Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:23 pm
One does get the impression from certain posters that they wouldn't mind a return to those days
There is perhaps a middle ground between pricing a potential audience out of chess club membership and accepting any conditions.
One reason why I stopped playing away matches was a trip to a club I was told played in a room at a pub.
I arrived.
You gained access to the room behind a door marked 'toilet'
The chess club played in a outbuilding not the pub itself - the chess room also contained a lot of broken and discarded furniture.
I noticed when i entered the room that the home players were gathered around a board analysing a position. They all had their coats on. It was very cold.
There were two fan heaters in the room that were both simultaneously very noisy and heated up no more than a few inches of the room each.
Half of the boards for the match were home made. Cheap chipboard. The dark squares were shown by address label stickers.
The lighting was very poor. So much so that unless I sat back from the board it was cast in a shadow so deep it was difficult to make out the pieces.
When I went to sit down I pulled the chair back from the table and the arm of the chair came off in my hand.
After a couple of moves my fingers were so cold I put my gloves on. I took my gloves off each move to write on my scoresheet. Then I put my gloves back on.
After about 10 minutes or so I offered my opponent a draw. I would have resigned had he not accepted.
I went for a pint.
I heard a while later that club had closed down for lack of members.
Cheap doesn't necessarily equal sustainable.