The English Chess Federation – Furthering the Cause of English Chess
What is the ECF and what does it do?
The English Chess Federation (ECF) is the governing chess organisation in England and is affiliated to FIDE (the Fédération Internationale des Échecs). Its mission is to promote the game of chess, in all its forms, as an attractive means of cultural and personal advancement to the widest possible public. In addition, the ECF exists to develop chess by creating the means to enable the highest forms of chess excellence to be achieved, and to expand the game as a social and sporting activity
Annual competitions run by the ECF include –
– the British Championships and the British Online Chess Championships, featuring events for all ages from Under 8s to Over 65s)
– the Counties Championships and the Online Counties Championships
– the English Women’s Championships
– the English Seniors Championships
– the ECF Grand Prix and the Online ECF Grand Prix
– the National Schools Chess Championships
– the UK Open Blitz
– the English Online Blitz Championships
– the National Online Clubs Championships
– Junior Online Championships (at different time controls)
Other activities include –
– selecting English teams and individual representatives to all FIDE events, including the European and World Team Championships, Chess Olympiads, and European and World Junior Championships
– working with the Chess Trust and the John Robinson Youth Chess Trust to support young players
– running the ECF Chess Academy for our most promising junior players
– maintaining and operating the National Rating System, with an online database available throughout the year, and with monthly online publication of ECF ratings
– training and refresher courses for arbiters
– running three ECF online clubs, along with ECF Junior and Women’s clubs
– scheduling and running a regular series of weekly online rated club events
– running a series of online-rated National Championships
– participating in international online events with England teams from the ECF Clubs
ECF services include –
– submission of chess events to FIDE for FIDE rating, and international rating liaison
– a monthly eNewsletter to all members
– a weekly online bulletin for subscribing members with details of ECF online events
– a regularly updated chess events calendar
– the annual ECF Yearbook with all of the year’s news and photographs in full colour
– a map of the current chess clubs in England that the ECF is aware of, with their contact details (supplied by the clubs)
– maintenance of six websites, covering the ECF, ECF Juniors, ECF Seniors, the National Schools competition, the British Chess Championships, and an ECF Resource website of historical results and more …
– the ECF Master Points System, which allows chess players to apply for the title of National Master, Club Master, County Master, Regional Master, Team Master and Chess Maestro for performance in graded/rated events
– the ECF Certificate of Excellence, which features the CoE tests, available for download from the ECF website at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.