In the NCCU competitions there was an U-100 Merseyside v Yorkshire match outstanding. Attempts were made to get this played on line, but for various reasons this was not to be, so that competition seems to have been declared nul and void for 2019-20, with Lancashire and Yorkshire being first and second nominees for the subsequent ECF stages. The other sections were completed.

English Chess Federation

The “normal” plans for the successive rounds of 2019-20 events had to be put on hold. By now, the preliminary round would have been held (on 25th/26th April) and the quarter-finals would have taken place last weekend (9th/10th May) or would be taking place this coming weekend (16th/17th May) as agreed between teams concerned. These rounds and the subsequent ones were “postponed” some time ago, but clearly the whole 2019-20 cycle seems unlikely to go ahead in the normal over-the-board manner at all.

The idea of playing the seven championships (Open, U-180, U-160, U-140, U-120, U-100 and Minor) on line was mooted, but that seems to have died a death, the problem being in part that not all nominated counties can raise enough on-line players, who in any event would not necessarily be very representative of the o-t-b team which qualified from Union competitions. Nothing very clear seems to have been announced regarding this, so plans may still be under development.

So, as an alternative (not a replacement), the ECF started organising an On-line County Championship. Counties have been approached directly to invite entry direct, rather than via the Unions (who nominate the participants in the over-the-board Championships). That ought to result in potentially more entries, as they are not limited to Union nominees. It seems there is planned to be just the one (Open) event, but the information put out does not explicitly make that clear.

So far, it seems 5 counties, Derbyshire, Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Warwickshire, have elected to participate. 9 more counties are reported as “considering entries”, while a further 24 “may wish to participate.” Cornwall seems to be the only county to definitely say “No.”

The main detail provided by the ECF is, “Group all play all stage will be played in June and July 2020 on a Saturday afternoon or evening with the knockout Finals stage in August. The rate of play will not be less than all moves in 45 minutes with 15 second increments.”

More detail is provided on the ECF website in a pdf document at

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ECFOLCCinfo-page.pdf.