(Chess) Life Returning To Normal

[NickFaulks]

No legal force certainly, but you wouldn't want to be a lawyer arguing that you didn't kill someone after you rejected the CDC's advice.

No, that is completely wrong. You might not wish to ignore the advice of the authorities in your state, but unlike here they tend not to do advice - something is either prohibited or it isn't.

[John Upham]

Would something like this be sufficient?

gettyimages-106757397-2048x2048.jpg

[Nick Grey]

No Nostrils Distance...

[Tim Spanton]

(while still wearing masks and practising social distancing in public places).

You cannot play over the board chess normally, by which I mean on a single board without screens, and remain two metres from your opponent. Three hours or more in a mask is unlikely to be popular either.

But you can more-or-less play at one metre-plus, ie one metre away while wearing a mask.
On the second point, about spending "three hours or more in a mask," I had to do this while playing in Mallorca in October (and wear a mask in the street at all times too). It's a bit of a pain if you wear specs - they steam up quite badly - but otherwise I got used to it.

[Chris Goodall]

No legal force certainly, but you wouldn't want to be a lawyer arguing that you didn't kill someone after you rejected the CDC's advice.

No, that is completely wrong. You might not wish to ignore the advice of the authorities in your state, but unlike here they tend not to do advice - something is either prohibited or it isn't.

I'm not talking about the CDC coming after you for not following their advice, I'm talking about what would count as evidence in a negligence lawsuit. The CDC definitely issue recommendations.

[David Gilbert]

[David Gilbert]

Then there are these:

[Wadih Khoury]

Three hours or more in a mask is unlikely to be popular either.

It is not great, but in my observations, people who are having withdrawal symptoms from OtB chess will go with the slight inconvenience. Even Tim resigned himself to wearing a mask
Some observations:

- Biel and Prague: not mandatory, many people still wore them
- Heidelberg: I think more than half of the field wore masks.
- Sitges: mandatory masks for everyone

All these were big events, which indicates to me there will be enough players that will accept to wear a mask (if required) while some will wear one even if not requested to do so.

On junior chess government want catch up on education not playing chess. Big fine on those organising a indoor gathering.

Please, this is a serious topic and some forum members will be trying their best to relaunch OtB. Facts are always welcome, and help everyone involved. But I was surprised by your claim so I had to go through the full government guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... pring-2021
And they do clearly say:

No earlier than April 12
...
All children’s activities, indoor parent & child groups (up to 15 parents).
...
All children will be able to attend any indoor children’s activity, including sport, regardless of circumstance. Parent and child groups of up to 15 people (not counting children aged under five years old) can restart indoors.

So for everyone's benefits, let us make sure we check our facts and debate any grey areas.

[NickFaulks]

No legal force certainly, but you wouldn't want to be a lawyer arguing that you didn't kill someone after you rejected the CDC's advice.

No, that is completely wrong. You might not wish to ignore the advice of the authorities in your state, but unlike here they tend not to do advice - something is either prohibited or it isn't.

I'm not talking about the CDC coming after you for not following their advice, I'm talking about what would count as evidence in a negligence lawsuit. The CDC definitely issue recommendations.

You misunderstood the post you quoted.

The relevant authorities are the states. If you follow their laws, you will be fine in any state case, and there won't be a federal case. The state authorities generally treat the CDC's recommendations as an irrelevance, unless they happen to be in line with what they want to do anyway.

Chess can now be played in Texas. The Governor says that's fine, so it is fine.

[Roger Lancaster]

Responding to Wadih, where he sets out para 117 from HMG's "Spring Response" document, it seemed to me that the only possible grey area was whether the two sentences stood independently, with the restriction to 15 applying to parent-and-child groups only, or whether the figure of 15 was intended to apply to indoor children-only gatherings too. I take it to mean the former but the question is how the various enforcement agencies [eg police] will interpret the wording. I'm no lawyer but para 103, setting out the position immediately before [presumably] 12 April, contains the word "also" which clearly indicates that the two para 103 sentences were independent whereas there's no "also" in para 117. If the omission is deliberate, that could be significant.

[John McKenna]

Roger responding to Wadih.

[Roger Lancaster]

Roger responding to Wadih.

Now corrected, thank you - and apologies to Wadih.

[Simon Rogers]

Not sure if it has been posted on the forum yet.
The provisional dates and venue for this year's British Rapidplay Championships have been announced on the website, here it is:
Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th November 2021.
Leeds Trinity University
Horsforth, Leeds, West Yorkshire.

[John Sellen]

From the Torbay Chess Congress website

"On a positive note, we are planning to hold the 2021 Congress on Armistice weekend (12th - 14th November). We hope to start accepting entries for the 2021 Congress around the middle of 2021.

[Nick Grey]

Adult and junior Chess when safe to do so. Maybe in Sep/oct. Costs will go up.