British Knock out 2019

[Alan Tate]

I don't really see the difference between official and unofficial events, Keith - is there some rule about this?

My point is that this is not an isolated incident - official or not.

To me it's more of a cultural attitude. Ask any Scottish tennis fan and they'll tell you that Andy Murray is British when he wins and Scottish when he loses.

Imagine if an organiser in Scotland started calling things `British Knockout...', or 'British Championships...' followed by making zero effort to involve other nations and at times actively discouraging them. It would be completely absurd! To repeatedly falsely name tournaments in this way comes across as arrogant and entitled - this is the crux of the matter.

Btw, I sympathise with your ageism claims. This British knockout has clearly changed to a youth vs stars tournament. Check out the list of sponsors and they are nearly all from junior chess sources. Also chuck in the organiser's kid for good measure I'd be annoyed if I was you too. However you do get all these senior tournaments From what I can see looking through the official Fide tournament list I discovered that the group with the least opportunities is actually men aged 18(21)-49. Women, Seniors and in particular Juniors have the most options. Which doesn't really make sense to me as adult males under 50 represent the majority of the chess population and those kids will grow up at some point.

Regarding Rowson, I only recall him being drafted in once as a last minute replacement, but I could be wrong.

[Paul Cooksey]

To repeatedly falsely name tournaments in this way comes across as arrogant and entitled - this is the crux of the matter.

This doses seem the important point. I consider whether the best British players are invited a bigger factor than whether all nations represented. But possibly because I am arrogant and entitled.

I would be saddened if we had to stop using British entirely, because I am not entirely English. But frankly you probably could rename an event "London" instead of Britain without it losing any prestige.

[David Sedgwick]

Regarding Rowson, I only recall him being drafted in once as a last minute replacement, but I could be wrong.

I don't want to comment on any other aspect of what you say, but on that point you definitely are wrong.

Rowson received and accepted invitations to play in the first three British Knockout Championships, in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The event for which he came in as a late replacement was the London Chess Classic 2013, after Magnus Carlsen declined his invitation.

[IM Jack Rudd]

And Turner played in 2018, which means 2019 was the only British Knockout without a Scottish participant.

[Brendan O'Gorman]

And Turner played in 2018, which means 2019 was the only British Knockout without a Scottish participant.

Well, without a SCO registered participant at least.

[Jonathan Rogers]

and matthew had to qualify, as would most English GMs over 40.

[Matthew Turner]

The organisers have decided to take the event in a certain direction and I guess that is up to them. If you are worried that Scottish players are underrepresented then I think you should be making a case for Murad to get a place. I don’t see any reason why Malcolm et al wouldn’t be very amenable to that suggestion.

[Alan Tate]

I don't really care. My Gibraltar entry was rejected this year so I haven't played for over 3 months and getting bored. Thanks for all the stats.