as ½/2 v 178 in the London League. I reckon he's around 170 ECF, about the same as Jacob and Chantal.

[Alex Holowczak]

I was a little bit surprised by the gradings of the teams, I had expected they would be a bit higher. Looking at the teams, it is amazing how many have a foreign player on top board. Oxford look to be very hard to beat, but UCL 1 might have a shot if their unrated Russian on board 4 is a decent player and if he comes ahead of Chantal Sirisena and Jacob Bigio he should be pretty good.

The common theme seems to be:
a) Teams aren't the strongest they can field - with a lack of funding, most players aren't prepared to pay £50 + a train ticket to get there - even for the national championship. Given the £50 includes accommodation as well as the entry fee for a weekend, it's not really expensive... So it's basically a team of the most enthusiastic players.
b) Overseas players seem far more willing to spend the time and money than English (British?) players - Nottingham didn't enter a team for example, and I gather they have quite a few English players in their ranks

Oxford are rotating their 7 players around for the following week's Varsity game. So if Oxford v UCL1 involves a weaker combination of the Oxford 7, then UCL1 might have a chance - particularly in a match points system.

If the event were limited to just British players, it'd be a non-starter.

[Eoin Devane]

Oxford are rotating their 7 players around for the following week's Varsity game. So if Oxford v UCL1 involves a weaker combination of the Oxford 7, then UCL1 might have a chance - particularly in a match points system.

Or if a mobile phone plays a role in that fixture again.

As Alex says, our squad of 7 is made up of our boards 2-8 (excluding 7; he is replaced by our reserve and captain, Yangshi) from our Varsity team. The tournament, as well as being prestigious in its own right, is ideally positioned in the calendar for our players to use it as a tune-up for Varsity!

[Peter Roberson]

I enquired a while ago as to whether Cambridge would be entering a team but was told that cost made it unlikely. If we'd have somehow managed to get our top 4 players out we'd have been around 205 - I guess we'll find out how we'd have fared against Oxford a week later anyway! But last year (when it clashed with Varsity 2nds?) there was very little interest among our top 8 players.

[Alex Holowczak]

I enquired a while ago as to whether Cambridge would be entering a team but was told that cost made it unlikely. If we'd have somehow managed to get our top 4 players out we'd have been around 205 - I guess we'll find out how we'd have fared against Oxford a week later anyway! But last year (when it clashed with Varsity 2nds?) there was very little interest among our top 8 players.

Last year, the clash with Varsity seconds was actually the fault of Oxbridge; I've been told that you organised your date knowing about ours!

I've heard of complaints about cost from a few sources. I find this very worrying for the future of English chess. The train fares and accommodation would make the total cost for the weekend at somewhere in the region of £100. The cost is almost equivalent to that of a 4NCL weekend, and comparable with most weekend congresses that aren't on your doorstep. Things like Sean's events would cost a bit more, because of the requirement for two nights' accommodation. So if you're not prepared to spend £100 for a weekend at what amounts to the national championship for students, then you're probably not going to play any chess once you leave University.

In my opinion, the conversation you had was incorrect. When you asked about whether you were entering a team, you should have had the reply, "Yes, do you want to play?" You shouldn't give the impression that it's expensive to the people who might play - it really isn't given what it is.

Aston's society has 6 regular players who are good enough to play in something like this, and we can field a team. Cambridge probably has 50. Yet we can field a team, and Cambridge can't. This isn't Cambridge bashing; I know other Universities had a similar problem. I don't blame the price of entry; I blame a lack of enthusiasm either from the players, or from the President to organise it. I can't believe that of all the players Cambridge has, 4 of them wouldn't be interested in going to Oxford for a national university championship, even if they have to pay the costs themselves.

[Matthew Turner]

Alex,
I do agree that it is disappointing that Cambridge are unable to field a side. I think a possible issue with the costings is that many students would be able to bunk up with somebody at Oxford for free, so the whole the accommodation is in effect an 'additional' cost. That said this is an important event which has been very successful and Cambridge should have a side.