Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

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MartinCarpenter
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by MartinCarpenter » Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:08 am

Andrew Zigmond wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:22 am
The pattern I'm seeing is that numbers are slightly down, probably due to understandable caution at the start of the season. However there is an influx of new players (albeit in pockets rather than across the board - I'll come to why in as moment) and put bluntly, many players who have dropped out over the pandemic are those who would likely have packed it in over the next few years anyway.
Are you sure about that? My vague impression (happy to be corrected if anyone has actual data!) is that while you might have expected to lose a lot of veterans the absences are much more spread out in terms of age.

Sheffield's remaining woodhouse team might even be actively old vs their absent players. Over in Manchester 3C's have by far the strongest junior system going in the North, and they've got no 4NCL teams and extremely reduced teams in the small OTB Manchester league restart.

York still have a few new players, just some regulars missing too.

I'm sure that some percentage of the players 'absent' have found other things to do, but it won't be nearly all of them. A large percentage should hopefully be back in '22 & onwards for a good while.

There's also definitely people who simply don't want to play with the current restrictions on masks/getting up etc.

Nick Burrows
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by Nick Burrows » Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:55 am

The Oxfordshire league is down from 29 teams to 20 teams. A few new players at my club - Cumnor.

Mick Norris
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by Mick Norris » Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:58 am

MartinCarpenter wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:08 am
Andrew Zigmond wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:22 am
The pattern I'm seeing is that numbers are slightly down, probably due to understandable caution at the start of the season. However there is an influx of new players (albeit in pockets rather than across the board - I'll come to why in as moment) and put bluntly, many players who have dropped out over the pandemic are those who would likely have packed it in over the next few years anyway.
Are you sure about that? My vague impression (happy to be corrected if anyone has actual data!) is that while you might have expected to lose a lot of veterans the absences are much more spread out in terms of age.

Sheffield's remaining woodhouse team might even be actively old vs their absent players. Over in Manchester 3C's have by far the strongest junior system going in the North, and they've got no 4NCL teams and extremely reduced teams in the small OTB Manchester league restart.

York still have a few new players, just some regulars missing too.

I'm sure that some percentage of the players 'absent' have found other things to do, but it won't be nearly all of them. A large percentage should hopefully be back in '22 & onwards for a good while.

There's also definitely people who simply don't want to play with the current restrictions on masks/getting up etc.
Manchester has so far been mixed; some won't play because the Rules says masks should be worn, others because most clubs are ignoring this and agreeing not to wear them; we might have a solution for this when we resume OTB in March; there are about 20 fixtures left this month, then the Online league starts mid January

We had a couple of teams pull out after the fixtures were issued, because they discovered they didn't have enough players actually willing to play, but equally we had 1 club enter late; you can see the position here; if anyone wants to do some analysis about the players, feel free

We seem to have had a lot more work than I expected with the LMS, due to new players (some new to chess, some new to the MCF), so that's been good

We have 2 existing clubs not playing, but 1 new club to the League

I'm generally positive about how things have gone
Any postings on here represent my personal views

Reg Clucas
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by Reg Clucas » Fri Dec 03, 2021 12:50 pm

It's worth noting that some leagues have not restarted at all.

MartinCarpenter
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by MartinCarpenter » Fri Dec 03, 2021 2:15 pm

Mick Norris wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:58 am
I'm generally positive about how things have gone
Same here really - I have trouble taking the events now running fully seriously in a strictly competitive basis with so many people missing but that doesn't meant they're not worth running.

And if they do need to be paused during Jan/Feb, well, they need to be paused. Life will go on.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Fri Dec 03, 2021 4:12 pm

News today that vaccines may actually be quite effective protection against Omicron, fingers crossed.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Dragoljub Sudar
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by Dragoljub Sudar » Fri Dec 03, 2021 5:16 pm

MartinCarpenter wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:08 am
Andrew Zigmond wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:22 am
many players who have dropped out over the pandemic are those who would likely have packed it in over the next few years anyway.
Are you sure about that? My vague impression (happy to be corrected if anyone has actual data!) is that while you might have expected to lose a lot of veterans the absences are much more spread out in terms of age.
I've made hopefully reasonable guesses for those whose age I don't know, but it looks as if 40% to 50% of those who played in 2019-20 are still playing this season for all of the age ranges up to their 60s and then, when you might expect the % to drop, it appears to be about 55% for those over 70.

Mike Alderson
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by Mike Alderson » Fri Dec 03, 2021 5:34 pm

The Derby & district league has 18 teams over 3 divisions this season whereas in 2019/20 there were 27 teams over 4 divisions.
Chesterfield and Long Eaton are notably absent, Burton and Lichfield have united, and several clubs are running fewer teams although Rolls-Royce has one more. The league is running smoothly so far with only one deferral to later in the season.
28 players are contesting the county individual championship, down from 34 in 2019/20.
There was insufficient enthusiasm to enable any county teams to be formed.
I haven't counted player numbers but there are a number of new names and players coming back to the game. Many are no doubt staying away because of continuing uncertainties about Covid, while others will be deterred by the various restrictions and mitigations.

MartinCarpenter
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by MartinCarpenter » Fri Dec 03, 2021 6:15 pm

Dragoljub Sudar wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 5:16 pm
MartinCarpenter wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:08 am
Andrew Zigmond wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:22 am
many players who have dropped out over the pandemic are those who would likely have packed it in over the next few years anyway.
Are you sure about that? My vague impression (happy to be corrected if anyone has actual data!) is that while you might have expected to lose a lot of veterans the absences are much more spread out in terms of age.
I've made hopefully reasonable guesses for those whose age I don't know, but it looks as if 40% to 50% of those who played in 2019-20 are still playing this season for all of the age ranges up to their 60s and then, when you might expect the % to drop, it appears to be about 55% for those over 70.
Thanks. That says something fascinating about people :) What I'm not quite sure!

Andrew Zigmond
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by Andrew Zigmond » Sat Dec 04, 2021 12:08 am

Reflecting on my earlier comment it occurred to me that there is always a slight turnover every season anyway with some players disappearing off the radar - the main reasons often being a change in professional or personal circumstances such as a new job, family or leaving the area - this tends to effect older players less.

Also the relaxation of restrictions in the summer happened when chess activity is generally low anyway; this possibly meant that not all clubs were able to regroup and make decisions about league entry in September.
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John Swain
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by John Swain » Wed May 18, 2022 8:35 pm

John Swain wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:03 pm
Drag Sudar has investigated the Nottinghamshire League, comparing the aborted 2019-20 season with what's happening at the moment. New players, perhaps inspired by The Queen's Gambit or playing online, are very welcome, but their numbers haven't compensated for those who haven't returned to competitive play. Nottinghamshire may be atypical; it would be interesting to compare the experience of other evening leagues.

"In the 2019-20 season 262 people played in the league. Of those only 112 have played this season, 42.75%. The club hit the hardest is Long Eaton who haven’t entered a team. The figures for the rest are:

Mansfield 6/7, Beeston 6/8, Gambit 14/24, RB 10/19, Newark 8/16, Grantham 12/26, Ashfield 10/22, WN 13/31, Nomads 8/20, WB 14/35, Central 5/13 and Uni 6/27.

On the positive side, clubs have 62 extra players, almost all brand new to Notts Chess:

Uni 15, Beeston 11 (!), Nomads 7, WN 6, RB 5, Central 5, Gambit 5, WB 4, Ashfield 2, Grantham 2, Mansfield 0, Newark 0."

Source: http://gambitchess.org.uk/uncategorized ... to-2021-22
Drag Sudar has continued his investigation of the Nottinghamshire League, comparing the 2019-20 season with the season just concluded.

"262 players played in 2019-20. By 30 Nov 112 of them had played this season. This increased to 123 by the end of the season. By 30 Nov we had 62 new players. This has increased to 97.

47% of those who played in 2019-20 played this season. If we omit the University club this figure becomes 50%, which is still a low percentage.

44% of those who played this season were new players (38% if we omit Uni)."

Detailed breakdown by club may be found at: http://gambitchess.org.uk/uncategorized ... -20-part-2

Tim Spanton
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by Tim Spanton » Thu May 19, 2022 9:02 am

From the latest ECF newsletter:

OTB chess activity levels have settled to around half [pre-]
pandemic levels. There were 11,846 half games
rated for April 2022 (compared with a pre-pandemic
figure of 21,768 for April 2019) and 5,782 rapidplay
half-games (compared with 14,872 for April 2019).
There were 746 blitz half-games sent in for rating
with a number of blitz events planned.

MartinCarpenter
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by MartinCarpenter » Thu May 19, 2022 9:27 am

I guess the big question at this point is how many more people are coming back next Autumn.

The ***** virus is refusing to finally go away of course, so a very open question. Some people will presumably simply have lost the habit after two years.

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John Upham
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by John Upham » Thu May 19, 2022 10:09 am

Tim Spanton wrote:
Thu May 19, 2022 9:02 am
From the latest ECF newsletter:

OTB chess activity levels have settled to around half [pre-]
pandemic levels. There were 11,846 half games
rated for April 2022 (compared with a pre-pandemic
figure of 21,768 for April 2019) and 5,782 rapidplay
half-games (compared with 14,872 for April 2019).
There were 746 blitz half-games sent in for rating
with a number of blitz events planned.
Our Hampshire event contributed 300 games of Blitz for rating! Is that 600 half-games?
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Joey Stewart
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by Joey Stewart » Tue May 24, 2022 4:53 pm

I think it is safe to assume that, while tournament and schools events seem healthy, local chess leagues will die out in the next few years thanks to the pandemic - in mine it feels as though a small number of clubs benefited and gained members but the rest of them ended up losing lots of people who will never be replaced.
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

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