Rachel Reeves and Chess

[Matt Mackenzie]

That it is simply a rehash of a previous "exclusive" makes it all the sillier.

[Richard Bates]

From what i can gather, the pond scum at the Daily Mail seem to be doing a ring around of ex British Girls Champions. Presumably they are trying to get one of them on the record saying how outraged they are that Reeves normal type soft padding of her CV (which has far more validity than probably what most people write when they include an anecdote of chess prowess) has undermined and devalued their “genuine” achievement.

As for Alex Edmans - appears he was in my age group. Can’t recall him. I knew who Rachel Reeves was.

[John Townsend]

John Swain wrote:

"She competed in several Junior British Championships and was also fourth equal out of twenty-eight players in the under 21 British Women's Chess Association Championships in 1993, which resulted in her being declared joint under 14 champion at this event, with three others."

Britbase (by John Saunders) contains this statement:

"1993 British Girls' Under 14 Champion Emily HOWARD (Birkenhead)"

I think this may be what is causing the confusion. It was not specifically explained in John Swain's post above whether this affects the claim made by Rachel Reeves, and, if so, how.

[John Swain]

John Swain wrote:

"She competed in several Junior British Championships and was also fourth equal out of twenty-eight players in the under 21 British Women's Chess Association Championships in 1993, which resulted in her being declared joint under 14 champion at this event, with three others."

Britbase (by John Saunders) contains this statement:

"1993 British Girls' Under 14 Champion Emily HOWARD (Birkenhead)"

I think this may be what is causing the confusion. It was not specifically explained in John Swain's post above whether this affects the claim made by Rachel Reeves, and, if so, how.

There is a further helpful thread about this subject dating from as long ago as 2012:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3938
This refers to a Chessbase article which says that Rachel Reeves was "a UK U14 girls champion":
https://en.chessbase.com/post/che-magaz ... -simpson-s

One of the posts in this early 2012 thread is by Sabrina Chevannes who commented:
"The BWCA is still a British title and a good one at that. The BWCA was a great organisation that helped encourage and inspire many girls and women in chess. I do hope it can make a comeback. These BWCA titles were more popular than the British Girls' titles at the time because they didn't require you to spend a week in the summer somewhere in England, which was rather expensive and most families wanted to go abroad. It was just a weekend somewhere, which was easier and affordable with time and money."

Rachel Reeves' shared U14 BWCA title in 1993 was based on a five-round tournament, held in Ipswich over two days: https://saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/199308 ... .html#bwca
She also competed later in 1993 in the seven-round British under 14 Championships in Dundee, where she finished on 2.5/7, a point behind the girls champion Emily Howard:
https://saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/199308bcf-viewer.html.
Most competitors were boys; Emily Howard was 16= overall, despite being girls champion, with Rachel Reeves 26=.

Rachel Reeves competed with distinction in several tournaments. For example, she came to Nottingham in 1996 where she scored a very respectable 4/11 in the Major Open, only a point adrift of the four who shared the under 18 girls title on 5/11:
https://saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/199608bcf-viewer.html

[John Upham]

if someone with an ECF hat should be responding (apologies, I am not up-to-date with the current incarnation of the ECF and its officers).

Indeed.

According to the ECF web site:

Social Media Manager/Publicity Officer
Vacant | Email

and

Manager of Female Social Media
Vacant | Email

AFAIK, there is no official ECF Press Officer and there hasn't been one for years. SR thought he was but admitted to me he knew nothing of what the role entailed.

[Roger de Coverly]

AFAIK, there is no official ECF Press Officer and there hasn't been one for years. SR thought he was but admitted to me he knew nothing of what the role entailed.

Should it not come under the responsibilities of the International and External Affairs Director?

We all know who that is and he's been commenting on the current fuss.

[John Townsend]

Thanks to John Swain for further details about the chess career of Rachel Reeves.

It is certainly gratifying to see that some leading politicians are/were chessplayers. For me, an outstanding example was Sir John Simon, who during the war, was given the duplicitous task of interviewing the captured Rudolf Hess shortly before Germany's invasion of Russia: he needed to appear to be negotiating peace with Hess, while, in fact, his purpose was to pump him for information. Both were chessplayers ...

[Ian Thompson]

I wonder how many media requests British Chess News gets and whether the responses are seen as official or if someone with an ECF hat should be responding.

What the ECF/BCF should have done years ago is to clamp down on organisations awarding their members/tournament entrants titles and the like that were misleading and liable to be confused with similar titles awarded by the BCF/ECF. (An obvious example of "and the like" would be an organisation calling its team the "England" team).

[John Upham]

I wonder how many media requests British Chess News gets and whether the responses are seen as official or if someone with an ECF hat should be responding.

What the ECF/BCF should have done years ago is to clamp down on organisations awarding their members/tournament entrants titles and the like that were misleading and liable to be confused with similar titles awarded by the BCF/ECF. (An obvious example of "and the like" would be an organisation calling its team the "England" team).

Even in this day and age various junior organisations continue to invite parents to sign their child up to a so-called "England" team. I'm sure you don't need me to name the organisations since they are well known. This is something that the NGB should clamp down on. Maybe AH / TW are reading this?

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Even in this day and age various junior organisations continue to invite parents to sign their child up to a so-called "England" team. I'm sure you don't need me to name the organisations since they are well known. This is something that the NGB should clamp down on. Maybe AH / TW are reading this?"

It would be a long overdue action. I have lost count of the number of juniors or parents that have proudly claimed "British" championships or to have represented England. I think in some cases they genuinely believe it.

Since my 2012 comments, I have now played Correspondence Chess for Europe https://www.iccf.com/event?id=79478 but I obviously don't expect anyone to take that seriously...

[Paul McKeown]

Just had a phone call from some Daily Mail scuzz (plummy accent, morality of a hyena) noting that I had written something about Rachel Reeves on this forum and wanting to... I just cut the fellow short and told him that I wasn't going to get into it and hung up. If they are ringing me, who else are they ringing? Expect a call any instant, folks.

[Tim Spanton]

"Even in this day and age various junior organisations continue to invite parents to sign their child up to a so-called "England" team. I'm sure you don't need me to name the organisations since they are well known. This is something that the NGB should clamp down on. Maybe AH / TW are reading this?"

It would be a long overdue action. I have lost count of the number of juniors or parents that have proudly claimed "British" championships or to have represented England. I think in some cases they genuinely believe it.

Since my 2012 comments, I have now played Correspondence Chess for Europe https://www.iccf.com/event?id=79478 but I obviously don't expect anyone to take that seriously...

Europe Team E? Surely that's the equivalent of English football's National League?

[John Upham]

Just had a phone call from some Daily Mail Scuzzcunt (plummy accent, morality of a hyena) noting that I had written something about Rachel Reeves on this forum and wanting to... I just cut the little shitebag short and told him that I wasn't going to get into it and hung up. If those motherf**kers are ringing me, who else are they ringing? Expect a call any instant, folks.

Over the past two days several calls to my landline (reserved these days for incoming scam callers who I enjoy baiting) and several to my mobile number. I'm also not going to join in with their little games. Whatever I say will be corrupted and twisted so hats off to MBP for dealing with them.

As for the the Daily Mail, I would suggest that Lords Northcliffe and Rothermere would be turning in their graves if they realised what had become of the organ they founded in 1896.

[Paul McKeown]

DELETED

[Rob Coles]

I read 3 or 4 versions of the story, each more or less boiling down to the claim made on social media vs the ECF response, with the Times/Mail/Telegraph/Spectator giving more space to the accusation and doing the damage in the headline (the Telegraph quotes Malcolm Pein in full, whereas the Mail appears to be on the 2nd/3rd version of their article with Malcolm's response pared down but a link to Britbase now added).

A shame RR didn't also claim a handful of intermediate congress sections and a rating prize or two, high time we got some in-depth reporting in the national press about the tie-break systems used by various weekenders or various other trivial organiser foibles.