When I’ve looked at the pictures of big open tournaments in Europe, I’ve noticed that they generally look like some of the big tournaments in the USA (like the World Open) except for this: all the players are using the same clocks, boards, and pieces. In the US, everyone brings their own stuff, and it is not uncommon for players to argue about which equipment to use.
For example, the 29th Cappelle-La-Grande International Open is a big open event currently being played in France with 563 players. Everyone is using the same clock, with nice wooden boards and pieces, plus they all have their national flags next to the board. See these pictures: cappelle-chess.fr/galpho/ cappelle-chess.fr/galpho/ cappelle-chess.fr/galpho/
It would be nice if the big tournaments in the US were able to provide standardized clocks, boards, and pieces, like is commonly done in Europe. I suppose the US organizers will say that it costs too much money and that people will steal the equipment, but it costs money in Europe too, and they probably have some thievery to deal with as well.
The larger and more geographically spread an organizer is, the less likely that organizer will be to provide equipment.
For example, there are some state associations (Maryland and Pennsylvania, to name two) that provide sets and boards for many of their events (and clocks, though to a limited degree in both cases). The North American Chess Association provides sets, boards and DGT clocks for its events, but they have a home base in Chicago and run their events in that area.
USCF provides sets and boards for its national scholastics, as well as the US Open. However, it does not provide clocks. Transporting, securing, storing and replacing these high-target items would be a bit much. The Continental Chess Association does not provide equipment for its events, save for DGT boards and clocks for the top few boards of its major tournaments (Chicago Open, World Open, Philadelphia Open, etc.). A quick look at CCA’s schedule should provide more than enough evidence to understand why that’s not a reasonable expectation.
To give an example of why it might be easier for European organizers to do this: IA Sean Hewitt is the founder of e2e4. He has a very interesting business model that seems to be drawing a lot of favor on the other side of the pond.
Sean provides sets, boards and clocks at his events, which are held throughout England. However, England is about one-sixth the size of the United States, and e2e4 has about 12 events a year, none of which really approach the size of the larger events that USCF and CCA run. Moreover, both CCA and USCF may have multiple events in far-flung locales on the same weekend or adjoining weekends. This means they’d both need to have massive amounts of clocks shipped around the country regularly, in addition to the maintenance and replacement costs. This doesn’t seem economical for the organizer or the players - who will likely have the associated costs passed along vis-a-vis higher entry fees.
(EDIT: Sorry - my first attempt at this chopped off the last two paragraphs, for some reason.)
Imagine how much fun it would be to have to cart around 500+ chess sets and boards plus 600+ clocks. The sets would not only have to be stored between tournaments. They would also have to be cleaned periodically. The clocks would require being checked for accuracy and the batteries replaced. Someone or a team would have to set the whole lot out correctly and put everything away after counting up all of the pieces and putting the correct amount in each container. There would have to an accounting for broken or missing pieces and clocks. That takes a lot of time to do. Time costs money as people will have to be paid to do all of this. There would be storage costs, too. I would estimate approximately 40 large boxes for the sets, 10 large boxes for the boards, and 30+ boxes for the clocks, along with about another dozen large boxes holding other tournament material. A small truck would have to rented to haul all of this around as the size and weight would be too much for an SUV or other minivan. I have hauled sets, boards, trophies and other assorted chess tournament stuff to a state scholastic tournament with over 700 players. The work involved in setup and cleanup was not a lot of fun. My back, legs, and feet hurt for a week afterwards, and I was not the only one doing the many jobs.
Like many other clubs, our club provides about 20 boards and sets and about a half dozen clocks for club and tournament usage. That is fine because we are in one spot all year round and have a place to store things. We provide the sets as a convenience to the players. But if we were to run a big tournament, that would no longer be possible.
Other than a few tournaments that are generally held in the same area each year, the answer so far appears to be that it is impractical for US tournaments to provide boards, sets, and clocks for all players. The US is geographically too big and it would be too much work.
Comparing chess tournaments on different sides of the Atlantic is a bit like comparing apples to oranges.
Simply, the European chess organizers deal with a completely different set of parameters than here in USA. Most players become affiliated with a local club that meets 1-2 times a week and has inter-club competitions on weekends. The local clubs are often supported by the community sports club, and they meet at the sports club building. It seems as if any town of decent size has a chess club, or else the neighboring town has one.
The local clubs get public funding and commercial sponsorships for facilities, equipment and travel to competitions. I don’t know the details, but have attended a couple of chess clubs in Germany. In contrast, many American clubs are lucky to find a free meeting place at a senior center, library or fast food restaurant.
Given the focus on club events and weekend league play, you can begin to see why weekend tournaments are not as common as in some active regions in the USA. Thus the big week long tournaments are the event to go to if you’re serious about chess–and the organizers do their best to make it pleasurable for all. Of course, a woodpusher will likely be content to play against his buddies at the local sports club.
Thanks for the information. I didn’t know about public and commercial funding for chess clubs in Europe. Public funding (tax money) that would benefit a small group of people playing a board game is extremely unlikely to happen in the US. Commercial sponsorship to any significant extent also may be unlikely. Perhaps people in Europe value chess more than we do. It can’t be just a matter of money. Their economies seem to be more broke than ours is.
The amount they spend on various activities and the section I bolded might be an indication of the type of things that result in their economies seeming to be more broke than ours is.
There are probably more organizers out there who provide sets for their events than many players are aware of.
Sets are provided at some large events like the US Open and the USCF national scholastics.
I know I did it for years. But 100 or more chess sets takes up a lot of space in a closet in between events.
Clocks are much more expensive, though, and I’m only aware of a few organizers who run events where clocks were supplied, and most of those are small or invitational events.
The 1998 US Open in Hawaii supplied clocks, and I bought one of them after the tournament. But I don’t think they’ve ever repeated that.
Are there any organizations (companies, clubs, whatever) that rent out DGT sets? It would make no sense economically to buy such boards when one only runs one or two events each year, but it might make sense to rent a few for the top boards.
That’s only part of the equation when getting an electronic transmission system (DGT or MonRoi). You need to know how to use it to broadcast the games.
No one mentioned the ongoing costs of replacing missing pieces, missing or broken clocks, and batteries. Hampton Roads Chess Club provides sets, boards, and clocks for those who don’t bring or have them. Unfortunately, they are not matched. The clocks span many years of acquisition and are various models.
Regards, Ernie
