English Chess Forum

Why will new or old online players join a local otb club when we cannot guarantee premises open and leagues may not be run on the same basis. hope bcc is otb somewhere close in 2022.

It depends what premises your club has and who owns it

and Others and all social distancing removed...

Mid June for Chess clubs to reopen.

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 15, 2021 5:04 pm

And as I keep saying, those players already exist.

its just that they have only ever played online up to now.

Change that, somehow, and a healthy future for OTB chess is assured.

The numbers aren't kind though. With the leagues as they are, we need to find replacements for around 80% of the active players in the next 15-20 years. A lot of them are quite dedicated and fairly strong players as well.

The current replenishment rates might cover about 5-10% of that. So there's an awful lot of people - whether from online, new entrants or junior work - that need to be found from somewhere. Especially given the conversion rate from a random person interested into someone who'll play 80%+ of the matches through a season in a top division.

I can't honestly imagine the (Northern) leagues not shrinking substantially at this point, the question is more whether they survive in a viable/recognisable form.

The game will survive

This thread has moved onto general discussion rather than the British 2021 Championship's.
www.englishchess.org.uk/british-championships-2021
........give details as I am sure most of The Forum are aware.

The key is if social distancing is removed. many play in pubs and I am aware of budget setting in London. The local elections Mayor as well in MAY as not last year. hope British Championship Congress 2022

Simon Rogers wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 15, 2021 5:54 pm

We were getting a lot of 'walk ins' , Lytham Chess Club also grew a fair bit before the pandemic.
As your roving reporter, I visited a few websites over in New Zealand and discovered since their lockdown was lifted there has been record numbers at tournaments and Chess clubs. There was a lot of new members due to people watching the Queen's Gambit.
During lockdown apparently in many countries including ours, how to play Chess was the second most googled thing.

Hi Simon

Your research is correct, chess numbers OTB in New Zealand have boomed in most centres since the easing of lockdown towards the end of last year, which happily coincided with the release of the Queen's Gambit.

In Christchurch, the Canterbury Chess Club (where I have just stepped down as President due to a pending relocation) was ticking along pre Covid with membership numbers in the 40s and the average club tournament (our chess is club event based rather than league) entry was in the low 20s. We had tried the odd social night, but numbers here ranged from 1 to say 10, usually 7 or 8.

Come the end of lockdown/ TQG and entries for our club champs was in the 30's and up to 38 for the rapid champs in early December. Avg entries for the year was 27 and we had 58 official members. Social nights were running along at 15 or 16.

This year our 1st 2 tournaments have seen entries in the mid 20's and once a week social nights have seen nothing below 20 with a maximum in the 40s.

Interesting that the majority of social players are just that, only a few at t his stage crossing over to play tournaments, but I expect the number to grow.

What we did over lockdown:
.
Communicated with players
Held an online interclub match.
Encouraged players to play in other clubs online events and NZCF Friday night arenas on Lichess.
Got some good press coverage - 2 radio interviews and a newspaper article.
Communicated with players! Worth saying twice.

The players will be there when OTB returns and in abundance. Plough your fields and pray for rain!

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 14, 2021 6:55 pm

IM Jack Rudd wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:35 pm

Chris Goodall wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:36 pm

Chess is a game that doesn't tax ... your short-term memory.

You what?

Yes, I tripped over that too. I'm not sure that it taxes much else.

I'm talking about chess being a game of perfect information. If you want to know everything about the current state of play, you can look at the board. You don't have to retain in your head any clues about your opponent's hand, or what action they've taken on previous turns.

I've tried playing those games where two people are secretly trying to sabotage the rest of the group and you have to work out who it is. My mind was blown to smithereens.

Chris Goodall wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 25, 2021 10:29 am

You don't have to retain in your head any clues about your opponent's hand, or what action they've taken on previous turns.

It's only the very best and the very worst who don't retain a sense of continuity from one position to the next. Winning combinations don't always arise by chance, players may have been attempting to set them up. In terms of having "no memory", there was a famous Petrosian example where he played some move like Re1-c1 and following his opponent's response played Rc1-e1, or maybe vice-versa.

The online British started today with the junior sections in the morning.
Not sure what are the causes, but there has been an epidemic of forfeits (no shows):

* 10/50 in U8
* 9/58 in U10
* 15/66 in U12
* 12/44 in U14 (half the games ended with a forfeit)

Wadih Khoury wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 24, 2021 4:21 pm

The online British started today with the junior sections in the morning.
Not sure what are the causes, but there has been an epidemic of forfeits (no shows):

* 10/50 in U8
* 9/58 in U10
* 15/66 in U12
* 12/44 in U14 (half the games ended with a forfeit)

There was loads last year as well. I recall half the Major Open field didn't show up. I thought it was a combination of new internet players/parents of new players/juniors getting carried away and entering too many events, or entering the wrong events and not withdrawing.

I think its kids/parents not knowing how or what to do to start the game most would not have a clue where to find pairings on chess results and then they have to log into chess.com at least 15 mins before start time the go to play then find live chess button . when they click this you will just find a board set up with your name underneath but no opponent and the times not set and you just have to sit and wait for the arbiter to pair opponents and correct times/colour which could be up to 15 mins due to the number of games to start . by this point I think many parents have been trying to access the game another way and then give up . I know its all in the small print of instructions on the ECF british online page but loads of people dont read this . I think for a child especially it must be very daunting when they think they will just log on and play .

We are now more than a week into the BOCC, and after 5 rounds in the main championship, everyone dropped at least a point, with 4 players tied on 4/5.

For those interested, there are daily live streams from Saddler and Regan which I find very entertaining and insightful.

Chris Goodall wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 25, 2021 10:29 am

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 14, 2021 6:55 pm

IM Jack Rudd wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:35 pm

You what?

Yes, I tripped over that too. I'm not sure that it taxes much else.

I'm talking about chess being a game of perfect information. If you want to know everything about the current state of play, you can look at the board. You don't have to retain in your head any clues about your opponent's hand, or what action they've taken on previous turns.

I've tried playing those games where two people are secretly trying to sabotage the rest of the group and you have to work out who it is. My mind was blown to smithereens.

Ahh, that is a shame, I thought you were making a cryptic reference to chess players forgetting to pay their taxes with the original statement.