Welsh Chess Union (Undeb Gwyddbwyll Cymru)

Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC)

Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC), which as I’m sure you know delivers chess to schools mainly in inner cities, has launched a campaign to get 1 million children playing chess online during lockdown. While schools are closed, both schools and parents would appreciate an activity for children that keeps them entertained constructively and imparts some learning objectives.

Malcolm Pein, CEO of CSC, has convinced the best and most secure chess website for kids, ChessKid.com, to donate 1 million memberships (value £25 million) to the cause. CSC are offering these free memberships, valid for three months, to every child of primary school age in the UK via their schools or parents. The memberships include access to videos, lessons and puzzles. Children can play others from all over the world once they’ve learnt the rules.

See: https://www.chessinschools.co.uk/chesskid-for-parent and https://www.chessinschools.co.uk/chesskid-for-schools.

You can see a 1-minute video about ChessKid here: https://youtu.be/yxRUm–xlkw, and you can read the English Chess Federation’s website post about the campaign here: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/chess-in-schools-launch-exciting-campaign/.

Please not only share the details of this wonderful initiative with your junior players, but also spread the word to as many teachers, head teachers from any UK school, parents, chess coaches and chess clubs as you can?

UKCC Online Chess Challenge

Last week we setup the official UKCC Online Chess Club https://www.delanceyukschoolschesschallenge.com/online-chess-club-2020/ This is free for all players and we are running daily events plus multiple events at the weekend. If this doesn’t clash with anything you are doing we’d love it if you could direct any chess playing children this way. If you’d like to get involved by playing in the tournaments or some other way please let us know. For example we could setup an online simul giving a chance for local juniors to play against a titled player with some live commentary.

We are streaming some of the tournaments and offering some free daily lessons on our twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/chessstarsacademy/

The next online event is tonight at 6pm on lichess.org. It’s a 10 minute blitz arena (90 minutes duration) https://lichess.org/tournament/1ctiO50g

Alex Longson

P.S. We are running some interactive lessons in the summer as an alternative to the chess clubs we would normally run. We’ve got some interesting learnings from using zoom and lichess. If you were thinking of doing something similar and wanted a bit of advice or help getting setup we’d be more than happy to help out if we can.

First Rank Edition 34

This can be viewed here.

Postponement of Meetings

In the light of the ongoing restrictions caused by the Covid-19 crisis, the Annual General Meeting for 2020, originally set for 17 May, has been postponed. When rearranged, suitable advance notice will be given in accordance with the terms of the WCU Constitution.

Similarly, the Management Board meeting scheduled for 15 April is also postponed until further notice.

Paul Scott

Deputy Executive Director

5 April 2020

ECU E-Magazine March 2020

This can be viewed here.

Chess Activities Online

Advice for Parents about online chess for their children

If parents are interested in allowing their children to play chess online there are lots of sites available, many of which are free to use. However there are a number of features of which they should be aware with regard to Safeguarding. Some of the sites offer games against a chess computer or engine; others offer games against other players. If opting for the latter then make sure you supervise your child when they are online to ensure there is no inappropriate “chat” or choose a site that does not allow “chat”. One such website is ChessKid.com plenty of videos and puzzles plus games against the chess engine and against other players, but no “chat” facility. The only communication a player can have with their opponent is to click on a selection of icons that say “Thanks” or “Good move”, for example. The website is free to a certain level and then $50 (approx £35) for an annual subscription. The WCU have no commercial arrangement with ChessKid.com but parents should satisfy themselves of the Safeguarding features of this and any other website that they allow their child to access unsupervised.

FIDE is also planning some other activities, like weekly lectures. For those parents who are now in shelter-in-place with their kids and developing an improvised “homeschooling” program, FIDE will produce and distribute some basic chess-teaching materials. And FIDE will start a digital library on the FIDE website, giving access to all chess lovers to selective chess books, which authors are kindly granting permission to reproduce digitally.

2020 Chess Olympiad cancelled

FIDE have just issued a statement confirming the cancellation of the 2020 Olympiad due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

More details can be found here.

4NCL League Online

We’re hoping to set up a new 4NCL online chess league very soon (the next couple of weeks latest) – named, funnily enough, 4NCL Online.

4NCL Online will be based not only on existing 4NCL teams who are interested in participating, but also any new teams that wish to apply to join the league including existing OTB clubs across the four nations.

1. The format will be a (probably) regionally based group stage, after which the top teams from each group will qualify for a final stage.

2. Matches will be between teams of four players using (probably) a 45 mins/15 sec time control.

3. Matches will take place on weekday evenings at around (probably) fortnightly intervals.

4. The exact format will depend on numbers of teams entering.

5. There’s no entry fee, and (if funds permit) we’ll arrange some trophies for winning teams.

If you’re interested in entering a team/teams, could you contact Mike Truran (mike@truranfamily.co.uk ) as soon as you can so that we can get an idea of likely interest? Any thoughts on formats or other arrangements would be very welcome.

Mark Adams

Executive Director

William Davies Evans Correspondence Cup

The Welsh Correspondence Chess Federation and Welsh Chess Union are pleased to announce the William Davies Evans Correspondence Cup.

With the widespread disruption of Over the Board Chess events due to the Covid-19 Virus, we are partnering to organise a server-based Correspondence Chess Tournament.

The event will be held utilising the Silli Tournament system, where each player will play 8 simultaneous games against players drawn from a pool of all competitors.

An example of this is:

https://www.iccf.com/event?id=79186

Entry is open to members of either the WCCF or WCU, who are either resident in Wales or play under the Welsh Flag. In all cases players will be required to register on ICCF.com (which is both free and where the games will be played)

The tournament will be Engine Free (on an honour basis) and unrated and played at a rate of 3 days per move plus a 10 day buffer, otherwise played under ICCF Tournament rules.

To support this event a series on articles on how to play Engine-Free Correspondence Chess will be published on https://www.welshccf.org.uk/

Entries will be accepted until 28th March, with an expected start date of 29th March 2020.

The winner of the event will be awarded with a small trophy.

If you are interested in entering the event please contact Russell Sherwood, WCCF Treasurer at Leanthinker@hotmail.co.uk

CORONAVIRUS – COVID 19 UPDATE

In view of the current situation it has been decided to postpone the Welsh Championships (10-13 April) and also the Welsh Rapidplay and Blitz Championships (24-25 April). All entry fees received for the Welsh Championship will be refunded in full over the next couple of weeks.

Following the postponement of the WCPL and Under 1850 League this weekend (21^st March) the remainder of the season is suspended.

An announcement on any rescheduling will be made at a later date.

Kevin Staveley

Director of Home Chess