ECF membership

[Clement Sreeves]

What level of ECF membership do I need to take part in English Leagues, Congresses, and FIDE rated events, given that I am also a Chess Scotland member? Thanks!

[Andy Howie]

I am not 100% sure if you will need silver or Gold as I am not sure how it will work for FIDE Events. I'll ask my contacts for you

[David Clayton]

For playing in the Leyland FIDE Open congress, you pay the non-English fee (same fee as ECF Gold Membership). Leyland congress pay the £1.50 it is charged by the ECF. Other congress may pass on that fee to you with a higher entry fee. We choose not to.

A non FIDE congress would expect you to be ECF Silver membership or pay to pay (£7). For example the Leyland Major, which is not FIDE rated.

So for English congresses (if you are registed with FIDE as Scottish) FIDE congresses do not require ECF Gold membership, but Non FIDE events would require ECF Silver Membership.

At least that is how I think it works having just read my Leyland entry from which I have just downloaded from my website.

[Andy Howie]

I have an official response from the ECF

"There is no ECF requirement for a Chess Scotland member to hold any form of ECF membership in order to take part in events in England.

However, the ECF will charge Game Fee to a League @ £2.50 per grading result standardplay/£1.25 rapidplay for each result submitted for grading for a player who had not become an ECF member by the end of the season. A League will normally seek to recover these costs from the clubs giving rise to them, and a club may or may not seek to make recovery from the players concerned.

Furthermore, the ECF will charge Game Fee in the form of a flat "pay to play fee" of £7 to a non-FIDE rated congress for each entrant who was not an ECF or silver member on the date when an event started. The congress will normally impose a surcharge on entry fees for players who are are not ECF silver or above members (or alternatively offer a discount to those who are).

These considerations have led a number of non-ENG players active in England (e.g. Alexander Chernaiev and Bogdan Lalic) to take what might be termed an "economic" decision to purchase an ECF silver membership where the cost of this is less than the Game Fee/pay to play fees that would otherwise arise."

[Clement Sreeves]

Cheers Andy and David, very much appreciated. So if I understand correctly I don't need a Gold membership because my CS membership covers the FIDE rating side of things? I.e ECF silver + CS will have me covered for everything?

[Andy Howie]

That is my understanding, yes.

[Phil Thomas]

Clement,

ECG membership year runs from September until August.
The simplest and quickest way to join us to phone the ECF office and pay over the phone by credit card.

In a day or two you name and your ECF membership number will appear in a large excel file which can be downloaded from the ECF web site via a few intuitive clicks.