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Updated 5.2.08
THE RAGBAG
Random remarks and quotes and absurdities. Send your contributions to Richard Haddrell rjh@sccu.ndo.co.uk
__________________
"My spell checker suggests SCUM for SCCU."
"Drugs for Grading"
Email received 27.11.07 by ECF Grading Administrator
"Changes to ECF Regulation No 3 The Arbiters and Coaches Regulations
Current regulations allow the appointment of an unsuitable person for s/he to then be removed. This has now been changed."
ECF Council 20.10.07: minutes
"Object to Sundays... as the SCCU play in churches."
Council minutes as above
ECF website 26.10.07
"David Welch (ECF Chief Arbiter) is conducting a two-day course for female trainee arbiters."
"A Board that makes mistakes is not an exceptional circumstance."
ECF CEO, to Council 28.4.07
"Good evening. - Good afternoon."
An ECF Council rep 28.4.07, to Council on arriving 15 minutes late
16.3.07
"Entries for the 2007 County Championships are not being taken. Click here for details and to enter."
Leicestershire & Rutland CA website
13.9.06
"Montenegro is now an independent country from Serbia."
ECF website
25.7.06
"Due to spam I have had to change the email address for this tournament."
A congress organiser
17.5.06
From a tournament brochure sent by Kevin Thurlow: -
"As usually, we will attempt to offer... access to the swimming pool.
...Cash prizes will not be divided among the players that have drown."
From the Tunbridge Wells Junior 30.4.06. White has K, Q, R and B against bare K but is making no progress.
White: "Would you like a draw?"
Black: "Er... no, thanks."
White: "Oh, go on, have a draw."
Black: "Oh, all right then."
27.4.06
"Did I thank you for sending me to Luton? No, of course I didn't, you're still standing."
A rep who took someone's proxy at the ECF Council meeting, Luton 22.4.06
16.3.06
"NATIONAL COUNTY U18 TEAM TOURNAMENTS 20.5.06:
"..... Teams of 12, all of whom must be qualified to play for their County, and whose date of birth must be after 1st September 2005"
English Chess Federation (déjà vu division)
28.12.05
"Awaiting details of the competition to see whether we want to enter it."
Mushrooms CC website, Results 2005-6: National Club Rapidplay Championship page
21.12.05
"Players name[d] in blue have already reached the maximum possible score and to increase their score must replace a lower scoring event with a higher scoring event."
ECF Grand Prix: web page
28.11.05
Exmouth's Royal Beacon Seniors (sixty plus) now has a Junior section. Fifty-five plus.
18.8.05
"Penalty points awarded in ratio of board count for defaults above bottom board"
Surrey CCA. We're thinking about it.
BCF Council meeting 23.4.05
Delegate A: "On this point..."
Delegate B: [inarticulate noise suggesting "Here we go again"]
Delegate A: "Oh, shut up!"
8.4.05
"NATIONAL COUNTY U18 TEAM TOURNAMENTS 18.6.05:
"..... Teams of 12, all of whom must be qualified to play for their County, and whose date of birth must be after 1st September 2004"
British Chess Federation
"Bobby Fischer (who still languishes in a Japanese detention centre and was recently given five days solitary due to a dispute over a hard-boiled egg)"
Leonard Barden in the Guardian 12.3.05
"I propose next business, Mr Chairman. He isn't worth the space."
A BCF Director, at the October 2004 Council meeting, on a subject we won't divulge
National Club Championships 2004-5: Entry form
"The Standard Play Finals will take place at venues to be announced on 10th July 2005."
4.9.04
Organiser:
"Can X play in an U125 event? Our grader says he's graded 134, but that can't be right."
BCF:
"Of course he can. The 134 isn't a published grade, it's based on three games. Your grader wants shooting."
Organiser:
"OK, I'll follow your advice."
13.6.04
"Grading performance (658) not possible - player has a grade of 42."
BCF grading computer
27.5.04
From a County grader:
"There will be no grading of the *********** Congress 2003. The organiser lost the results."
24.4.04
"Can we vote on the first proposal and ignore the amendment?"
A BCF Council delegate
30.3.04
"Any problems, advice please do hesitate to contact me."
Controller, Counties Championships
Christian Herald, 7th February 2004 (acknowledgments RH):
"The Russian Orthodox Church has rejected a request to brand chess as the work of the devil.
"A young churchgoer had led a campaign and organised a petition claiming chess was the work of the devil. But Archbishop Wikenti from Yekaterinburg told the Itar-Tass news agency: 'Chess is a quiet, intelligent game that encourages people to think. It's not a sin.' He added that 'passionate games and arousing games that cause confusion, anger and irritation' are banned by the Church, including computer games.' He failed to say if this included chess played on a computer."
Proposed:
"That the BCF shall in future be known as the English Chess Federation"
Put to the SCCU AGM 11th June, having been previously agreed in principle by the BCF Executive. Carried 23-7 Oh, sorry. 11th June 1977.
"Bugger the Website!"
JA Speigel, August 2003, on learning that the SCCU Bulletin was being reduced to three issues a year because it was only an extract from the Website
WE WANT OUR MONEY BACK!
"Today's Coulsdon repaidplay..."
From a recent junior event:
Controller: "Are there any other questions, before we start?"
Junior: "Can I borrow a pen?"
Same event, different section:
Controller: "Are there any other questions, before we start?"
Junior: "Do you know how to play chess?"
(Most intelligent Junior question we've heard for ages)
25.3.02
"Total score 18-Jun"
From a match result, received in an Excel spreadsheet. 24 boards.
21.1.03
"Frost, Katie: Gender supplied (MALE)- thanks!"
BCF grading computer
24.12.02
"If you have a rating above 2200 (2000 for women) and have played 24 rated games you qualify for the [(FIDE) Candidate Master] title. If you wish to apply, please send a cheque for £60..."
From a BCF source
"The final will take place at a venue taking into account the competing teams’ locations on the date set."
National Club Handicap Rapidplay rules 2002-3. Well, there is a club called Nomads.
"Also, you will have the great opportunity to play chess and have summer
holidays in the sunny Crete, in a luxury five stars hotel. The prizes for the winners are too high."
From an emailed advertisement received 13.8.02
10.6.02
From a recent Megafinal (acknowledgments NB):
Junior: "As I lost my first game, will I be playing someone else who lost their first game?"
Controller: "Yes, that's the way pairings work."
Junior: "Oh cool!! I'll be playing someone from my own school!"
Controller to Junior, in Tonbridge U10 4.5.02: "Why didn't anyone hand the result of your game in?"
Junior: "But you said the winner hands it in, and we drew."
Collapse of stout Controller. It was round 4, but it was the first draw in the tournament.
"International Title Regulations of FIDE Draft 1
The objects of this revision of the regulations are to:
[ ... ]
make them briefer."
Stewart Reuben 26.4.02. It's 22 sides of A4.
A prep school teacher, in a western Zone of the BCF Schools 2001-2, gave the team's grades as 8, 8, 8, 8, 5 and 5. It was a while before the penny dropped.
"He does the work of two men, but prevents three others from doing theirs."
Said of a certain organiser at the Executive meeting 8.3.02
BCF 28.2.02:
"It was agreed to form a task force/working party on the issue of young chess players ceasing to play chess, as they got older throughout their school career."
Well, they would, wouldn't they?
1.2.02
A certain match captain is often slow with his results. One arrived this morning, and on the back it said:
"Both Counties must send the top copy of this form duly completed to the BCF Registration Records Secretary, Paul Buswell, 4 The Close, Norwich, within three days of the date of the match... The Registration Rules and the Championship Rules appear in the BCF Yearbook for 1977-78."
"U.S. Naturist Dave Woltz drove 15,000 miles in the nude last year. The 47 year old did it en route to chess tournaments in the Mid-West and is aiming for 20,000 miles in 2002"
Daily Mirror 4.1.02 (thanks, Marc)
"The Annual General Meeting of the Berkshire Chess Association will continue on Friday 2nd November..."
Berkshire Chess Association
"No serviceable parts included."
Microsoft, on the Website's new mouse.
"170999K Neatherway, Lauren Sex: F"
BCF Grading List, August 2001. Actually his name's Laurence. The computer chopped two letters off.
"Mr Tonmai is currently writing a book about chess in Mongolia and lecturing on practical landscape gardening in Great Wittering."
Essex Chronicle 22.6.01, in an article reprinted by Chessex
We get the impression (a Chessex later) that the chess club this article was about does not exist. Indeed Colin Ramage suggests that the IM's full name, given elsewhere in the article as Laer Tonmai, should be read backwards.
"When Essex played their very first competitive match back in 1898 their opponents, the North London Chess Club, played in alphabetical order."
Chessex for July/August 2001
Chorus girls in a wartime revue at Bletchley Park, from the same Chessex as the above:
We've brains and we've beauty, we work in the Park,
We work in the daytime, we work after dark.
My chief's a Professor,
My Don's over forty,
My dear old Colonel's too old to be naughty.
In Hut 6 I admit there are young men in plenty,
But their hobby is chess and they're all under twenty.
"Grading Committee: This Committee works so well it is difficult to find anything fresh to report. Its officers at all levels perform an exemplary service and Grading is now one of the 'in' words in British Chess."
Report to BCF Council, 1971
17.7.01
The SCCU President has heard from a hotel having extensive conference facilities and willing to host SCCU events and meetings. It is in Èesky Krumlov, renaissance and baroque jewel of central Europe and situated only 160 km from Prague.
"KCS v Whitgift: Draw by wrong venue."
Briant Poulter League report
From a recent junior Rapidplay:
"Yes, but I didn't mean to put it on that square. I was holding it like this, while I decided where to put it, and it slipped out of my hand."
Same tournament:
White, who is in check, plays O-O. Black: "That's illegal!" White retracts O-O, and plays O-O-O instead.
Black: "Does that count as one illegal move, or two?" Two, presumably. It didn't matter, because we weren't applying penalties for illegal moves. We'll have to in July when the rules get explicit.
"What's my average age?"
Team member, Times Schools Championship
"Throughout this short pamphlet... Beasley does succeed in keeping both his readers puzzled and amused."
ChessMoves for March/April 2001
Player amendments
These are changes to a players details, i.e. change of club, name, sex, date of birth etc.
BCF
"NB:Your grade may go down as well as up"
Scottish Chess Association
"225178R Other, AN *202"
BCF grading master list, September 2000
"Ungraded players were illegible for first prize."
A congress report, January 2001 (acknowledgments LWB)
"Arpad Elo wrote a book on the subject. It is no longer in print, but it may be possible to obtain a copy. Mine was stolen."
Stewart Reuben 22.12.00
At end of a junior competition:
Boy (approaching from behind): "Where's my money?"
Controller: "What?"
Boy: "Sorry, I thought you were my dad."
Player 1 : "What is the penalty for an illegal move?"
Player 2 : "Everyone laughs at you."
Acknowledgments (for above also) Neville B 16.12.00
"Disputes Organizer: Harry Lamb."
From the Manchester & District CA's entry in the BCF Yearbook 2001
"The game is won by the player who has checkmated his opponent's king with a legal move. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing the checkmate position was a legal move."
From the FIDE Laws, revised version taking effect 1.7.01. From our copy, anyway.
"Membership fees must be paid to the Treasurer no later than 31st December in any year."
Ilford CC Rules (source JAS via PEW 30.11.00)
"It is well known that no grading scheme gives sensible results for lighthouse keepers."
Mike Gunn 8.9.00
"I'm looking forward to the time when we get the wrong grades published twice a year instead of only once! An up-to-date wrong grade is so much more
appealing than an outdated wrong grade."
Jeff Goldberg 18.8.00
"Brain Games Network are delighted to announce that the long-awaited World Chess Championships will be held at The Riverside Studios, London in October - where undisputed World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov..."
Press release received 19.7.00
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
"David Howell maintained the trend in recent years for up-and-coming
youngsters to attract votes by finishing fourth."
- BCF press release 21.6.00
"I was expecting quite a few with nose bleeds, all these southerners coming up north."
From the BCF Council meeting in Manchester 15.4.00
RULES OF PLAY:
1. The Controller's decision is final.
2. ....
From a congress leaflet.
"Surrey qualify for the Girls Final, and Oxen for the Minor Counties." - Yearbook 2000
Children are marvellous value for oddities. Both-sides-in-check happens all the time, but have you met this variant?
UK Chess Challenge, local school. "Please sir, we've got a checkmate." So we went and looked, and it was rather a nice checkmate. A smothered one with a knight. Then it emerged that it was the other side that was claiming checkmate. Sure enough, there was a checkmate at the other end of the board as well.
Very small junior, to Arbiter at an EPSCA qualifier:
"I moved it as far as I could reach, then I had to let go of it to push it the rest of the way."
"County Matches Central Venue. Hammersmith Town Hall would be unavailable next year and the Royal Scottish Corporation wants nothing more to do with chess-players because of their untidiness and non-cooperation at clearing-up time."
- Minutes of Executive Committee, 24th March 1972
"The Meeting broke up in disorder at 17.55 while the President was searching in vain for the bottom half of the Shannon Trophy to present it, together with the top half, to Hampshire."
- Minutes of Fixtures Meeting, 23rd January 1971: draft item deleted by Council 10.7.71
"It was proposed by Mr Owen, seconded by Mr Lauder, that the Executive Committee be instructed to appoint a sub-committee to consider the admission to the Union of Chess Leagues. Carried nem con."
- Minutes of SCCU Council, 15th July 1967. A sub-committee was appointed - twice - but we cannot find that it ever reported.
"The secretary said that throughout the season he had experienced difficulty in getting [match] results from County Hon. Secs; and had in fact read of results in papers, periodicals and Bulletins long before receiving them from the Counties. This brought a suggestion that duplicated forms be issued to all County Hon. Secs; for recording County Match scores, a copy of which should be sent immediately after the match to the Union Secretary."
- Minutes of SCCU Executive Committee, 2nd June 1955. How could it take them till 1955 to think of that? But we still know how he felt sometimes.
The new Holloway Garage site has a Massages page. Nothing in it yet, but we're going back tomorrow.
"Please note that the message board has been removed due to illicit postings by a transsexuals club."
- from a chess club website. Thanks JS.
"The U100 team was plagued by poor availability and defaults, otherwise would have done much better."
- from a County newsletter
"X is a very strong player, because he drives." - a County match captain
Anyone happen to know the BCF's code for "Ukraine"?
"I form my own opinions, but I don't let that cloud my judgment."
A delegate at the BCF Council meeting, 25.9.99
New grading list has a CD with it. An informant tell us that it's in a plastic envelope stuck onto the reverse of the last page. That's not unusual, when a book has a CD with it. You lift the flap, and take the CD out. The BCF's envelope is stuck on the wrong way up, with the flap underneath so you can't open it. Not without destroying the last page of your grading list.
Another informant remarks, and the one quoted above confirms, that the list of Standard-Play events graded ends with two events that haven't happened yet. One of them (31st September 1999) probably never will.
"In another match the two players concerned accused one another of making two consecutive moves. To compound the matter there was mention of a pawn falling on the floor and not being immediately replaced. The parties ultimately agreed a draw though there was a 'winner' on the evening."
From Sussex Chess 1999. Can you think of a plausible way this might have happened?
Why does Paul Watson (same source) call your Webmaster's commentary "occasionally clairvoyant"?
Never noticed, till it appeared on a website. The Surrey CCA have a Rules & Ethics Committee.
Hastings is a chess club with a strong sense of tradition. They have just submitted their games for grading from 1899.
"Mr Lomax is, of course, unique among congress organisers (he is the only one whose car has been in collision with a steamroller)."
Chess, June 18th 1960. JN Fishlock-Lomax was SCCU Tournament Controller from 1954 to 1965 (and President 1957-58).
An SCCU Trophy was missing, after the AGM at the Marquis of Clanricarde on the 3rd July 1999. It was at the meeting and was not presented, but two days afterwards it suddenly dawned on someone that we hadn't got it. Two senior SCCU officials had had a good look round at the end of the meeting, especially on the bar where the Trophies had been, and there was no way we were leaving anything lying around.
Ten days later an SCCU Person was in the pub, for reasons of his own. SCCU Person: "We didn't leave a Trophy behind at the end of the meeting, did we?"
Landlord: "You did, you know. Here it is. I found it on the bar upstairs, in the room you were using, between a couple of beer pumps."
Pause.
"It does look a bit like a beer pump, doesn't it?"
"If someone would like to propose me I'd very much like to go." - An SCCU volunteer for the BCF Council.
"The BCF Office has recently sent me more than 1,000 e mail reminders in the space of 72 hours." - John Philpott
"All chess information is interesting for me, tournaments, chess classes... things about new rules, things or curses about arbiters, trainers, etc." - an enquiry from Spain.
Maidstone Megafinal. A Controller became aware that White, in a very junior game, was playing a lot of checks. On approaching, he observed that there were five queens on the board, including two upturned white rooks and one upturned black one. Just as he got there, White played another check, using a black queen. Black, seemingly unperturbed, got out of check from his own queen.
Intervention of puzzled Controller. "Oh, no," White said. "That's a white queen. I ran out of white rooks to turn over, so I used a black one."
It would spoil this story if we told you the game ended with Black giving stalemate.
"GRADINGS WHAT ÃձʧÍÕÝðÃåÀ§Ó GRADINGS
At the start of the year, we were promised that a gradings list would appear in January/February. I was looking forward to this, having 2 chances a year to gloat at my increasing grade, in spite of the efforts of the League Secretary to keep it down. Now I hear that the list will only be circulated to graders, and not made public. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! THE PUBLIC SHOULD BE INFORMED OF THEIR GRADING. The official reason is that the software is late. What a load of hollyhocks!!!!
The BCF is also pleading poverty. I have a suggestion for the powers that be. Let us send our results in, with our own estimated grading. We do this for the income tax now, so why not the gradings? If we have made a mistake, then let us pay £5 for an extra 5 points, £10 for an extra 10 etc. Just think, £200 gets you a GM rating, England will have 300 GMs and the BCF is better off by 60 grand.
Uncle Harry"
From a (non-SCCU) county magazine
"The number of different [chess] games of 40 moves or less... is rather larger than the estimated number of electrons in the universe, a mere 1079."
Kevin O'Connell (1997) at http://www.dungeon.com/~chess/education.htm: Sport & Education: transferability of skills, an in-depth examination of chess.
My browser's not the culprit, the source html says 1079. It also gives a very funny figure for the actual (estimated) number of games. Seriously, this is a useful round-up of studies on the educational value of chess. It is the handiest ammunition so far to have come out of those Chess-as-a-Sport emails. (If you didn't know, a campaign's afoot to gather hard facts supporting the cause. Keep you posted as more emerges.)
Later note. It says 1079 now. I'm a lousy typist as well.
"After noting that many Federations were in the habit of not following up on their promises to organise FIDE events, the [FIDE Presidential] Board [13-14 March 1999] directed the FIDE Secretariat to strictly enforce the requirement that all bids for the organisation of FIDE events must be accompanied by deposit fees or financial guarantees, which will be forfeited once the concerned Federation fails to organise the event."
From a report in Chess Express (Malcolm Pein: email London Chess Centre)
So how about financial guarantees when it's FIDE that pulls out?
"Refreshments by all play all will be on sale." - A congress leaflet. This can't mean "next to the APA section", because there isn't one.
"The agreement and derision reached on the day must stand." - David Sedgwick, BCF Senior Arbiter (OCR version)
Got an email the other day from Cyril Johnson's cat. "A feline walked across the keyboard..."
"Standard Play grades were used in the tournament."
A recent Rapidplay event. Why?
"The Pint-a-Point tournament is an unusual tournament where for each game you win you receive a pint of your chosen beverage, on condition that you drink it before the next game."
Website of Cambridge University CC
[Note 11.2.02. That's a link to the University Club's old address. The current one is in the Links page, but we don't promise the pint-a-point story is still there.]
"The hon. treasurer's statement showed a balance of over £8."
SCCU AGM, 1st July 1905. Beat that, Tony!
"One game split over two games (contains an illegal move!)" - 4NCL PGN downloads.
Speaking of illegal moves... (rjh comment)
I spent some time during a recent club match wondering why I was a rook down. The offending piece came to light sitting neatly upright among the captured (opponent's) pieces in the vicinity of a1, which was the square it ought to have been on. No doubt I had brushed it off the board at some point and, either then or later, absent-mindedly picked it up and placed it where it looked tidy. General mirth, and we put it back on a1. Thought afterwards, since I had a poor position even after the restoration of my rook, that I should have insisted on going back to the position where it was illegally displaced. Neither of us would have had the foggiest idea when that was, so we'd have had to start the game again. The offside rook had not interfered with the play, and we knew perfectly well where it was supposed to be, but I'd have had Rule 7.4 on my side.
"In 1998 there were attempts, mostly well-intentioned I think, to persuade GMCCA to leave the Midlands and affiliate to the Northern Counties Chess Union. Connected with this were moves to resolve the long-standing boundary dispute between GMCCA and Lancashire. Unfortunately, these moves served to re-open old wounds rather than to promote healing. In the event, the idea was decisively rejected at the AGM.
"The congress scene is fairly flat or in decline. The club scene, with some notable exceptions, is looking moribund. I am frankly amazed that county matches still exist in their present form and wonder for how much longer. The local junior scene has patches of brightness but it is becoming harder and harder for us to compete with the better-resourced South-East, and we could do with some serious attempts to find sponsorship to promote local junior chess activities."
Phil Adams phil@adamsfam.demon.co.uk in Checkpoint, newsletter of the GMCCA (Autumn-Winter 1998)
From SCCU Bulletin, November 1976:
"The counties whose teams compete in the Chiltern Competition have accepted a Handicap method of scoring in their team matches, which are played over 20 boards..."
Mean grades are calculated, ignoring players who lose (or win) by default. Match captains' estimates are used where necessary. Then "At the tea-break, or before half-way through the match, the match captains shall calculate and agree the number of points which each team has to score for the match to be drawn. This should then be announced to the teams. This agreed score shall then be deemed to be the score for the match to be drawn, notwithstanding any errors in the calculations which may subsequently come to light."
|
Grading |
To draw, stronger |
|
difference |
team needs
|
|
0 - 1.25 |
10 |
1.25 - 3.75 |
10½ |
3.75 - 6.25 |
11 |
6.25 - 8.75 |
11½ |
8.75 - 11.25 |
12 |
ascending by 2.50 stages until
etc
Yes, it does say "etc". The Editor, JJ Lauder, observes that a team outgrading its opponents by 48.75 points will need to score 20-0 to draw. (When you get to 51.25 they might as well stay at home.) Match captains may also have found it inconvenient that all the grading-boundaries lie in two different camps. Don't know how many seasons they kept this up.
Heard at a junior event:
"I couldn't remember how to checkmate with a queen, so I pretended it was a rook and mated him that way."
"The home team won in seven of the nine matches in round 1. I am convinced there is a conspiracy to make the pairing difficult for me." - John Leake, National Club U175 Controller 1998-9.
There was a Nat Club controller once, name rhymed with Leake, who avoided this problem by doing the entire draw before they started. Venues included. If your team was at the top of the list it was home in every match, and if it was at the bottom it was away in every match. Come to think of it, don't they still use this method in the national stage of the Counties Championship?
Recent congress:
"There was an U18 event, but there were no entries."
The same congress had an U14 section run as a six-round Swiss with five players. That beats Whitstable's eight-player six-rounder. They don't say how they overcame the technical difficulties.
Later: it wasn't true. See "On juniors" in Open Forum.
"Thanks to.... for the loan of a lorry and Driver on Thursday & Sunday." - Mega Mela tournament organisers, November 1998
Heard at a London club recently:
"I'd have offered him a draw only he might have accepted."
Thanks IDH, and we won't mention the one about chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.
BCF Counties Championship rules, item 7.1 -
Except in the Final of each Championship, when a central venue may will be nominated by the Director of Home Chess and agreed upon by the Management Board, matches shall be arranged by the Counties concerned.
Misprint for "may well", obviously.
If you want to know what it’s really supposed to say, you could try asking Cyril Johnson. He has recently revised the rules. To save you the bother we’ve asked him, and it’s "will". Can't say whether this has priority over the version circulated by accident.
Later note: Cyril has removed this typing mistake, and possibly one or two others, for the website's Rules Section. Our version is his official one, and more up to date than the one you got in September/October.
Spot the error
Grading Conversion Table
BCF x 8 + 600 = Elo
Elo - 600 ¸
8 = BCF
BCF Diary 1999
SEX
Thought that would grab your attention. Neil Clifton, in the October 1998 Newsletter of the Surrey Girls Chess League, says: "I am trying to get the BCF to agree to gender-discrimination in the [grading] list, for example by using '14F' in the age column rather than just '14'."
Gender's a grammatical term and it has nothing to do with sex, but clearly he means sex. This Website goes ape if you say gender when you mean sex. (Which is, of course, a sure sign that gender does now mean sex.) Having prised itself off the ceiling the Website is not sure it agrees with him anyway.
Since we're on the subject, have you ever wondered about those 4NCL people?
"In each match a team must comprise eight players including one male and one female player." - 4NCL Rules, with effect from 1st December 1998
Oh dear. Just got the BCF's instructions on grading submissions, and there's a GENDER field.
Neil has made his point in ChessMoves as well. Anyone running a book on when ChessMoves will have some news on its front page? [Cancel that. Dec/Jan issue has.]
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