Dear Member
Welcome to the September edition of the ECF e-newsletter. As we move from summer to the start of the new chess season we are headlining with an excellent review of the e-book market from IM Gary Lane, which we hope will benefit members of all levels
This is also the time of year to renew your membership and this year is a more streamlined method. You will receive an email reminder to renew including a username code with a link to the membership portal here – https://ecf.azolve.com – and the payment method is user-friendly and efficient. And of course once you renew or active your membership you can benefit from some exciting offers from Chess & Bridge and Chess Direct which are outlined below.
The ECF is looking for motions and nominations for the 2019 elections ahead of the AGM in October (link below) and we pay tribute to the doyen of British Chess Leonard Barden who celebrated his 90th birthday on 20 August.
There is an important issue that I would like to highlight. I have heard anecdotally that one club got a communication from one of the major image banks claiming that one of their rights-managed images had been used on the club’s website without permission and they were forced to pay the cost of the image. Having run a niche image bank for a few years I know a bit about this. However tempting it may be to go to an image bank or Google images and ‘borrow’ an image to highlight an article, you do need to check whether you have permission and if you don’t have it, then I recommend you don’t use it. The big libraries like Getty, Shutterstock and Alamy have invested huge sums of money in software to protect their IP so if you put an image on a website without a license, it could be tracked.
There are free image websites around these days like this one – https://unsplash.com/search/photos/chess – which has over 3,200 free to use images on chess alone! As well as this, the ECF are collecting a bank of images that we have rights to use and we will look at how we can share some of these. If you use one of the free libraries like unsplash then you must always give a credit to them (something like, ‘Image – unsplash.com’). I am sure there are members who have images they would be happy to share so if you have please contact me at publicity.manager@englishchess.org.uk. Finally as prices get lower in this market, you can actually buy images for less than a tenner as with here on Istock – https://www.istockphoto.com/gb/photo/chess-pieces-gm956930910-261290299 – a good move, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Have a great season!
— Mark Rivlin
Page turner or clicker?
Gary Lane reviews e-books. Click here to see how e-books can help your game!
European Team Chess Championships
The England teams for the European Team Championships at Batumi, Georgia will be –
Open – Michael Adams, David Howell, Gawain Jones, Luke McShane, Nick Pert, (Captain) Malcolm Pein
Women – Jovanka Houska, Katarzyna Toma, Sarah Longson, Kanwal Bhatia, Ingrid Lauterbach, (Captain) Lorin D’Costa
The tournament takes place from October 23 (arrival) to November 3 (departure). There are nine rounds and play begins at 13.00 UK time on October 24. Board order will be announced shortly before the tournament begins.
For the FIDE World Cup
Mickey Adams, Gawain Jones and Luke McShane will competing in the FIDE World Cup which takes place in Batumi from September 10 – October 4. First round pairings here – https://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS_2019/FIDE_News/World_cup_2019/World_Cup_2019_Round_1_no_color.pdf
Universities challenged
A great initiative from UCL Chess Club in launching this pro collegiate chess league. More here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/pro-university-chess-league/ and here
British Championships 2020
Director of Home Chess Adrian Elwin writes – At the beginning of June, the British Championship management team had almost completed negotiations at an excellent new venue, a conference centre in Southport. In July, the team were contacted with the information that the management there had reviewed the proposed contract and would need to change it to a ‘much higher rate’ that would have made the congress financially unviable. With our alternative venue having already fallen through, this left the team in a difficult position. After contacting several possible venues, mostly recent venues who had expressed an interest in hosting the competitions again, we have negotiated a return to Torquay for next year’s British Championships (which will run from 17 to 31 July). This is not without precedent – Eastbourne was the venue for 1990 and 1991.
Returning to the same venue for a second consecutive year is not ideal. The British Championship should move around the country. This year has proved exceptional, even for these uncertain times, and a return to Torquay is the best option currently open to us. A further complication for 2020 is the timing of the Olympiad, which starts in Russia on August 1 so the British Championship will need to finish earlier than usual. This has the unfortunate consequence that the tournaments would clash with the last week of the school term in many areas of the country. It has been decided to temporarily to return to a two-week festival with the junior sections following the main British Championships. A schedule for the festival is available here. Further events will be added in the second week.
UK Open Blitz Championships
News from organisers Nigel Towers and Ed Goodwin – The regional events for this year’s UK Open Blitz are being held at locations across the UK over the weekends of 7th and 14th September. Further details can be found here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/uk-open-blitz-championship-2019/ – together with a list of entrants to date. As you will see from the entry list, the competition is proving very popular this year across all of the eight regional events. There is still time for you to join the event of your choice, with a chance of winning one of the regional event prizes, or qualifying for the UK finals which will be held in Solihull in November.
Director of Women’s Chess Chris Fegan reports –
The 2019 English Women’s Chess Festival took place in Hull over the weekend of Friday August 30 to Sunday 1 September. The Festival itself included coaching and talks by British Women’s Champion Jovanka Houska, a talk by Sean Marsh on the Friday including a reception, a rolling simultaneous display by IM Richard Palliser for local players on the Saturday afternoon, coaching for local girls on the Saturday and Sunday afternoons and a free barbecue reception on the Saturday evening.
All participants in the festival and also the championship were given a free copy of the August 2019 CHESS Magazine courtesy of Chess & Bridge. The Championship itself was the biggest and best to date with 34 players and a record prize fund of £3000 with special and new trophies for the English Women’s Senior Champion and also age related trophies.
The whole event was a partnership between the ECF, Hull & District Chess Association and Hull Council and I would also like to express my gratitude for the support for the age related trophies from Women’s Enterprise in the Humber and it is fantastic news and possibly a first for English chess to have an ECF Women’s event supported by the local Women’s business community.
The English Women’s Championship itself was a tremendous tournament with several senior women England Internationals and top class young women at all age levels. The tournament itself ended with an incredible last round in which the final game lasted an amazing 154 moves and resulted in a win for WGM Katarzyna Toma which enabled her to share the Championship with Louise Head. A full ranking list of the final standings are available at – http://chess-results.com/tnr467011.aspx?lan=1&art=4&flag=30
The next big event in English female chess is the English Girls Championships to be held at Blenheim Palace,Woodstock,Oxfordshire over the weekend of 19/20 October 2019 and entries can be made here.
I am also very excited about the London Chess Conference 2019 to be held in December in London and which is on the subject of Chess and Female Empowerment and which is being supported by the ECF,FIDE,ECU and CSC and is as far as I known the first ever Conference held in partnership between the ECF and both FIDE and ECU.
I would encourage all ECF Women to put this Conference in their diaries and to try and attend.
Monthly grading update
ECF Chief Executive Mike Truran writes – We have had some very good discussions recently with the Welsh Chess Union, the outcome of which is that the two federations hope to be able to work together on implementing the planned new monthly grading system. The project is being led on the ECF side by Director of Membership Dave Thomas and Manager of Grading Brian Valentine, and we hope to have the specification and outline costings completed in the next few weeks.
Have your say
2019 AGM motions and nominations – Time is short for motions and nominations so please see these links asap. For the motions see here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/motions-for-the-2019-annual-general-meeting/ – and for the nominations we are looking for replacements for Tim Herring (Chair of the Finance Committee) and Mike Gunn (Chair of Council) here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/nominations-for-the-2019-elections-at-the-agm/
We are also looking for a Chair of the Awards Committee. More here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/vacancy-chair-of-awards-committee/
Benefits across the board
Membership benefits from Chess & Bridge and Chess Direct here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-membership/ – and here – – and here – https://www.chessdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Discount-Information.html
Well done Alex!
Our Director of Junior Chess Alex Holowczak heads the new New FIDE Technical Administrative Panel (TAP). More here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/new-fide-technical-administrative-panel/. Get involved and fill in the FIDE Qualification Commission time limits questionnaire – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/fide-qualification-commission-questionnaire/
ECF Arbiters’ Course in October
More here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-arbiters-course-3/
World Cadets Championship
Ravi Sandhu Head of Delegation, England Chess Team reports from Weifang China here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/world-cadets-championship-u81012/
World Online Prison Chess Championships
Here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HMP-Wandsworth-World-Championships.pdf – and here – https://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/11767-inmates-from-7-countries-competed-online-in-an-event-auspiced-by-anatoly-karpov.html
Happy Birthday Leonard!
Leonard Barden celebrated his 90th birthday in August and he’s still going strong with his excellent columns for the Guardian and Evening Standard. Here is a lovely piece from nearly three years ago by media writer Roy Greenslade celebrating Leonard winning the longest chess column accolade – https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/oct/26/new-record-for-leonard-barden-grandmaster-of-newspaper-chess-columns
European Youth Championship
Borna Derakhshani reports from Pardubice here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/european-youth-team-u18-u12-in-pardubice/
Northumbria Masters
Tim Wall reports – The 2019 Northumbria Masters, held 23-27 August at Novotel Newcastle Airport, saw a fine win by Dutch GM Roeland Pruijssers with 7.5/9, followed by English IM Alan Merry and German GM Alexander Donchenko on 7/9. Among the English contingent, IM David Eggleston and junior Max French were in equal fifth on 6 points.In the field of 54 players, there were a total of 6 GMs and 6 IMs.The event was more than twice the size of the 2018 Northumbria Masters, with a total of 120 players in 4 sections (Masters, Challengers, Major and Junior Rapidplay), including a total of 22 England juniors playing in the nine-round FIDE-rated sections. More here – http://chess-results.com/tnr463482.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9
English Girls’ Chess Championship
This event will take place at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire on the weekend of 19 and 20.10. More here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/english-girls-chess-championships-2019/
4NCL – new teams welcome
Opportunities for teams to join 4NCL Division 3 North or Division 4 South. More here – http://www.4ncl.co.uk/entry_guidelines.htm
New 4NCL Women’s League
The first round of the 4NCL Women’s League will take place in Kenilworth-Warwick on the weekend of 12-13 October. More here – http://www.4ncl.co.uk/fide/information_womens_league.htm
23rd 4NCL Congress in South Normanton. More here – http://www.4ncl.co.uk/fide/information_23.htm
Well done Chessable!
Our newsletter sponsors Chessable deserve a double !! for this business move – https://www.independent.ie/world-news/world-chess-champion-buys-tech-startup-from-swindonbased-amateur-38461419.html !!
Junior coaching at the Hull 4NCL
A reminder of junior coaching opportunities from Hull & District Chess Association ahead of Hull 4NCL on 30 and 31October and 1 November here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/junior-coaching-at-the-hull-4ncl/ – and here – https://www.hullchess.com/public/files/Events%20-%20ours/2019%20Congress/coaching.pdf
CHESS magazine taster – click here
Obituaries
Andy Price – https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10364
Pal Benko – https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/26/sports/pal-benko-dead.html
Shelby Lyman – https://new.uschess.org/news/shelby-lyman-dies-age-82/
GPS “Philip” Coy – https://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10390