English Chess Forum

Anyone know who is running this?

http://schoolchess.net/en/about/tournament

Nick Thomas wrote:Anyone know who is running this?

http://schoolchess.net/en/about/tournament

This is the only info I could find, no named contact details other than an online form on the website.

School Chess Limited (Registered number 7729735), whose registered office is at 13 Kensington Close Norwich UK NR15 1TR

School Chess Limited is an Active, non trading business incorporated in England & Wales on 4th August 2011.

I got two E-mails about this today. It is 'unfortunate' timing because it could get confused with the ECF National Schools'
I don't expect to be entering.
I did also wonder how they got my E-mail address, but there are quite a lot of possible ways.

Nick Thomas wrote:Anyone know who is running this?

It was mentioned on the forum around a year ago

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4653

and more recently

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4713

According to the ECF grading database, a player of the same name played for the Basildon club around ten years ago.

Matthew Turner wrote:I got two E-mails about this today. It is 'unfortunate' timing because it could get confused with the ECF National Schools'
I don't expect to be entering.
I did also wonder how they got my E-mail address, but there are quite a lot of possible ways.

I've asked the relevant people in the Junior Directorate if it's an event/organisation that they have any knowledge of.

Nick Thomas wrote:Anyone know who is running this?

http://schoolchess.net/en/about/tournament

According to whois, the domain schoolchess.net has the following oiwnership

Diocese of Norwich
Adrian Miller
The New Rectory, The Street
Saxlingham Nethergate
Norwich
Norfolk
NR15 1AJ

Matthew Turner wrote:It is 'unfortunate' timing because it could get confused with the ECF National Schools'

It would make sense for the ECF to make clear that that it's not the "official" event and that they have no knowledge of it (assuming that's the case).

I don't know anything about this event. It's come out of the blue.

Andrew Martin wrote:I don't know anything about this event. It's come out of the blue.

Thanks for clarifying.

I drew this to the attention of this place more than a year ago.

I would find it a little disturbing if the ECF still have no knowledge of it (whatever that means).

Before being lambasted for not emailing various people on the subject, I emailed the DoJC and received a courteous reply.

It is entirely possible that this is an excellent commercial offering.

J.

some more info here:

http://www.sourcewire.com/news/73690/fi ... lchess-net

Ian Masson and Rev Adrian Miller are evidently the founders and are also colleagues at a church in the Norwich area.

Companies house website says that School chess Ltd. is marginally late with their annual return, and haven't yet filed any accounts. For a new venture, that isn't necessarily meaningful, so perhaps nothing should be read into it.

Speaking personally, I'm never keen on a website that doesn't have an "about us" section giving some details of the people involved. One always wonders why be so shy.

Does the £125 annual fee seem a trifle steep?

See

sort of about us

PeterFarr wrote: Speaking personally, I'm never keen on a website that doesn't have an "about us" section giving some details of the people involved. One always wonders why be so shy.

It's been running a year. If there are schools already participating, cannot they be named?

Roger de Coverly wrote:
It's been running a year. If there are schools already participating, cannot they be named?

Under "Faqs", it says you can find out how many schools are taking part by looking at the page "arrange supervised play", though I couldn't find the page; maybe you have to sign-up before you can see it.

To be fair, if you are a start-up business which relies on inter-action between customers, you do have an issue in getting to critical mass, so its perhaps understandable to be a bit coy about existing numbers.

PeterFarr wrote: maybe you have to sign-up before you can see it.

It seems somewhat chicken and egg. If you sign up, what assurance do you have that you aren't the only school? It didn't really matter whilst it was presented as a free service under test, if it's going to be £ 120 per school, I would presume schools would want to know what they were getting.