This season’s team championship, renamed in memory of its founder and organiser Patrick Ribbands, will be held on Sunday 14 November at the Moreton Hall Community Centre in Bury St Edmunds.  The opportunity has been taken to refresh the format by playing three rounds, a faster time control (60 minutes plus a 10 second increment), and Jamboree pairings.  This will enable us to play an extra round whilst still starting at 10am and finishing by 5.30pm, with individual board pairings ensuring that all teams play each other over the course of the day.

Teams will consist of four players.  There will be three rated tournaments: Open, Under 7200 (aggregate rating of four boards) and Under 6000.  Games will be ECF standard-rated so players must be ECF members, at least bronze level.  The first round will be at 10am, the second at 12.30pm and the third at 3pm.  The pairings for each board for all three rounds will be displayed at the start of the event.  There will be an entry fee of £20 per team which will fund venue costs and prizes, the level of which will be dependent on entries.

As it is a Jamboree tournament the individual player pairings for all rounds will be posted before the start of round 1.  In submitting your entry/entries please also give the names of the players and their ratings.  Teams should play in rating order, but a tolerance of 100 rating points will be allowed where captains feel that the (largely historic) ratings do not reflect current playing strength.  The ECF ratings published at the beginning of September will be used for both aggregate and board order purposes.

Although designated a team championship it is hoped that teams will be based on clubs as far as possible (or by two clubs coming together), but if there are individual players who would like to take part let Paul know and he will try to assemble a team from them.

Entries should be made by email to Paul Kemp (contact details are in the league handbook) by Sunday 7 November.  Entry fees will be collected in cash on the day.

Finally, a word on covid implications  (these may change over the next few weeks but this is our current thinking).  The venue is spacious and well-ventilated, but we need your support to make things as safe as possible.  Most importantly, players with covid symptoms or any reason for thinking they might be infected should not attend.  Please bring a mask: mask-wearing is optional but if a masked player requests their opponent to wear one too please respect their wishes.  Finally there is unlikely to be any catering at the venue (though Tesco Express, a coffee house, a pub and a chippy are all within a couple of minutes walk of the venue).  We may be able to provide tea and coffee, but please feel free to bring a flask/water bottle and packed lunch.

Paul Kemp & Bob Jones