English Chess Forum

Results so far for World Youth Championships here http://chess-results.com/tnr470708.aspx ... ES&flag=30. Details of team here https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors ... pur-india/ . I guess this must rank at least equal with the lowest number of girls England have ever sent

Presumably there was something about this tournament that made it unattractive for England Players?

David Shepherd wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:55 pm

Presumably there was something about this tournament that made it unattractive for England Players?

Cost, time of year, location, the fact that it's older age groups and thus there's more focus on academia. Any more reasons needed?

It seems really low this year, from a number of countries - not just England, so for example France are also only sending 3, it was the fact that no girls were going that caught my eye.

Of the three entrants proudly (and officially??) bearing the ENG flag, two in the u-14 Open are ranked #29 and #47 on the ECF's u-14 list. And our sole entrant in the u-18 Open does not rank among our best 100 u-18s (#102). Embarrassing. Ridiculous.

I mean, the u-18 lad is graded 164, that's 20 points lower than me at the same age more than fifty years back - and I never expected to have ENG on my CV. It's even miles below the 10 x age yardstick that indicates 'promising' youngsters. I've raged about this selection policy several times before. What was this lad doing there? I understand things are changing. I do hope so

Going off on a tangent, I see that 15 year old Declan Lovelock is currently going through the Dorset Open like a hot knife through butter! He’s got no ECF or FIDE grade and apart from a few recent local dominating blitz tournaments, he’s effectively only ever played online before. He’s definitely the type of player the ECF should be throwing some time and resources towards.

https://chess-results.com/tnr475756.asp ... =4&fed=ENG

He won it outright with 4.5/5. I stand to be corrected but I’d suggest it was the highest tournament rating performance ever achieved by an English junior in a debut tournament.

I was part of the butter …

https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2019/10/blitzed.html

1 out of 10 in his next competition sadly, one of the blitz qualifiers today at the London Chess Classic;

https://chess-results.com/tnr493387.asp ... =30&snr=32

Doesn't this raise some troubling questions about his previous results, as fully recounted by Tim Spanton in the previous post in this thread?

Dorset blitz champion with 10/11, expected next ECF grade 220, today 1/10 with a 1057 performance....

Hmmm indeed.

It does seem a bit odd, and the loses are fairly brutal and on chess24 to see. It could be other factors like lack of practice, lack of tournament experience, or even too much pressure and expectations after those spectacular early results. Curious one! ...was he wearing that baseball cap from the Dorset blitz in your longplay tournament Tim? Lol

Those games were not played by a 220, out of practice, drunk or even blindfolded. Are we sure this isn't a mistaken identity?

ECF ID seems to tally with Declan Lovelock, ungraded apart from his big Dorset Open result. But maybe there has been a mix up in names?

Let's not beat about the bush here.

Just out of curiosity, we’re the anti-cheating protocols stricter at the London Chess Classic than you would find at your average chess congress?

Matt Bridgeman wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 08, 2019 6:53 pm

Just out of curiosity, we’re the anti-cheating protocols stricter at the London Chess Classic than you would find at your average chess congress?

In the FIDE Open, they were insisting that mobile phones be switched off completely and placed in a bag, but that's as normal for 4NCL events. Additionally they were selecting board numbers and using the metal detector wand before the game on those in that pairing. If there were any other checks being carried out, they weren't publicised.