The internet was a great thing for chess. Chess servers all over the place… 27/7.
Sadly, unless you live in a big city, or some other smaller city that has an actual chess scene, its getting harder and harder to find casual OTB play.
As I’ve mentioned in other threads, it costs me $15 in gas to get to the nearest chess club, and it was mostly a casual gathering of a few chess players at a coffee shop. I think the club is now meeting on FICS. Not sure, since I didn’t go that often. Heck, I think they even might be using webcams, at least a couple of them. I know at least 2 of the players are now meeting on FICS. (3 if you count me). Although they just started doing that, so I think they’re still deciding if they want to do that on a permanent basis, or keep meeting at the coffee shop.
Anybody else experiencing the same thing?
I’m not including OTB tournament chess, since that is obviously OTB play, and advertized in Chess Life.
I’ve seen the same thing at my chess center. People don’t come in for casual games (even the mainstream / general player, not just the hard core OTB tournament player). They come in for specific activities from lectures, to simuls, to tournaments, etc.
I’ve effectively stopped offering casual time because many of my members have stated that they can find casual games on various chess servers.
There was a video linked here somewhere regarding this and discussion in reference to the Marshall Chess Club that even they are seeing a dwindling number of casual players.
The answer may be to uptick the “casual” experience just slightly, by having quick-rated tournaments, 3 or 4 rounds, G/29 (3 rounds) or G/20 (4 rounds) on weekday evenings, $5 entry fee, no prizes. The atmosphere at such events will seem more or less casual, yet there is enough structure to keep people interested.
I’m happy to report that OTB chess is doing just fine where I’m living, in a city that you wouldn’t expect to have a chess club at all. It does take effort to maintain; if we were doing nothing but setting up a couple of boards at a coffeehouse or the library, it would probably dwindle away in nothing flat. We’ve got a consistent meeting place and time, an attractive location (at the local community college) with a supportive host, enough equipment for anyone walking in to start a game on the spot if there’s an opponent available, and diversified leadership (i.e., it’s organized, but it’s not just one person organizing it). We’ve made our existence known in the calendar section of the newspaper. And – what I think is the most important thing, based on my own recollections of visiting a go club in a city I used to live in – we strive to be friendly and welcoming to every visitor, and willing to get a visitor up to speed and involved without underexplaining or overexplaining things. No one is ignored, no one is turned away, and no one is smothered with incomprehensible gobbledygook. In a city of 25,000 people, we consistently draw half a dozen to a dozen players each week – mostly regulars, but we get someone new at least once a month.
OTB is not dead. However, to keep it alive, you do have to feed it.
Actually, there is a pretty fair amount of casual OTB play available here in the Pittsburgh area. A lot of it isn’t heavily promoted, but it definitely exists, and on a regular basis.
Some of it is formally scheduled - the Pittsburgh Chess Club, for example, is open every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon. The University of Pittsburgh Chess Club meets every Tuesday and Thursday evening, when school is in session.
And there are plenty of informal chess meetings too. The Hill Carnegie Chess Club actually meets in two different Pittsburgh library branches, for a total of three days a week. The Duquesne University Chess Club meets once a week during school sessions, as time permits. There are several groups of local players who meet on a semi-regular basis as well.
From my experiences living near St. Louis and Chicago, this isn’t uncommon. You just have to dig a bit - or maybe more than a bit. For me, the best thing was to find players at USCF-rated events in town, and ask them where people played. I’d think that is the fastest way to find these pockets of casual activity.
I agree with the idea that you have to find ways to stimulate players to show up. The one universal thing that seems to keep players coming back is no (or low) charge to participate casually. The Hill Carnegie Chess Club, for example, charges no fee, and members even provide coffee and other snacks. If you play regularly, you are expected to contribute toward refreshments and the occasional equipment upgrade. This seems intuitive for most people, so there are very few complaints when the hat gets passed.
They also hold the occasional tournament. I ran their club championship last year, which was a one-day unrated G/30. We charged a $10 entry fee, and for an additional few bucks, you could have pizza, which was eaten between the second and third rounds. We bought three very nice trophies with the EF money, and everyone was happy with the event.
I do like playing chess on FICS, and have been doing it for years.
But it not the same as getting together with a bunch of people and playing OTB. There synergy you just don’t get online.
When I was in college, the chess club, mostly played 5 minute games for a few hours, once a week. But in between those games, there was synergy. Say someone played a new line, or some obscure line that hasn’t been playing in decades. Then the whole chess club (whoever was there that day), would be talking about it. Or maybe the professer that ran the chess club might do a small lecture for a little while.
I’d like to mention that back in the early to mid 90’s, when I went to college… they didn’t have super chess engines, and massive databases. I think some of the namilov endgame tablebases were already out though.
I don’t want to roll back the clock to the 90’s by any means. But time/progress did to a heck of a job in reducing casual OTB play.
The Jackson Chess Club (meeting in a mall in Ridgeland) is coming back after a number of posts on our facebook page. http://www.mcachess.org/chessclubs. About two months ago it was dead.
If you want more organized chess then be prepared to play, organize, and volunteer. That’s the bottom line. Don’t count on municipal governments to do the work for you.
If there are no clubs in your area then rent a list of local players from USCF, write out a bunch of post cards, look up players in the phone book and call them. Don’t ask if they’re interested in forming a club, TELL them YOU are starting one.
Initially hold meetings in your home. Then look for a free venue like a rescue squad, community center, or church hall.
Don’t bother with people who have never been USCF members. You’ll wind up with either a kindergarten or a bunch of players who don’t remember how the horsey moves. From my own experience I can tell you it isn’t worth it.
Maybe one in 100 schmos who tell you “I’m a pretty good player” can play at the USCF 600 level.
Bottom line: Play, Organize, Volunteer. If you sit on your rump and expect chess clubs to fall from the sky nothing will happen.
It is difficult for me to properly express just how much I disagree with the sentiment expressed above. I find it alarming that we would even consider turning away from non members as a source of possible popularity.
Many of the casual clubs are where you find some of the better casual players. People who are experienced in playing chess, but don’t have any experience in formal tournaments, are often excellent candidates to get started in USCF events.
The whole RBO concept was designed at least in part to get those types of players into USCF. We certainly shouldn’t walk away from them. My approach has been to try introducing small pockets of tourney activity (rated or otherwise) in those places, keeping costs as low as possible. This gives everyone a chance to at least try formal play. And a good number of those players have gone on to become USCF members.
WRT “schmos…at 600 level”: I wasn’t born a USCF member. In fact, I didn’t get involved until I was almost 13. I am glad I wasn’t treated with the approach advised in the quoted post.
A solid majority of people that utilize the services of my chess center are not USCF members. Again the focus needs to be on the mainstream player, not just the hardcore OTB player. The mainstream players were USCF members we’d have millions of members. But we don’t. But these people are out there and love the game just as much. They treat it as a game and something to pass time with, they don’t take it as a serious hobby or activity. We shouldn’t be turning these people away.
So I can tell you from my own experience, it’s quite worth it.
There are a number of people walking by the showroom here in the California Market Center, in the LA fashion district, who have never seen a chess tournament and are not USCF members, but who say they play chess, and seem interested in this IM norm tournament I am at today.
Only a handful out of every one thousand Americans who play chess will ever see the inside of a tournament hall. Some of them are decent club-level players. Certainly, Greg Chamitoff is. Writing off such people doesn’t seem helpful.
Since I do not sit on my rump, I actually have organized several clubs over the years. The present club consists mostly of unrated players. There are a few USCF rated players, but the majority of the players just like to get together to have fun and play chess. Our club emphasizes social rather than organized play. If anyone should be an elitist, like Adp, wanting only USCF members around, it should be me. However, I prefer to work to make chess fun for the avid amateur player. That is why our club has over 80 members on the membership list.
With the bankruptcy of Borders Books, our club was forced to move. We are now back in business. Our new site is in a pizza pub which has a banquet hall. From now on we will have chess and pizza nights. In time we will re-affiliate with the USCF, if the members so wish. We are going to continue to operate without charging dues and will rely on donations. Casual chess is not dead. You just have to look for it or make it your mission to provide chess as an entertaining community activity where you live. It is not that hard to do. In our new incarnation I expect us to grow to over 100 members in the coming year.
One key is to have people that a player can enjoy playing against. That generally means having people that a player can beat at least some of the time and also are challenging enough to have a realistic chance of losing to.
Even if a club of 1200+ players are cordial and welcoming to casual players, unless multiple casual players join near the same time it is common for an individual players to get frustrated at being outclassed and thus stop coming. Being welcoming to kids can be a way to get multiple casual-strength players around the same time, and may also provide an ongoing source of such players to allow steady growth.
Some advice is that the adults should be respectful of the kids since once they get strong enough to start winning they are much more likely to return that respect. Also, if there is an area available you may want to allow (caution, this is something that is abhorred by some of the serious players) bughouse.
For me, the best thing was to find players at USCF-rated events in town, and ask them where people played. I’d think that is the fastest way to find these pockets of casual activity.