Welsh Chess Union News and Results Aug 28 Is it possible to apply an Elo Rating system to sports other than chess? Apparently so! There is actually a published Elo rating list for International football. It shows Wales in 49th position with a rating of 1608. Our best position was 5th with 1858. Currently Spain have moved to the top slot with a rating of 2059. England are 9th with a rating of 1889. The calculations go right back to 1876 when Wales lost 4-0 to Scotland and include the latest defeat by Georgia where we dropped 16 Elo points. The full list can be found here.
Update: Stewart Reusben said that he was commissioned to do an Elo rating system for snooker. He had Steve Davis comng out at 2700. He goes on to say that rating tennis would be more problematical because of the different playing surfaces. Zane Allford says that the World of Warcraft Arena uses the Elo system to allocate points http://www.wowwiki.com/Arena_point
Aug 26 South Wales Rapid Play and Welsh Junior Team Championships to be held on 20th September at Bishop Hedley High School, Merthyr Tydfil. Entry Forms here
Aug 22 British 2008. Tim Kett gets ‘Best Swindle Award’ for his win over David Eggleston. Read Tim’s report here. Tim has also provided quite in-depth analysis of this game.
Aug 18 Aberdare Chess Club: Venue Change. Aberdare Golf Club Wed 7:30
Aug 8 An interesting article on simuls has appeared on the Chessbase web site. Two games featured are by Nick Davies (Malpas) against Tony Miles and Zane Allford (Brynmawr) against Julian Hodgson. Games are annotated by Karsten Muller. Here.
Aug 1 Glorney/Faber Report
July 28th West Wales Open, Major and Minor Tournament. 10th-12th October. Entry Form
July 25th Anyone interested in playing in the World Senior Championships (men 60+ / women 50+ on 01.01.08) in Bad Zwischenahn, Germany from October 28th till November 8th ? There is one place with free board and lodging available for the WCU to nominate - please contact Tim Kett on 07720-412-800 to apply.
July 13th Junior 4NCL. The 4NCL has announced dates for this year’s junior 4NCL. Teams consists of 4 boards and takes place over 2 weekends (15-16/11/08 and 28/2-1/3/09), 2 games on the Saturday and 1 on the Sunday. Entry fee is £60 per team. The 4NCL will provide coaching sessions for all before each round (|GM or IM standard). We have negotiated the same room rate concessions as for the main league. Entries can be from clubs, schools, or just a group of friends. There is an age handicap system so that younger teams have good chances of beating older competitors. Check out the 4NCL web site for further information (due soon).
July 10th GM’s Miezes and Haslinger win South Wales International. Another IM norm for James ‘I’ve lost my norm certificates’ Cobb.
July 8th Wales Olympiad Team Selection
Men’s Team (in alphabetical order)
1. Jonathan Blackburn 2. Richard Jones 3. Tim Kett 4. Ioan Rees 5. Leighton Williams
Women’s Team (in alphabetical order)
1. Suzy Blackburn 2. Abigail Cast 3. Megan Owens 4. Olivia Smith 5. Julie Wilson
More info to follow soon.
July 5th Basman Northern Giga Finals: Ben Thomas wins age group with 6/6.
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July 4th I’ve added an events page for each zone so that you can advertise your local events, whether they be closed or open to all, a club event or zonal event. Just supply the following information and I’ll add them to your page: Event Name/description, Date and Start time, Venue, Contact details and whether it’s an open or closed event, entry fee and prizes if any. Email here
July 3rd July FIDE List. Welsh Players
July 2nd Cardigan win WCU KO Cup. Report
June 29th WCPL Appeal. The appeals committee have unanimously upheld Cwmbran’s appeal. Thus Cwmbran finish top with Nidum second and Cardiff third. | W | D | L | MPs | GPs | Cwmbran | 4 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 22 | Nidum | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 23½ | Cardiff | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 23½ | Wrexham | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 18 | Cardigan | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 16 | Abergavenny | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 12½ | Barry | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 9½ |
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The final table
June 27th WCU KO Cup Finals 29th June. Start time is 12:30. Please can Captains arrive at 12:00 to hand in team lists
June 25th GM Nigel Short thinks that Wales should be ‘...kicked out of FIDE forthwith’. Do you agree? Have your say
June 14th Ukraine Juniors v Welsh Juniors.Narrow defeat for Wales. Report
June 13th Your Views. Do you have anything to say about the running of chess in Wales? Do you have views on selection policy, eligibility criteria for WCU teams, WCPL issues or anything else to do with Welsh chess. Send an email in and we’ll post it on the web site. Send your comments to yourviews@welshchessunion.co.uk
June 12th WCU KO Finals Day Sunday 29th June. Briton Ferry Constitutional Club. The West Wales Chess League invite you to share the occasion with the competitors. The Open Cup final between Cardiff and Cardigan, will be displayed simultaneously in the lounge area for comment and analysis by IM Leighton Williams with demonstration boards. Further details
June 12th Olympiad 2008. New FIDE rules for the Olympiad come into play this year, some with severe penalties if broken. Ignatious Leong, Chief Arbiter of the Chess Olympiad and General Secretary of FIDE, surprised journalists at a press conference Tuesday, 03 June 2008. ”We will have considerable renewals regarding the regulations in the 2008 Olympiad in Dresden,” the man from Singapore declares.
Here’s a sample. No draws will be allowed before the 30th move, and more controversially all players have to be at their table exactly at the beginning of play to shake hands, just like in any other sports, or else they will lose the match (sic). Imagine applying this in the WCPL! The number of rounds to be played is reduced from 14 to 11. Match points are privileged over game points. Women’s teams are extended to 4 players and the number of reserve players reduced to one. June 11th British Championship Places: This year I'm delighted to say we were oversubscribed with applications for the Welsh nominees for the British Championships (the first time this has happened this century!). The outgoing International Director selected Tim Kett, David James and Lee Davis for the three available places.
European Union Individual Championships. These will also be held in Liverpool (as part of the European Capital of Culture festivities) as a 10-round Swiss from 9-18 September. They are open to any member of the WCU to play in but we have two nominations for free entry at our disposal. Please contact Tim Kett either by email or phone (029) 2061 3870.
June 6th WCU AGM: The WCU Welcomes a new President WCU Management Board and OfficialsPresident C.F.MorrisVice-President T. Llew jonesExecutive Director W.ArnoldDeputy Executive Director B.HarleFinance Director A.H.WilliamsHome Chess Director S.KettInternational Chess Director T.KettJunior Chess Director I.EustisDevelopment Director L.DavisPublicity Director M.AdamsWomens’ Chess Director J.EvansChairman of Selectors L.WilliamsGrading Officer R.TaylorFIDE Delegate D.JamesChief Arbiter P.PurlandRapid Play Rating Officer K.StaveleyOther AGM News: Both motions (see below) were defeated. T.Gutteridge is Year Book Editor. Zones encouraged to elect vice-presidents to sit on appeals committee. Olympiad selection meeting scheduled for last week in June. WKO Finals 29th June. North Wales grades to appear in WCU Rating List. Financial surplus announced. (Detailed minutes to follow).
18th May Bridgend Junior RP Report by John Thornton | 
