English Chess Forum

The results of my junior event yesterday are now published via UTU Swiss - 4 sections of 8 player all-play-alls, ordered by strength.

http://results.utuswiss.co.uk

Well done, this looks like a real success.

"Well done, this looks like a real success."

Indeed - it's a "well done" from me too.

Agreed, as I said on the other thread, it was a fantastic success. Children were so happy to play OtB again (and I am sure adults will be too when they are allowed!).
Parents had to re-learn the skill of waiting in between round, especially with social distancing in place.

Now hopefully someone will start a standard junior event!

Thanks for the positive comments everyone.

It's also interesting when forced to do things a bit differently, and then thinking that some of these different approaches may be better absolutely. For example, the all-play-all section for the weakest children rattled through the games and avoided them having to wait long periods for the top section to finish. Given how fast they played, they could have had a 9 round 10 player all-play-all, where most players win several games, and still finished on time - I think we held the prize giving for the bottom section when the top section had only just started round 4.

All-play-alls also mean the stronger children get 'better' games than can happen in an ordinary junior Swiss, where they spend the first few rounds duffing up children vastly weaker than themselves.

Another interesting factoid about the return to OTB - in the top section in the first round, 3 out of 4 games were lost on time. Maybe there is something about forgetting to check the clock, or realising that a physical move always takes a couple of seconds as opposed to almost zero time online.

Well done Joseph!

We have been running lunchtime chess clubs at Wilson's School in year group bubbles.

This week the sixth form had the opportunity to play one ECF rated games, at 15+5. They all ran short of time. In their case I think it was that they enjoyed the opportunity to think more deeply about their moves than they did online.