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FINALS – 6:30pm Saturday 18 September 2021
Follow the games live via the Interactive matchcards here
Open: Devon v Northumberland; Minor Open: Northumberland v Essex; U1800: Northumberland v Leicestershire
A competition for County Associations and regional Federations affiliated to the English Chess Federation and their associated online chess players. Following 100 years of over-the-board inter-county national competition, the intervention of the Covid-19 pandemic provided the opportunity for this online sister competition, now in its second season. You can take a look back at the first 100 years of evolving competition here.
The Online Championships taking place this summer (June to September) on the Chess.com platform are open to ECF Members and ECF Supporters eligible for an entered County – see below for more information how to join one of the teams if you are eligible for that county, which you can do at any time before your county’s last group match. Once again, there will be rated National Challenge pairings running in parallel with the inter-county matches for those who miss out on selection by their county sides.
Matches are played on Saturday evenings at 6:30pm at a rate of G60’/15″
Fixtures, matchday notices & live results are available from the County Championships Online pages on the ECF’s League Management System (see the links above)
The Qualifying stage between June and August, straddling the Second British Online Championships, is planned as a team Swiss in each of the three Championships. The Championships will be contended in September following fair play checks, and are planned to be played on camera with enhanced fair play arrangements on the Zoom video conferencing platform and sharing of screen and task manager.
The Online Counties Championships are governed by the Competition Rules. All players must abide by the Fair Play Regulations. Processing of data is in accordance with the ECF’s Privacy Notice and is set out in the Competition Rules. The ECF Online Code of Conduct also applies.
Schedule
Qualifiers – Top two from each section qualify
Minor Open – Team Swiss rounds on 12 &19 June, 03 & 17 July and 21 August
U1800 – All-play-all played on matchdays 12 June, 17 July and 21 August
Finals – All sections on 18 September
National 1400 – Matchdays 21 August, 11 September & 18 September (see below & menu opposite)
Participation & Eligibility
A player is eligible to represent one of the following historical counties of England in the Championship if the player is an ECF member or supporter, is not barred from ECF online clubs, has an active Chess.com playing account (and has not held any others); and meets one of the following criteria —
- birth in that county
- five years’ domicile in that county at any time
- two months’ immediate previous and present membership of a club either in or affiliated to that county
- one month’s immediately previous and present domicile in that county
- present attendance as a student at a school, college or university in that county
The National 1400 is an all-play-all 3 match inter-region league (drawn from all the County Associations) to give 1400 and below-rated county players a national event too. A slower paced event following on from the Chess For All Festival. You can sign up to play whether or not your County Association has entered the second season of the Online County Championships, simply complete the Online Registration Form and indicate your availability. The controller will contact you in due course with instructions to join your regional team club on Chess.com, where event announcements will be made.
The National 1400 Rules and the online registration form have been added to the menu panel to your right in the National 1400 section. You can find the fair play regulations and rules and guides on how to challenge and use the ECF LMS where the matchcards can be found in the top section headed ‘Competition Documents’. There will also be links to the Chess.com regional clubs and the fixtures page of the ECF LMS.