Chess once we restart over the board

[Chris Rice]

The 2020 Irish Championships are about to kick off and players will get options as to whether they want to play with one board or two and their are screens for both options. The screens look a bit more robust than the Biel ones and I'm guessing as a result they are probably more expensive. Here are the photos and there is a short video of what we can expect to see. The Walk Through has been very well presented and it is hoped that it will serve as a template for chess tournaments in the future.

[Paul Robert Jackson]

Clubs & Leagues
Anybody have any information on chess clubs that may be reopening, or OTB leagues restarting in the near future?

Congresses
These seem to be being cancelled (Leyland & Scarborough being the latest that I regularly enter), & will be very surprised if there is an OTB Chess Congress in this country within the next 12 months.

[LawrenceCooper]

Clubs & Leagues
Anybody have any information on chess clubs that may be reopening, or OTB leagues restarting in the near future?

Congresses
These seem to be being cancelled (Leyland & Scarborough being the latest that I regularly enter), & will be very surprised if there is an OTB Chess Congress in this country within the next 12 months.

From the Bushbury chess club Facebook page:

Bushbury Chess Club
2d ·
Club now reopened for up to 10 players.

[NickFaulks]

The screens look a bit more robust than the Biel ones and I'm guessing as a result they are probably more expensive.

That's what you couldn't do in England. Who is going to spend upwards of £1000 on screens knowing there is a fair chance that, on the day before the tournament, the scientific advice will abruptly change and screens are no good any more, so you can chuck them in the bin?

[Roger de Coverly]

Congresses
These seem to be being cancelled (Leyland & Scarborough being the latest that I regularly enter), & will be very surprised if there is an OTB Chess Congress in this country within the next 12 months.

I don't know any due to take place in 2021 to yet been formally cancelled. Hastings is scheduled to make a decision later this month. I can imagine that organisers of potential Congresses in 2021 may hold back on designing and publishing entry forms.

Given that stores seem to start their pre-Christmas build up at the end of August, the question for Boris and cronies has to be whether Christmas and New Year 2020 are cancelled or at least severely curtailed.

[Paul Robert Jackson]

I don't know any due to take place in 2021 to yet been formally cancelled. Hastings is scheduled to make a decision later this month. I can imagine that organisers of potential Congresses in 2021 may hold back on designing and publishing entry forms.

Given that stores seem to start their pre-Christmas build up at the end of August, the question for Boris and cronies has to be whether Christmas and New Year 2020 are cancelled or at least severely curtailed.

Although not formally cancelled, & do try to be optimistic, I just have a feeling that the "Congress Chess Scene" will find it difficult to re-establish itself following a forced long break.
As for Boris & his Cronies, I will avoid any political discussion.

[Roger de Coverly]

I just have a feeling that the "Congress Chess Scene" will find it difficult to re-establish itself following a forced long break.

Congresses may be easier to re-establish than Leagues by virtue of only requiring a single venue to be open and usable. Leagues in a home and away format may have to proceed at the pace of what the smallest or most risk adverse venues can accommodate.

[Matthew Turner]

I think you are wrong here Roger. Setting up a congress is a big (financial) risk when you don't know what regulations are going to apply. Leagues can muddle along (if they want to); If a venue isn't suitable/available etc then a team can always play all their matches away from home.

[NickFaulks]

Given that stores seem to start their pre-Christmas build up at the end of August, the question for Boris and cronies has to be whether Christmas and New Year 2020 are cancelled or at least severely curtailed.

I would not expect any announcement of that before Dec 23rd, to maximise disruption and disappointment. This is the smack of firm government, which is all they've got in the absence of any evidence of cerebral activity.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"The 2020 Irish Championships"

That does look impressive. That sort of metre-rule for pressing the clock is brilliant. But... the pen the guy uses to sign in (early in video) is a potential hazard and should be sanitized between uses. And I think he handed a phone in at a later desk, another potential hazard.

We are still cleaning any objects which enter the house.

[Richard Bates]

"The 2020 Irish Championships"

That does look impressive. That sort of metre-rule for pressing the clock is brilliant. But... the pen the guy uses to sign in (early in video) is a potential hazard and should be sanitized between uses. And I think he handed a phone in at a later desk, another potential hazard.

We are still cleaning any objects which enter the house.

Just out of interest, did you apply the same level of risk avoidance measures prior to konwledge of the existence of COVID-19? I’d be surprised if the risk of contacting and suffering serious consequences from touching uncleaned items entering the house was higher than the risks of, say, flying to Guernsey, for example.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Just out of interest, did you apply the same level of risk avoidance measures prior to konwledge of the existence of COVID-19? I’d be surprised if the risk of contacting and suffering serious consequences from touching uncleaned items entering the house was higher than the risks of, say, flying to Guernsey, for example."

Good point. I've had a couple of scary landings (and aborted landings) en route. Driving and walking in Guernsey is hazardous as well! I did work in chemical safety for a while so I'm aware of hazard and risk. It's all a bit Jack Bauer, but sometimes you walk into a room and identify the exits... The current problem is exacerbated by being in an "at risk" category, so I am being ultra-careful. Last week I went into a nearby village and I was the only one wearing a mask, although the shops had sanitizer outside and were restricting the number of customers in the shops. Maybe paranoia is taking over!
Working in a chemical laboratory, I did wash my hands countless times during the day, e.g. before using the toilet facilities as well as afterwards. If a chemical can irritate or burn your hands, imagine...

[MartinCarpenter]

Given that stores seem to start their pre-Christmas build up at the end of August, the question for Boris and cronies has to be whether Christmas and New Year 2020 are cancelled or at least severely curtailed.

It will be quite late that decision - they'll be desperate to avoid doing that of possible and there's a non zero chance that a vaccine might just turn up in time.

Not high though. I'm definitely not planning on having a normal Xmas.

[Richard Bates]

"Just out of interest, did you apply the same level of risk avoidance measures prior to konwledge of the existence of COVID-19? I’d be surprised if the risk of contacting and suffering serious consequences from touching uncleaned items entering the house was higher than the risks of, say, flying to Guernsey, for example."

Good point. I've had a couple of scary landings (and aborted landings) en route. Driving and walking in Guernsey is hazardous as well! I did work in chemical safety for a while so I'm aware of hazard and risk. It's all a bit Jack Bauer, but sometimes you walk into a room and identify the exits... The current problem is exacerbated by being in an "at risk" category, so I am being ultra-careful. Last week I went into a nearby village and I was the only one wearing a mask, although the shops had sanitizer outside and were restricting the number of customers in the shops. Maybe paranoia is taking over!
Working in a chemical laboratory, I did wash my hands countless times during the day, e.g. before using the toilet facilities as well as afterwards. If a chemical can irritate or burn your hands, imagine...

Fair enough - but underpinning my question is the fact that everyone has their own personal risk thresholds. What the current crisis seems to have revealed is that either many people’s risk thresholds are far lower than previous behaviour would have suggested, they didn’t understand the risks that they were previously routinely undertaking in the course of “normal” life, or, more likely, that most people simply don’t understand the concept of risk and having been forced to confront it have come to illogical conclusions.

Of course, I would never seek to pass judgement of individual assessment of risk, and level of risk thresholds (to the extent that those assessments are consistent). From a personal perspective some seem ludicrously low (activities like climbing up sheer cliff faces with no safety support. For fun. At least astronauts can claim that they are enhancing human progress in the risks that they take!). But the key, when applied to things like chess contests, must surely be towards “reasonable” risk mitigation, rather than risk elimination altogether. If some people are unprepared to suffer a tiny risk from coming into contact with a pen then that is up to them. But it is not a reasonable reason to prevent the going ahead of a tournament at all.

There is, as it happens, a contrast to be drawn with some sporting activities that are currently happening around the world. In some, it is suggested, a single positive test result is close to sufficient to jeopardise the happening of events at all. As such they have to take extreme precautions to hopefully avert any positive tests, or alternatively, avoid the need to quarantining of everyone coming into contact with someone suffering a positive test. I don’t really think this applies in general to chess (being mainly isolated events of limited duration - rather than a series of linked events) , and if organisers are prepared to take the chance of short term Government guidance/sudden change in legal regime preventing event going ahead, then there is no reason why they shouldn’t. And pass the question of participation for vulnerable groups into the relevant players themselves.

[Jacob Ward]

If some people are unprepared to suffer a tiny risk from coming into contact with a pen then that is up to them. But it is not a reasonable reason to prevent the going ahead of a tournament at all.

But if your tournament was only just breaking even previously, some people are choosing to stay home so income is down, and your costs are up due to needing to provide more space between boards and more cleaning - that might well stop you going ahead.