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

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

Post by Chris Goodall » Tue May 24, 2022 11:31 pm

Joey Stewart wrote:
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.
Are you telling us that stopping OTB chess for a year wasn't fatal to evening league chess, but resuming it with less enthusiasm than before will be?

Could we therefore preserve the long-term future of evening league chess by stopping it permanently?
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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 » Wed May 25, 2022 12:31 am

I'm sure we'll do what we can to keep it going as long as possible (I certainly would rather play genuine opponents and not the waves of idiot cheats you encounter online) but clubs losing members and organisers combined with rising venue hire costs is going to take its toll. I would say you'll see I'm right in years to come when it does happen but I'll probably not get the chance to have the last laugh as the forum will be gone as well by then.
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MartinCarpenter
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by MartinCarpenter » Wed May 25, 2022 8:57 am

I'd be surprised if its fast - Northern evening league chess has proven quite resilient over recent decades to that sort of shrinking. You end up consolidating into fewer and fewer clubs, yes, but things do seem to keep going.

Don't think we really know quite what effect the pandemic has had yet.

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

Post by Andrew Zigmond » Wed May 25, 2022 11:44 am

Joey Stewart wrote:
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.
From my perspective the clubs that benefitted and gained members did so because they were proactive about attracting and welcoming new members as well as doing things differently. By contrast the clubs that were reliant on the same core of ageing members were the ones that couldn't continue.

To be fair I think we were seeing this process develop over time and the pandemic merely accelerated it.
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Nick Grey
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Re: Current OTB participation in evening leagues compared with pre-pandemic level

Post by Nick Grey » Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:21 pm

Increases at Kingston. 3 league titles. 2 cup finals next week. quintuple on

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

Post by James Toon » Thu Jun 09, 2022 6:20 am

I did some statistical work on the number of active players in the Surrey Border League in recent years. This was stable (ranging from 204 to 213) in the 5-year period from 2015-16 to 2019-20. No chess in 2020-21, and now 179 in 2021-22. That's an encouraging 85% of the pre-pandemic average. This was probably more than the League authorities expected. The League reduced the number of boards from 5 to 4 in the top 4 divisions for the current season, but might want to consider going back to 5 boards as the demand for team places this season seems to have outstripped supply.

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

Post by Reg Clucas » Thu Jun 09, 2022 3:45 pm

The SE Lancs Summer League has started this week, with 25 teams from 13 clubs and 289 players registered. Last time the league ran, in 2019, there were 19 teams from 11 clubs and 235 players registered.

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