The Gazette
February 2018
Registered Charity Number 263049
Supporting Chess Players with Sight Loss
BCA Website Address:
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To contact a member of the committee, please see the Braille Chess Association’s website where there is a facility for emailing each officer.
Note:The views expressed in the Gazette do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of the BCA, nor those of the editor.
CONTENTS
Editorial
Forthcoming Events
Never been to the Netherlands?
All Under One Roof
Words from the Whitehouse
Should We Change Our Name? Probably not!
Anyone for Coaching?
Labelling Digital Chess Clocks
Membership Secretary’s Report
Annual Best Game Prize
Correspondence Chess Director’s Report
7th BCA Email Tournament
BCA Autumn Tournament Weekend 2017
Reflections after Solihull
Report on Belgian Open Championship 2017
Hugo’s Game
Echoes of an Olympiad
Chris’s Puzzle
Millennium Club
Personalia
R.I.P. Milenko Cabarkapa
Editorial
Regular readers of the gazette will know that for the first issue of each year I like to take editorial inspiration from the Chinese zodiac and this year is no exception. The Chinese Year of the Dog will start on the 16th February. We know our canine companions as “Man’s Best Friend”, so it’s no surprise to learn that in Chinese culture people born in the Year of the Dog are considered to be honest, faithful and sincere. They enjoy helping people and give generously when in a relationship.
Many BCA members experience the aforementioned qualities every day in their partnership with their guide dog. These amazing animals exhibit an incrediblesense of duty and loyalty. Many centuries ago, whoever coined the phrase “Let sleeping dogs lie” can hardly have foreseen the scenario where a guide dog dozes for hours under a chess table while their owner plays a game, yet it is a common occurrence at BCA gatherings and one which never fails to impress me. Such patience and devotion is truly remarkable. Guide dogs are of course most welcome at BCA events and we hope that many will be in attendance at the tournaments advertised in Forthcoming Events. Please note that due to circumstances beyond our control, the Jan Lovell Memorial Chairman’s Cup will now take place one day earlier and at a different Bournemouth venue.
In these pages, Voldi encourages members to take up the offer of coaching. This isn’t just for the juniors! It’s never too late to teach an old chess dog some new tactics! And if your play improves, you might have a game to enter into the Annual Best Game competition! Details of how to do so are in this issue. Why not give it a go? After all, every dog must have his day and yours could be in 2018!
Overall, this issue has a distinctly retrospective air to it. There is a charming article in which a member reminisces about the way chess was played in the 1950s, while at the same time emphasising the importance of thinking ahead. You can also find out why two BCA newshounds set off early one snowy morn and journeyed to Weymouth where, with dogged determination, they sifted through some fifty year old archives of the Dorset Echo! Was there a worthwhile purpose to their trip or are they just barking mad?
It was lovely that several members sent items for this issue without having been asked. If I had a tail to express my happiness it would definitely be wagging! I’m always glad to receive full articles or simple news snippets from members. Please send me your contributions for the May issue by the end of March.
Julie Leonard
Forthcoming Events
16th to 18th March 2018: AGM Weekend Chess Congress
This will take place at The Hallmark Hotel, Derby. The AGM will be held at 2pm on Saturday 17th March. We are pleased to be returning to this popular hotel with its excellent facilities. The hotel is very conveniently located within a few yards walk of Derby railway station.
There will be two five round chess tournaments. The Open section is open to all visually impaired chess players and associate members of the BCA. The Challengers is limited to those graded 100 or below. The entry fee for both tournaments is £10. The cost of dinner, bed and breakfast for members and associate members is £40 per person per night for Friday and Saturday nights in a single room, and £36 per person per night in a double/twin room. For non members and those staying on the Sunday night, the cost will be £58 per person in a single room and £51 per person in a double/twin. The closing date for entries was 26thJanuary, but if you contact the organiser quickly there might still be spaces available. Please, let our secretary know if you are planning to attend the AGM without staying at the hotel so that we can let you have the AGM papers.
Organiser Steve Burnell
15th to 22ndJune 2018: Jan Lovell Memorial Chairman’s Cup, Marsham Court Hotel, Bournemouth
Please note the change of date and venue! This is due to circumstances beyond our control.
The Chairman's Cup is open to all visually impaired players whose grade or estimated grade is 140 or belowin either the July 2017 or January 2018 grading listsand to BCA associate members within the same grading limit. The event is played over 7 rounds with one round each day. Players may request a half point bye in any one of the first six rounds. If there are sufficient numbers there will be two sections. Entry fee: £10. Cost of dinner, bed and breakfast accommodation to members and associate members of BCA: £270 for the week. The cost to those booking for less than the full week will be £45 per day for members and associate members. The cost to non-members of BCA: £357 for the week or £57 per day. The closing date for bookings is 30thApril 2018. Bookings accepted after that date, at the discretion of the organiser, will be subject to a late booking fee of £10 per person. Bookings, including full payment, should be sent to: Mrs Gill Smith (see list of BCA Officers for contact details). Please note: Rooms will not be reserved until full payment has been received.
The Marsham Court appears very friendly and comfortable. We also have use of a heated pool. The parking and green areas are also very good. In addition to the chess tournament there will be a varied programme of social activities. Anyone with ideas for social events, or who wants further information is invited to contact the organisers: John and Pam Jenkins
A message from John Jenkins: I think the format of the 2016 Chairman's Cup went down fairly well with most attendees. There was one game played every morning at 10.00am except the first night when the chess started at 7.30pm. Entertainment included a simultaneous display, barber shop singers, a quiz, jazz in the bar, a murder mystery, and a final night concert. I can arrange trips out to suit individuals. The Lighthouse is functioning again, offering music and various exhibitions etc. Please give me feedback for possible improvements.
I have contacted Yvonne Brooks of Action for Blind People at Salisbury, and hope to set a session of one to one tutorials for tech equipment like smart phones, tablets and daisy readers etc., like Philip in the Windermere Manor (not chess programs). I would like suggestions for the kind of equipment to be discussed and who would be interested.
Booking Conditions and Procedures
If you have any queries about the hotel or the tournament please contact the organiser.
Blind and partially sighted UK residents under the age of 25 receive free entry and free accommodation when playing in BCA events. In appropriate circumstances, free accommodation is also available to a parent or guardian accompanying a junior.
Visually impaired UK residents in their first year of membership receive their first BCA weekend event free or £100 reduction in the cost of a week-long event. They may also be accompanied by a guide or companion who will receive the same concession.
For a first event we ask for payment in advance and we then make a refund at the event.
You may pay in these ways:
Cheques payable to Braille Chess Association should be sent to Gill Smith. Online or telephone payments may be made to:
Braille Chess Association, sort code 40 52 40, account number 00082456.
Credit/debit card payments may be made through the BCA website.
If you pay by direct payment then you should inform Gill when the payment has been made.
Bookings accepted after the closing date are subject to a £10 late booking penalty for each person. Late bookings and entries are accepted at the discretion of the organiser. Bookings are confirmed when full payment has been received. Payments can only be refunded within the time limit set in the terms and conditions set by the hotels.
Members are advised to take out holiday insurance to cover themselves.
When contacting Gill please let her know if you want a single, double or twin room and if you have a preference for a bath or a shower. And remember, if emailing Gill, copy in the tournament organiser.
Also say whether any of the following apply.
1 If you will be bringing a guide dog;
2 If you are on a special diet;
3 If you have mobility problems and would benefit from being located in a room near to a lift;
4 If you are a wheelchair user;
5 If you feel you would have any special difficulties in an emergency such as a fire evacuation;
6 Any other special requirements.
By entering a BCA tournament a player is deemed to have consented for their forename, surname, club, results and possibly also their gender to be sent to the ECF for grading purposes. For juniors, the date of birth is also required if they are to get the age-related grading bonus they are entitled to.
Please note: BCA reserves the right to refuse or cancel any entry or to exclude any person from any event it runs.
Never been to the Netherlands?
Whether you’ve never been to the Netherlands before or you have been and you loved it, there are two chances to play chess there this spring. But you’ll have to move quickly!
The 13th Open Chess Championship (O.N.K.) of the Dutch Chess Association for Visually Disabled (N.S.V.G.) will take place from Thursday February 8th to Sunday February 11th 2018in the Hotel De Hoevein the village of Nunspeet, the Netherlands. It is a six round Swiss tournament and there will be two or three groups, depending on the number of players. The rounds will be played on Thursday evening, Friday morning and afternoon, Saturday morning and afternoon and Sunday morning. Anyone interested in taking part should contact the organiser, Sergio Harnandan, immediately.
The annual Haaksbergen tournament takes place in the Netherlands from 13th to 15th April 2018. The committee has decided to subsidise this trip again to the tune of £75 per participant. If you’d like to go this really is your last chance to register! Please refer back to your November 2017 gazette for further details. Don’t delay! Contact Guy today! (Our secretary’s contact details are on our website.)
All Under One Roof
Members can claim support for attending any of these congresses from the Congress Support Scheme. You just have to flag up with the Congress Support Officer, Mark Kirkham, that you intend to participate, and assuming you have not exceeded the amount you are entitled to claim in a year and that you send in a small report on the tournament afterwards you could probably offset the vast bulk of costs incurred by playing in an event. If you do choose to claim for attending one of these tournaments, or indeed for playing at any other tournament covered by the scheme, please follow the guidelines and send the Congress Support Officer, Mark Kirkham, travel receipts and the required report.
This list should not be treated as definitive and is only as complete as I can make it whilst complying with gazette deadlines. The following events take place in hotels so the accommodation and tournament itself are at the same venue.
Castle Chess
These are organised by the Castle Chess directors, Tony and Barbara Corfe and Mark Shaw. The website gives the email address . Castle Chess are well used to having visually impaired participants in their events. I have also found that other participants in Castle Chess events have got to know and befriended BCA players.
Please note that unless otherwise stated, all Castle Chess congresses are now six-round Swiss events and you are allowed to take a half-point bye in any two of the first five rounds. The grading bands are an U195 Championship which also has an U175 Premier section, the Major for those under 155 with an Intermediate section for U135s, and a Minor section for those with a grade less than 115 with a Challengers section for U95s.
16th– 18thMarch 2018, 10thHereford Congress
As usual this will be held at the Green Dragon Hotel on Broad Street, Hereford.
11th– 13thMay 2018, 4thHarrogate Congress
Castle Chess have been looking to get tournaments going in the north and for this event they are returning to the Old Swan Hotel, a venue which has become familiar to participants in BCA events.
e2e4 events Website:
I can find no e2e4 events for the period covered by this gazette.
Other Events
16th – 18th February 2018, 47th Dyfed Chess Congress, Fishguard Bay Hotel, Quay Rd, Goodwick
Five round Swiss with a FIDE Rated Open and a Major for U121 ECF. All moves in 1½ hours with 30 second increments added after each move. Website:
23rd – 25th February 2017, 25thBunratty Chess Festival, Bunratty Castle Hotel, Bunratty, Ireland
Nigel Short described this as the Rolls Royce of weekenders. There are four sections: Masters over ELO 2000, Challengers ELO 1600 to 1999, Major ELO 1200 to 1599 & Minor under ELO 1200. Email for details.
9th – 11th March 2018, 42nd Blackpool Chess Conference, Imperial Hotel, North Promenade, Blackpool.
There are five sections: an Open, a Major (u-181), an Intermediate (u-155), a Minor (u-135) and a Standard (u-115). The rate of play is all moves in 110 minutes with a ten second increment for each move. No telephone number seems to be given on the entry form, so email enquiries to .
31st March – 7th April 2018, 4th Polar Capital Jersey International, Hotel Ambassadeur,St.ClementBay
There is an Open, a Holiday tournament for those under ECF 160 and a Minor for those under ECF 65. The USB Jersey Open Blitz tournament is on the 4th of April in the same venue. All four events are nine round Swisses. Contact: Paul Wojciechowski.
13th – 15th April 2018, 18th 4NCL FIDE rated Congress, Holiday Inn, Doncaster.
This is a five-round Swiss. The sections are a FIDE Open, FIDE U-2000 (ECF U-175), and an ECF U-135. Contact Mike Truran.
Guy Whitehouse.
Words from the Whitehouse
The committee held a meeting on 11th November and here is my usual brief summary of discussions.
We all enjoyed looking at the trophy Julie had received when the ECF named the Gazette as their magazine of the year; the trophy did look rather splendid it must be said!
We looked at feedback to our request for views on the possibility of changing the association’s name. Opinion was split fairly evenly, although there was no unanimity amongst those who did favour a name change as to what we should change the name to. This led us to suspect that if we did go for a name change, we risked annoying more or less everyone! Please see the separate article by our Chairman for further thoughts on this subject. For now, we’re going to change the website to emphasise “BCA” rather than Braille Chess Association and take every opportunity to make it clear that people do not have to be braillists to join us.
It looks as if we are going to be sending a team to the World Cup. This is scheduled to take place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 20th to 31st July. We’re also looking to enter a team in the Six Nations which will be held in Ermelo, the Netherlands from 1st to 5th March. Throw in Haaksbergen, and I’m sure you’ll appreciate we have a busy international programme next year.
We’ve decided to try a slightly different approach to publicising our tournaments. Instead of sending articles to local newspapers, which, at the moment, seem to be ignored, we’re going to let local chess clubs in the area know. Obviously if someone such as the local Mayor happens to visit a tournament of ours we’ll contact the local press, but for now we want to experiment with this new approach to see if it leads to different results. In the meantime I should also point out that Gill has new publicity leaflets for anyone who feels they can make use of them.