(Chess) Life Returning To Normal

[Paul Robert Jackson]

"Vaccine Passports" headline news today (6-2-2021).

[Paul Robert Jackson]

CZECH TOUR 2021
The festivals in Prague and Marienbad were postponed due to corona crisis development in the Czech Republic.
New dates are:
16—23 April 2021 for Marienbad Open
4 April — 1 May 2021 for Prague Open

I doubt travel from the UK will be possible.

[Tim Harding]

Bad Wörishofen, scheduled for March, has just been cancelled but will possibly be rescheduled for May.

http://www.chessmail.com/seniors/Seniors-calendar.html

[Tim Spanton]

I see from the Fide calendar that the regular tournaments at Novi Sad in Serbia are one of the few events anywhere in the world going ahead more-or-less as normal, and in a country without compulsory quarantining rules for Brits on entry.
Has anyone played at Novi Sad and know about arrangements for accommodation, etc?

[John McKenna]

Visited Novi Sad for the Olympiad in 1991. (Edit - not quite 1991 - the event ran from November 16 to December 4, 1990)

Flew to Belgrade then train across the plain to venue. (A slow but spacious train that took about an hour or two at most.)

Stayed at hotel Leopold I (the First Leo), which was originally a palace in a fortress, on top of a hill overlooking the Danube and the main bridge across it.

http://leopoldns.com/

(At that time it was just 50 US dollars per night.)

Good food, friendly people in a very nice town - as its name implies - New Garden.

I believe some English players have played in tournaments there much more recently. (Edit - not so sure about that now as I can only find what looks like one - playing there in 2006 in the Novi Sad B-Open.)

Good to go still, most probably, if you can escape across the border - the UK one.

[Matt Bridgeman]

I see from the Fide calendar that the regular tournaments at Novi Sad in Serbia are one of the few events anywhere in the world going ahead more-or-less as normal, and in a country without compulsory quarantining rules for Brits on entry.
Has anyone played at Novi Sad and know about arrangements for accommodation, etc?

Do you think the rule regarding being legally able to travel will be relaxed by the 26th March?
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advi ... oronavirus

[Tim Spanton]

I see from the Fide calendar that the regular tournaments at Novi Sad in Serbia are one of the few events anywhere in the world going ahead more-or-less as normal, and in a country without compulsory quarantining rules for Brits on entry.
Has anyone played at Novi Sad and know about arrangements for accommodation, etc?

Do you think the rule regarding being legally able to travel will be relaxed by the 26th March?
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advi ... oronavirus

No, but there are exemptions, and in any case I was thinking about Feb 28!

[Paul Robert Jackson]

With the current uncertainty regarding travel & holidays
.....I do not expect there will be any OTB Chess Congresses' in the UK until towards the end of the year (if at all).

[Matt Bridgeman]

I see from the Fide calendar that the regular tournaments at Novi Sad in Serbia are one of the few events anywhere in the world going ahead more-or-less as normal, and in a country without compulsory quarantining rules for Brits on entry.
Has anyone played at Novi Sad and know about arrangements for accommodation, etc?

Do you think the rule regarding being legally able to travel will be relaxed by the 26th March?
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advi ... oronavirus

No, but there are exemptions, and in any case I was thinking about Feb 28!

What exemption for travelling abroad are you pondering?

[Tim Spanton]

Do you think the rule regarding being legally able to travel will be relaxed by the 26th March?
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advi ... oronavirus

No, but there are exemptions, and in any case I was thinking about Feb 28!

What exemption for travelling abroad are you pondering?

The curse of the drinking classes - work

[Wadih Khoury]

.....I do not expect there will be any OTB Chess Congresses' in the UK until towards the end of the year (if at all).

I'll be the optimistic one here and will cheer for small scale events to resume once we go back to the tiering system.
Hopefully the vaccination campaign will mean that R0 will be under 1 in tier 1-2-3.

[Tim Spanton]

ECF newsletter:

Given current circumstances it seems highly unlikely that we will be able to run an OTB British in Torquay this August, and we are looking at carrying the venue booking forward to 2022. We will confirm the postponement/deferral in the next couple of weeks.

[Matt Bridgeman]

.....I do not expect there will be any OTB Chess Congresses' in the UK until towards the end of the year (if at all).

I'll be the optimistic one here and will cheer for small scale events to resume once we go back to the tiering system.
Hopefully the vaccination campaign will mean that R0 will be under 1 in tier 1-2-3.

I thought the tier system might be going, and there will just be national measures? I’d guess come 2022 some events will return, and going back into crowded rooms for events and concerts again will become something of a personal risk assessment. You’d have to weigh up things like how many people are getting sick at that time, and are there a lot of new strains about pushing the numbers up a bit more, is it X amount of months since you were last vaccinated so your antibodies are low again, etc. Winter probably being more risky than summer perhaps. It’s going to be something factoring into people’s thinking for years probably.

[Mick Norris]

Yes, I think the tier system is going but you can never be sure what will happen next

[John Reyes]

ECF newsletter:

Given current circumstances it seems highly unlikely that we will be able to run an OTB British in Torquay this August, and we are looking at carrying the venue booking forward to 2022. We will confirm the postponement/deferral in the next couple of weeks.

good to hear and people safety is more important (hope by then most of the public will be vaccine by then)