Indoor tournaments this summer

RooksPawn

Will vaccinations and government regulations allow OTB tournaments to resume in July?
It's possible after this week's announcements, though a lot will depend on public compliance - Donegal residents please note!
The English are a few weeks ahead of us in vaccinations and opening up society, and the English Chess Federation recently published a consultation document about how tournaments might be run safely after 21 June. (The equivalent date for Ireland would probably be mid-July?)

Many of the points mirror arrangements the ICU had last year for the 2020 Irish Championship. Some are UK-specific.

Here is the link:
https://www.englishchess.org.uk/covid-precautions/

One issue to consider is to what extent playing arrangements can be almost "normal" for Senior events where everyone has been vaccinated (except maybe the arbiter).

cdeb

The ECU have opened entry for the European Women's Championships in Romania in August, and say entry for other tournaments will follow. They require a negative covid test three days before arrival in Romania, and will clarify other covid requirements in July.

There'll still be issues to work out, but it's great to see that we do finally seem to be getting back to normal and can see the end of all this. Online really is a poor substitute

RooksPawn

Professor Philip Nolan said today on Katie Hannon's lunchtime RTE radio show that they were not yet making recommendations for July and August until NPHET see how the vaccine rollout and virus variants work out during the May/June easing.

For elite adult and junior players who might consider competing abroad, ending of the hotel quarantine regulations could be an issue. And of course what happens with the EU Covid passport scheme.

Meanwhile, does anyone know of a place in Dublin which is open-air but covered (in case of rain) where morning and afternoon playing sessions might be held?
Otherwise we are waiting for at least July to be playing indoors.
I think it would be reasonable for ICU to start making more definite plans for tournaments between July and September starting with 70+ seniors and a couple of other non-FIDE-rated events to give people a chance to get a feel for OTB again before risking their international ratings.

sodacat11

RooksPawn wrote: »

non-FIDE-rated events to give people a chance to get a feel for OTB again before risking their international ratings.

If people can't enter any tournament anywhere and maintain their rating then they are overrated. I don't get all this nonsense about "risking" ratings and avoiding certain tournaments just to protect an over inflated rating. ratings are not supposed to be some sot of badge of honour they simply reflect chess results. If a person loses a stack of rating points in a tournament they should be able to get them back in subsequent tournaments or else just accept that they were overrated to begin with. You can bet your bottom dollar that if the world's top ten played in more open tournaments like Gibraltar or the I.O.M instead of the usual closed events against the same high rated opponents they wouldn't have a snowball#s chance in Hell of maintaining the inflated ratings they now have.

DmanDmythDledge

I absolutely agree with the above but the reason people want to protect their rating is for team selection, be in underage or leinster leagues. Not saying that's right or wrong but just the way it is.

One thing that is not good, and I'm not sure if this is still common practice, is that junior players before would not enter certain tournaments or play leagues to protect ratings. Which is not good in my opinion, one for their own development playing as many games as possible and two for the sake of the tournaments, who should have as many and as many strong players playing as possible

cdeb

Yeah, it's the reason the ICU brought in the high-tide ratings system for selection instead - ie teams are selected based on your peak rating in the previous six months (or whatever it is). Diminishes the impact of having a bad tournament.

There's no point having non-rated events because in the end of the day your rating is your strength, and if you're rusty, you'll regain your rating as you de-rust.

I think the timelines are right for the Irish to be the first ICU event though. From 10th May, outdoor gatherings of 15 people are allowed, and probably the best way to arrange this is at club level - ie a club arranges a local outdoors event with appropriate safety measures (hand sanitiser, masks, distance between boards), but it at least allows club members to re-engage and for some social activity.

There's lots of considerations with regards foreign tournaments, for sure, but it's great that international tournaments are being opened at least, even if I would doubt that the four ECU events down for August (Women's, Schools, Senior Team, and Open Individual) will all go ahead. There's further events in Sept, Nov and Dec which will hopefully see us well on the road to normal. And I'd expect domestic normality to resume beforehand.