GDPR 2023

What do the British Championships ask for and why?

Surname To allow us to identify the player
Forename To allow us to identify the player
Title To allow people who want to be known by any honorifics to be correctly addressed (e.g. Dr.)
Address To allow us to identify whether or not players are British resident, and thus eligible for ‘British’ prizes.
Telephone To allow us to contact you in case of emergency or problem with your entry
Email To allow us to contact you in case of emergency or problem with your entry
Club To allow us to identify whether or not players are British resident, and thus eligible for “British” prizes.
Date of Birth To allow us to assign players to correct age groups, or whether or not players are eligible for age-specific prizes. It is a FIDE requirement for FIDE-rated events that we report dates of birth.
Gender To allow us to identify whether or not players are eligible for gender-specific prizes (e.g. boys prizes, girls prizes).
ECF Membership Number To allow us to verify your membership number, and thus decide whether or not you are eligible to compete in the British Championships
FIDE rating / ECF rating / Other rating and source To allow us to verify whether or not a player is eligible to compete in a particular section (e.g. a rating-restricted section), particularly for players who are outside England.
Nationality To allow us to decide whether or not you are eligible to compete in the British Championships
Federation It is a FIDE requirement for FIDE-rated events that we report the player’s Federation.

What information will be held by the English Chess Federation?

The British Championships are organised by the English Chess Federation (ECF). As a result, all of the information you supply to the ECF will be held by them, although differing information will be used in differing circumstances.

Rating of Results

All tournaments will be rated by the ECF. The following information from the table above is required to be sent to the ECF rating system —

  • First name
  • Surname
  • Date of birth
  • ECF rating code (e.g. 123456A)
  • Gender
  • Club
  • The results of all games played (including date of the game, the name of each player, the colour played)
The ECF provides new rating lists on a monthly basis here — https://www.ecfrating.org.uk/v2/new/list_players.php

This website will display the following information in public:

  • First name
  • Surname
  • ECF rating code
  • Age at 01/09 of the year in which the rating list is published
  • Age at 01/01 of the year in which the rating list is published
  • Gender
  • School/club where you play chess, or the geographic area where you play chess
  • The results of all games played (including date of the game, the name of each player, the colour played)
  • The player’s rating
  • Their results in ECF-rated tournaments
  • If a player has played for a long time, historic information about their rating

This information is made public because it is of legitimate interest. Many tournaments in England are restricted to players of a particular rating, a particular region (e.g. county), a particular age, or a particular gender. Organisers need to be able to identify the players to ensure that eligible players are playing in their tournaments, and the rating list does this.

In addition to this, people assigned to submit these results to the ECF have private access to a masterlist of players. The full date of birth is available to these rating officers, which are held in private. The ECF’s Rating Administrator will also have full access to all submitted information.

The player will be assigned a rating code, which will appear on the ECF rating website, as a result of playing in a ECF-rated event.

The following recommendations are made if you have concerns:

Membership

Different British Championship tournaments require different levels of membership, depending on both the event and your Federation. This is explained in more detail on the entry form.

What information will the ECF pass on to FIDE?

Where a tournament is FIDE-rated, the ECF is required to send the following information to FIDE, all of which is shown on the public rating list except where specified otherwise below:

  • Forename
  • Surname
  • Federation
  • FIDE ID (if you are English, the ECF will create one for you if you do not have one)
  • Date of birth (only the year of birth is made public)
  • Gender
  • The results of all games played (including date of the game, the name of each player, the colour played)
  • The moves of all games played, except for games which are neither recorded on live boards nor recorded on scoresheets (note: this is only required for the title norm tournaments, but the ECF intends to do this for all games captured)

The ECF’s International Rating Officer will also have access to this when processing the rating files, and this will include the date of birth in full.

What information will be shown on the British Championships website?

In advance of the Championships, the ECF will update periodically a list of all the entries received so far. This will show –

  • Forename
  • Surname
  • Federation
  • Club
  • ECF rating code
  • FIDE ID
  • Any ECF ratings, FIDE ratings, or other national ratings that the player might hold
  • The tournament that the player has entered

During the Championships, the ECF will publish pairings and results of all tournaments on Chess-Results.com, which will then be linked to from the British Championships website. This website will show the following information for each tournament they have entered:

  • Forename
  • Surname
  • Federation
  • Club
  • ECF rating code
  • FIDE ID
  • The rating being used for pairing purposes in that tournament
  • The results of all games played (including date of the game, the name of each player, the colour played)
  • The moves of all games played, except for games which are neither recorded on live boards nor recorded on scoresheets

In addition, during the Championships, the ECF will publish the moves of games as they are being played on liveboards. The Championship games will always be broadcast, but the choice of tournament at other times may vary on a day-by-day basis.

Photographs & video

The ECF will take a number of photographs and videos during the Championships. These will include the following:

  • General photographs of the playing area
  • Photographs of individual players, who will be identified, when they are playing their games
  • Photographs of individual prizewinners, who will be identified

These photographs and videos will potentially appear in one or more of the following places:

  • The British Championships website
  • The ECF’s social media accounts
  • Local or national newspapers and their websites

The ECF is of the opinion that it has a legitimate interest to publish these photographs for the benefit of helping to publicise a National Championship.