Controller’s Notices

This page includes formal Notices of the Controller affecting the 2024 competition.

Controller: Ian Hunnable, ko@essexchess.org.uk

COMPETITION UPDATE 5 – 24 JULY 2024

Plate Competition

Match N:          Wanstead C 7-3 Brentwood B

As given in Competition Update 4 below, the venue for…

the Plate Semi-Final

Match R, will be –        Witham & Maldon at Home to Wanstead C.

If the date is not already agreed, the formal notification date of this result for the purposed of Rule 11 is Thu 25 July. Witham & Maldon to offer choice of two dates to Wanstead C by midnight Sat 27 July, Wanstead C to respond by Tue 30 July 2024, or three days after receipt of dates offer, whichever is the earlier.

Match to be played by 30 August 2024.

The other Semi-Final…

Match S:           Loughton v Chelmsford B will be played on 21 August 2024.

COMPETITION UPDATE 4: 17 July 2024

Cup Competition (Sims Cup)

The last of the Cup quarter Finals resulted in a win for BASILDON on Board Count over WANSTEAD B.

Match G:          WANSTEAD B 5-5 BASILDON* tie-break: BASILDON win on Board Count.

Semi-Final, Match L, will be:

BASILDON at Home to CHELMSFORD A

The formal notification date for this pairing for the purposes of Rule 11 is Thu 18 July 2024. BASILDON need to offer two dates by midnight Sat 20 July 2024 and CHELMSFORD A must respond by midnight Tue 23 July 2024, or no later than three days after the date of the offer, whichever is the earlier. Match to be played by 30 August 2024.

In the Plate Competition

The only contested fixture in Plate Round 1 is Match N: Wanstead C v Brentwood B, playing 23 July 2024. The winners play Witham & Maldon in Match R.

Match R venue:

If Wanstead C win Match N, they will be Away to Witham & Maldon;

if Brentwood B win Match N, they will be at Home to Witham & Maldon.

Summary

Match R will be, either

Witham & Maldon v Wanstead C

OR

Brentwood B v Witham & Maldon.

Match S, the other Semi-Final, is

Loughton v Chelmsford B

…which is in the date agreement stage.

COMPETITION UPDATE 3: 7 July 2024

Venues for the last pairing in the Knockout and Plate Semi-Final pairings.

The last R1 fixture is:

Match D: BARKING v Loughton, playing 11 June.

Both teams will have a Bye at the next stage, whether in the Knockout (winning team) or the Plate (losing team). By simple rotation of venue, Barking would be due for an Away fixture, Loughton would be due for a Home fixture.

For Controller’s Principles for deciding venues, see the previous article below.

Venues for the second semi-final

In the Knockout, the winning team of Match D, BARKING v Loughton, will play WANSTEAD A in the Semi-Final:

•         If BARKING win they have the R2 Bye, so both BARKING and WANSTEAD A will have played the same number of matches, so simple rotation gives WANSTEAD A at Home to BARKING.

•         If Loughton win, they will get the R2 Bye and, likewise the Semi-Final pairing will be WANSTEAD A at Home to Loughton, but for the other reason: though both teams would then be due for Home and likewise having played the same number of matches, the higher ranked team gets its correct rotation (following the principle from individual Swiss pairing for deciding White/Black). So WANSTEAD A being a seeded team will have Home venue.

In the Plate, the losing team has a Bye to the SF where they meet Chelmsford B, who had also had a Bye to the SF.

Chelmsford B were at Home in R1 so their natural ration would be Away in the Plate SF.

BARKING and Loughton are each higher ranked than Chelmsford B (see ii b in Principles above).

  • If BARKING lose, they will have their correct rotation as the stronger team, so the pairing will be Chelmsford B at Home to BARKING
  • If Loughton lose, they will have their correct rotation as the stronger team, so the pairing will be Loughton at Home to Chelmsford B

Summary (without the above reasoning)

Result of Match D: BARKING win:

Knockout Semi-Final, Match M: WANSTEAD A at Home to BARKING
Plate Semi-Final, Match S: Loughton at Home to Chelmsford B

Result of Match D: Loughton win:

Knockout Semi-Final, Match M: WANSTEAD A at Home to Loughton
Plate Semi-Final, Match S: Chelmsford B at Home to BARKING

Principles for deciding venue:

  1. simple rotation Home/Away
  2. if i) does not work, i.e. both teams are due for the same venue by Home/Away rotation:
    • a) if one team has played more matches (i.e. the other team had a Bye) the team which has played more matches will have its correct rotation, unless this would create HHH or AAA for either team, in which case the reverse venue is indicated;
    • b) if both teams have played the same number of matches then the higher ranked team (Controller’s ranking 1) will have its correct rotation, unless this would create HHH or AAA for either team, in which case the reverse venue is indicated.
    • c) If the venue is not indicated by the above principles, venue will be decided by Controller establishing a further principle.

1 Under ii b) above I take the May 2024 Rapid ratings of the top five players registered by each team (provided these ratings are A or K category, otherwise I take the player’s standard A or K rating). The respective average ratings give the ranking. Seeds are always ranked above non-seeded teams.

COMPETITION UPDATE 2: 28 June 2024

There has been one match since the last Update:

Cup competition (Sims Cup)

Round 1

Match B:           BASILDON        7-3        Wanstead C

Remaining R1 Fixture:

Match D            –       11 Jul 2024      BARKING     v     Loughton
(Date approved by Controller [both teams get a Bye in the next round])

The result of Match B creates the following two pairings (the team on the left of each pairing is at Home):

Round 2

Match G:            WANSTEAD B     v        BASILDON

Plate Competition

Plate Round 1

Match N:         Wanstead C      v           Brentwood B

Matches to be played by Friday 2 August 2024.

Formal date of this notification (Rule 11) is Saturday 29 June 2024.

Reminder to Brentwood B: in addition to the originally declared barred list for BRENTWOOD A, Andrew Willoughby, who played for BRENTWOOD A on 17 June, is now cup-tied to BRENTWOOD A and is no longer eligible to play for Brentwood B in the competition.

COMPETITION UPDATE 1: 21 June 2024

Three matches have been played to date in a busy week 1 (see below or follow the links). These give rise to one Round 2 pairing.

Results to date:

Round 1

Match F             –              17 Jun 2024    Chelmsford B  1½-8½  BRENTWOOD A
Match A            –              18 Jun 2024    Brentwood B   1½-8½  WANSTEAD B
Match C            –              19 Jun 2024    CHELMSFORD A  6½-3½  Witham & Maldon

Remaining fixtures

Match B            –              27 Jun 2024    BASILDON        v              Wanstead C
Match D            –              11 Jul 2024      BARKING           v              Loughton
(Date approved by Controller [both teams get a Bye in the next round])

Round 2

Match K:           BRENTWOOD A are at Home to WANSTEAD A

The formal notification date for this pairing (Rule 11) is Saturday 22 June 2024. So BRENTWOOD A to offer two dates by midnight Mon 24 June, WANSEAD A to respond by midnight Thu 27 June 2024. Please notify me of the date arranged, or let me know immediately if any difficulty in arranging a date.

This Update has been ciruclated by email to all competing teams.

Barred Players

The following table lists the players for Clubs who have entered more than one team who are barred from playing for a lower team or teams than that for which they are listed.

All other players registered by each Club are shown in the player lists for each Club on the ECFR LMS: https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/league_comp/218388/efixtures

Club/PlayersPlayer’s Rating Reference
BRENTWOOD A 
Richard G Pert129722D
David L Haydon253579J
Karl Bowden107051E
Stanley Badacsonyi319799C
Nina P Pert298992L
Max P Pert299356K
Trevor D Coote108863E
Gavin James Hughes139436J
Ronald F Adams185837D
  
CHELMSFORD A 
Russell White121515C
Elliot Cocks289729F
Jens Mueller315071K
Edgar Wilson320623D
Ivan Myall116029B
  
WANSTEAD A 
Sygulski, Artur294022L
Hodgson, John H112796C
Cawdery, John341787G
Spearman, David144163C
Mulay, Partha287029A
  
WANSTEAD B 
Rix, Steve J117989F
Freeman, Ashley331567J
Hunnable, Ian D113229F
Whitton, Terry D121577C
Bancroft, Paul299737L
Knockout Rule 9: No player may play for more than one team in the Competition during the season (“the competition” means KO and Plate).

Decision 9 June 2024

Controller’s decision: the team name of Witham is changed to Witham & Maldon with immediate effect.

Date of decision: 9 June 2024

Reason: One of the registered players in Witham’s team list, Paul Williamson, does not fully fit the definition of “bona fide member” of Witham CC as defined in the Rules. In the interests of including Paul in the Witham team, on enquiry there is a cogent reason to widen the team name to include Maldon CC members.

Detail: Paul Williamson is a member of Witham Chess Club and engages in their internal competitions. Paul plays his Essex League chess for Writtle and in the North Essex League for Maldon.

Background: There is, however, a close tie between Witham CC and Maldon CC:

  • Since losing members during covid, Maldon CC has now only three members, Tom Winter, Dave Pearse and Paul Williamson;
  • The Maldon club might by now have folded, but Tom Winter was keen to keep the club going and to recruit new members. In the North Essex League an arrangement was agreed for a year for the Maldon team to be augmented by the inclusion of Witham CC members as necessary;
  • In addition, the three Maldon members have become Witham members;
  • Tom Winter and Dave Pearse have played for Witham in the Essex League this season 2023-24, so there is no problem with their inclusion in team Witham;
  • Maldon CC does not have its own premises and play at the premises of Witham CC;
  • In the interests of being able to include a player for playing chess rather than exclude, the widening of the team name to Witham & Maldon resolves the issue;
  • This suggestion came out of consultation with the LMC and is accepted by Witham.

Note: This is ONLY a change of team name in the Essex Summer Rapid Knockout 2024. Maldon CC remains an independent club as does Witham CC. There is no club by the name of Witham & Maldon, it is only the name of a joint team in EKO24.

The Essex Summer Rapid Knockout is an ALL-ESSEX competition, not solely an Essex League competition.

Witham & Maldon registered players: Visit https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/league_comp/218388/efixtures click on the Result of the fixture Chelmsford A v Witham & Maldon and then click on the Away Players tab.

Link: Essex Knockout Rules