Plans
are afoot to revive the Sheffield Chess Congress. The previous
series ran from 2011 to 2017.
The intention is
to run
a
2-day weekend event
with
3 rounds on the Saturday
with
2 rounds on the Sunday
with
4 sections as follows:
Section
|
Rating Limit
|
Open
|
none
|
Major
|
Under 1900
rating
|
Intermediate
|
Under 1600
rating
|
Minor
|
Under 1300
rating
|
and
a time limit of 75 minutes for the game with 10-second increments from
the start.
The
venue is confirmed as King Edward VII School as used from 2012 to
2017.
There
is a preferred date in November,
but
whether that is feasible depends on whether the 4NCL picks that date for
its 2023-24 season.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The idea was
hatched by a group of members of the Woodseats Chess Club who were
returning from playing in the Doncaster Congress in February 2023.
Efforts were made
by Bill Ward to rustle up engagement from others in the Sheffield chess
community with the result that a meeting took place on Saturday 11th
March 2023 at Bill’s home. Snow meant that for a while the meeting
was variously to be face-to-face or by Zoom, or both, or neither with
postponement to some later date. However, it happened.
Those attending
the meeting were Bill Ward, Connor Fairfield, Phil Beckett (linked in by
Zoom), Jonathan Arnott, Peter Ackley, Geoff Brown and Steve Mann.
Bill’s
contribution to the overall exercise will be mainly limited to providing
a venue for meetings along with attendant tea, coffee and biscuits.
Connor is the
self-appointed primary pre-event worker, exploring the avenues, and
setting up the arrangements.
All subject to
the date not clashing with pre-existing commitments, Phill, Jonathan,
Peter and Jim Burnett (not at the meeting) have all expressed a willingness
to act as controllers/arbiters at the event. Phill is a level 2 ECF
arbiter, Jonathan is a level 1 ECF Arbiter, and it seems Peter is due to
be added to the list at level 1 and is working to get to level 2.
Jim has been chief controller at Doncaster for a long time and has acted
as a controller at Sheffield in the past, and he is likely to have
qualified at Level 1 by the time of the event.
Geoff seems to
have agreed to act as entries secretary.
Steve Mann is
doing the website. (http://mannchess.org.uk/SheffCong.htm)
Once date has
been fixed the event can be added to the ECF Calendar (to “reserve” the
day). Costing can then be done, and entry fees and prizes can be
determined. After further minor details have been finalised, the
event can be advertised fully, via entry forms, websites and whatever
other methods.
Then
you can send in your entry!
|