The English Chess Organisers Handbook

British Championship Qualifers

2012-02-17T07:37:00.001-08:00

Organising A Simultaneous Display

2011-07-14T07:24:00.001-07:00

This is an event where one strong player plays againsta number of opponents at the same time. Andrew Martin, creator of theCertificate of Merit DVD, played over 300 players in this way. 20-25 is morecommon.
Decide on the type of display – open to all-comers,solely for juniors or a particular club? This will affect the choice of venue; if you want to attract interestedmembers of the public, a shopping mall can work well. Many locations will givea venue free for some good publicity. Check the proposed date does not clash with important events.
If you need a player, contact the English ChessFederation Office.
If you can get a media person to play in the display,so much the better.
Organise tables, chairs, chess sets and boards; thefirst two are normally provided by the venue, the latter from a chess club.
Decide how to raise money. A local sponsor may covercosts. If you are raising funds for a charity: sponsorship for a certain amountper move for juniors; a board fee for adults often works well. Try to get localfirms or games shops, for example, to provide prizes for wins and draws.
Publicise the event through local papers, chesscolumns and magazines, radio, Teletext, the English Chess Federation, clubs andschools.
You will need assistance during the display: organisingplayers, providing refreshments, explaining to passers-by what is going on;collecting results.
Walking around in circles is tiring. Provide the giverof the display with a chair and also light refreshments. 20 boards commonlytake 2 hours.
Players should not make their move until the expertreaches the board. Players may make their move early; forget and make anotherone. It is quite common to allow players to pass; perhaps 3 times in a game.
Usually the display giver takes white on all boards.Sometimes they alternate.
It adds a professional touch to display the top gameor more on demonstration boards. It would improve the image still further byplaying games on an electro-sensitive board and sending out the moves live onthe internet.
After the event, report the results of the event tothe providers of publicity and keep press cuttings and other media exposure –this will ease the task of finding a sponsor for the next event. Please send details of the event to the ECFOffice.
Some players are able to play a number of gamesblindfold simultaneously.

ECO Newsletter #1, May 2011

2011-06-13T02:46:00.000-07:00

WHAT’S HOT?

The Future of ECF Junior Chess, 11am 28th May at Sunningdale
I read about this informal meeting on the EC Forum, hosted by ‘e2e4 chess’. If you are interested in the whole subject of the future of Junior chess in the UK, or are thinking of standing in October for the post of Junior Director then this might be a useful meeting to attend, and after a spot of lunch watch one of the UK’s best tournaments in action!

The ECF Grand Prix

Did you know that the only thing you have to do to get your tournament included in the ECF Grand Prix (sponsored by CCF Mindgames) is make sure your event is graded less than 30 days after the event? Players take this competition pretty seriously, so if you want to attract players please mention the fact that your tournament is part of the ECF Grand Prix on your leaflet, with the ECF logo if you can find space – or at least on your website with a link to the GP page.

FIDE rating your event

I often get asked ‘how do we get our weekend tournament FIDE rated?’
People like longer time limits and good playing conditions, and they also like to get a FIDE rating – we have almost 2,500 players on the current FIDE rating list.
If any congress organiser reading this has time to write about their experiences of switching to a FIDE rated open (or Major) for the English Chess Organisers blog, please let me know.
The ECF page is here, and the main things that you need to be aware of are 1) the longer time limits, which make it impractical (not impossible) to have three rounds in a day (1-2-2 or 2-2-2 is a much better format) and 2) the costs – you won’t have to pay game fee as all players have to be members of their national federation (in practice most will be ECF Members) but you will have to pay to have the event FIDE rated.

Using the ECF calendar of events to promote your tournament (pdf file, website, etc)

If you want more entries, you need to be on this calendar. Ideally you need to provide a website address (see below) and a downloadable entry form. If you want to send your pdf / doc to Andrew Walker at the ECF he will include that on your calendar entry, or send him the form and he’ll scan it and include it. It really makes a difference.

Posterous: creating a simple website for your event

(http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2091 for more information)
YOU NEED A WEBSITE. Yes you do. If you have email then you can create a website for your event in two minutes! Sign up with Posterous and choose a name that makes sense for your event. Write an email that tells people when your event is being held, where it is and how to get there, why you are organising, how much it wil cost, who is organising it and how they can contact you. Attach the entry form to the email and send it to your special (and private) posterous email address. Done. Now you can quote the www address in your correspondence! Here is one example – why not send me yours?
- Adam Raoof, ECF Director of Home Chess

Getting an Event Graded

2011-02-25T07:45:00.000-08:00

22.2.2011 by Richard Haddrell (ECF Grading Administrator) - the original excellent article is here, and may be more up to date!

Probably no one will need to read all through this guide. Experienced organisers may have no need of it at all, though they are invited to skim through it. (The fourth and fifth sections may be worth attention.) The first three sections are intended for organisers with little or no experience of grading, including those who have never had an event graded and would like to know how.

What events can be graded?
Anything, so long as it is played with clocks - at least 15 minutes each - under normal competition rules. ("Normal" embraces quickplay finishes, adjournments, even adjudication.) Club internal championships, large or small, are very gradeable (also very cheap: see Game Fee at the foot of this page). There is one proviso: events, or sections of events, are graded whole or not at all. Results are accepted from organisers, not from individual players.

How do I get my event graded?
You can't just send your results to the ECF. Results have to be processed first by a local grader who will turn them into a form the ECF computer can accept. There are approximately 100 local graders. They have specialised software, and access to more information about players than is available in the online grading list.
So you need to find a local grader. How? Sometimes it's easy. Leagues and counties usually have their own appointed graders, who often undertake (for example) club internal grading from their area in addition to their mainstream work. If you know who your local grader is, approaching him may answer your question at once. If not, contact the ECF Grading Administrator grading@englishchess.org.uk who will find a grader for you.
Graders are not paid for their regular league or county work. However, a grader may sometimes make a charge for a large "out-of-house" job - a whole new congress, say. This is a private arrangement between him and you. For the ECF's charge, see Game Fee at the foot of this page.

How do I give results to the grader?
That is between you and the grader. People sometimes use physical media: match result cards in a league, say, or pairing cards in a congress. (If you use the post, be sure to keep a backup. Whole congresses have been lost through not doing so.) Increasingly, results are transferred electronically. A grader may take results straight from a league or congress website, or by email from an internal club organiser.

When do I give results to the grader?
It depends largely on the nature of the event. But bear in mind that grades are published twice a year. The playing season, for grading purposes, is split into two half-years* ending on 30th November and 31st May. A league or club championship which is in progress on one of these dates will need to be split, with later games carried forward to the next period. If you do not observe the split but save all your results up till May, the games will still be graded but they will all go into the second period, resulting in inaccurate grades in the first period if not both. (Note that congresses are not split. A congress which straddles two half-years will normally be treated as though it fell entirely in the first of them.)
Apart from the half-year split, note: For a small, season-long, club internal competition you will probably wait till the end of the half-year, or the end of the competition if that is sooner. For a league, it is best to report results not less than (say) once a month so the grader can keep abreast. For a one-off event, particularly a congress, you should report as quickly as possible. Congresses count towards the ECF Grand Prix, but only if the grading results reach the ECF within one month. The ECF, not the local grader. You need to give the grader time to meet this deadline.
* The split into half-years is effective from 2011-12 for Standardplay grading. For Rapidplay it has been effective since 2006-7.

What information must I give to the grader?
For each player:
• Grading Code (eg 123456A) if known. Grading codes may be found in the online grading list, where they are called "Ref". Remember that players returning to chess after an absence will be invisible in the online list till you turn "inactive" on. Their codes are still valid.
• Full name. Not just initial and surname. Initial-and-surname is probably the biggest single cause of confusion between players, particularly when the initial is T for Anthony. On no account give initial-and-surname if the player is new (that is, if he has no grading code). A new player who enters a congress giving initial-and-surname should be asked for his forename. In a league, match captains who enter players with initial-and-surname should be made to give proper information. This may seem a forlorn hope, but some leagues achieve it. (How? Usually by requiring clubs to register their players in advance, giving all necessary information. After that the match captains may do as they please.)
• Club. Club will be obvious in a team, or club internal, event. In other events, club is required for new players but is otherwise optional. If a new player has no club, give his place of residence. DO NOT give a club simply because you have found it by a player's name in the grading list. It may be out of date. Sooner than that, give no club at all.
• Date of birth, if known. For juniors (under 18 on 31st August of the current season) date of birth is essential if they are to get the age-related grading bonus they are entitled to.
• Sex, optionally (and especially if not obvious from the name).

For each game (or match):
• the date. Dates may not be known in a club internal event; in this case, try to sort the games into (say) one-month blocks.
• the colours, if known.
If players play each other twice in the same match (or tournament), give the games separately. Not added up to make a score out of 2.

Byes and defaults have no effect on the grading, but can be given if you wish. In a congress they enable the grader to produce accurate crosstables, which may be of interest to you. Please, if you report wins by default, make it clear that they are wins by default. If a default looks like a real result, against a named opponent, it will be graded as a real result.

Can I be my own grader?
Yes. This makes sense if you organise a reasonable amount of chess, especially if no other grader is readily available. Becoming a grader will enable you to submit your results direct to the ECF. Contact the Grading Administrator grading@englishchess.org.uk, who can give you the necessary information and software. The software is written for Windows. You will need emailing facilities, plus modest computer literacy, and quite probably MS Excel (need not be recent) or another program which can save as Excel. There is also, of course, some commitment of time.
Being your own grader makes specially good sense if you run congresses using

Tournament Director.
This is a commercially available program whose main function is to assist in running congresses by making Swiss pairings and doing a variety of printouts. But, having done a congress, it will also produce grading output for it in a form the ECF computer can read. Normally this output would still need to go to a local grader before it reaches the ECF, because the grader has software and information not available to TD. By writing to grading@englishchess.org.uk and becoming a grader yourself, you acquire these things and can make the information automatically available to TD. This enables you, should you so wish, to send a completed grading file to the ECF within half an hour of completing the congress.
The ECF does not market Tournament Director and has no responsibility for it. But it is widely used, by graders among others, and has been found to do this job correctly.

Game Fee
The ECF makes a charge for grading: see the Game Fee page on the ECF website. Game Fee is charged at various rates, which can be found on that page. Junior and Rapidplay are charged at half rate, and club internal at one-third rate (so club internal Junior Rapidplay is one-twelfth). There are complications such as exemption for ECF Direct Members in congresses, or Basic Members in anything.
The usual way to pay Game Fee is to download the appropriate form from the Game Fee page, fill it in, and send it to the ECF Office with a cheque. Alternatively, you may be able to come to an arrangement with your county (or league) so that the payment goes through them.

Creating a Website for Your Tournament

2011-02-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

25.02.11 by Adam Raoof

I have noticed that many tournaments still do not have a website, but do have an email address for contacts. A website is essential to promote your event, it is a free and easy way to spread information quickly.
Here is a simple way to set up a site for your event, and I reckon it will take you less than half an hour! You don’t have to know anything about website design. Use Posterous. Now, Posterous is unusual. Posterous lets you post things online fast -you email post@posterous.com and it gets formatted and posted! Anything you attach (Word, PDF, anything) gets posted and people can download it and print it. You can include photos.

1. Sign up for an account at http://posterous.com/
2. Choose a logical name based on the event, e.g. http://goldersgreenchess.posterous.com/
3. Email the details of your tournament to post@posterous.com – attach the entry form to the email and a photo if you want – and that’s it!
You can edit the details afterwards, but it’s easier to get them looking the way you want first time in the email. Now, everything you email will appear as the latest post, and will have a unique link.

TIPS

* add your web address to your signature when you email and post on the Forum
* please make sure the link to your site is on the ECF calendar!
* use the same site to promote your simultaneous display or club championship
* link your Posterous account with your Facebook or Twitter account. Then when you post it will be sent to all three! (this is called ‘autopost’)
* why not set up a page for the club? You can add your club mates email addresses to any Posterous site you control. Then they email post@sitename.posterous.com to post to it. They don’t need to create an account.
* http://www.blogger.com is another site you might want to explore if you have a bit more knowledge; you can customise it – e.g. http://goldersgreenchess.blogspot.com/

If you have any suggestions for making this process even easier, or corrections, or ideas for promoting weekend tournaments – let me know! And if you use this tip, send me your link!