I went to my two remaining schools today, both of which have entered the UK Chess Challenge many times, in the first case every year that it has run. There was an envelope waiting for me, containing the piece ESL links to above, and another more amusing document:-
http://www.ukchesschallenge.com/docs/DailyEchoA3Poster.pdfYes, Basman is a very slippery character - not an uncommon trait in the upper echelons of chess organisation (
see Eyes passim). I can't think that he is doing himself any favours at all by putting this sort of propaganda into schools. I have been trying to do the calculations, based on inadequate data, to work out how much he must have made out of this tournament over the past 21 years, but there are too many unknowns. Generally there are in the region of 2000 schools that pay a £40 entry fee. That provides them with perhaps £15's worth of prizes and the necessary stationery to run the event. After that, it's school hire - and he has local organisers who will each hire a school for one weekend in May and take entry fees. There are about 30 such events. There's not much in prize money, and the entry fee is pretty big. Each event will take a few thousand in entry fees. I don't know what the schools will charge - probably the local organisers will have some sort of discounted deal.
HMRC only look back 6 years and they found £300000 in unpaid VAT. That's a very impressive amount for an organisation consisting of just one, or possibly two, full time workers.
It would not surprise me if he pulls £300k out of his back pocket in time to keep the tourney running this school year. Entry forms are sent out in the second half of this term, and the first stage of the event is played between Christmas and Easter.