There are a few key pages in US Chess that should be among the busiest. One set is MSA. Another future potential set is a set to support league play (either online or OTB).
These pages should be designed to allow appropriate advertising, beyond the occasional ad-bar.
I don’t think running an online chess server is in US Chess’s plans at this time. Or did you mean something else?
It certainly is not in our plans.
No, I didn’t mean an online server. I meant an area to support league play. There are sites that do this for several sports, including for chess. Schools often have some amount of league play. They need to know schedules, report results, report standings, track players, provide directions and maps, games could be stored, messages to captains/coaches or league players, rescheduling., accept league payments, etc. It’s a more social form of chess and there are successful adult leagues, although its an area I think we should grow. I believe that to grow chess needs to be more social.
Because its an area players tend to visit, its potentially a good site for advertising.
That makes more sense. Thanks for the explanation.
+1. Splendid idea.
I also like that its a clear value add - another answer to “What do I get for my membership…?”
Accepting payments that end up going to a third party is problematical. Credit card companies and other funds transfer agents (like paypal) charge a fee on both inbound and outbound payments. One small Amazon merchant told me that his credit card fees for a year are greater than his net profit.
Beyond that, we’d need some kind of functional specs, since it would be a new area of the website. There may be privacy issues to resolve.
Yes, there are challenges; if there weren’t, we wouldn’t be adding value! One way to address some of it may be to link to services they already use such as PayPal, Stripe, etc., and let them worry about the pricing.
I like the idea of a league area, but it also comes with the logistical problems that have likely prevented the natural development of amateur leagues.
For example, the German chess Bundesliga is perhaps the most popular OTB league in the world - in my opinion this is due to the nature of it’s country (Germany) being easily traveled (smaller nation, EU borders, public transport, autobahn, etc). Compared to the United States, which is significantly larger and harder to travel, and has only a few large chess “centers” - the ones I can think of being California, New York, and STL/Chicago. (Do note my knowledge of chess outside of CA is purely what I have researched and heard online.) Greg Shahade’s US Chess League (uschessleague.com/) , now more commonly known as the PRO Chess League, is the only decent-sized US league I was able to find. I enjoyed watching this league, but it only for some of the best teams in the world. Therefore, I think a nationwide effort (or a grassroots effort to build local leagues) to build a league for amateurs would be a good thing for US Chess. However, I believe the logistical restraints would force it to be held online, with extremely little cheating protection. US Chess has already entered into an agreement with Chess.com to host ‘Online’ rated tournaments, but I know many would either feel uncomfortable participating in online USCF games, or downright opposed to it.
Getting back to kbachler’s suggestion, an online portal that facilitates league play would only be useful to handle payments, in my opinion. I know of plenty of casual online leagues that have tens, or even hundreds of players and teams. Trying to collect payment or distribute prizes would be a nightmare; and that is where I could see US Chess providing a valuable service. A trustworthy, impartial organization that can provide additional benefits such as rating the play as Online-rated could be convincing. Unfortunately, I think two major problems lie in anonymity and cheating. If I recall correctly, Chess.com will link to your USCF account privately, so one may maintain their online anonymity. However, this may be a dealbreaker for potential users. Many may want to have very strict cheating controls for leagues and tournaments with cash prizes. Even if USCF handed down real-life membership bans based off online cheating allegations (something that should be treated with extreme caution), it will be very hard to convince people to fork over money for online play.
Kbalcher’s suggestion is a solid idea, and I really like the concept. A nationwide league system could draw in many players, especially scholastic players. But I simply don’t see how it is feasible.
The problem isn’t linking TO the payment service, it’s getting a response back about whether or not the payment went through and acting accordingly, especially if the money is going to a third party.
There are probably ways around it that I’m not familiar with, or the payment part could be made the league’s responsibility to handle, giving them a way to let us know when it has been made. That might be similar to how we currently handle having the affiliate pay the ratings fee, or how affiliate email blasts work, where the affiliate has to approve the test email and the number of emails to be sent.
Rated chess.com or ICC tournaments show the member IDs of the participants but not their chess.com handles.
Having only the uscf IDs visible will alleviate some issues, but I still think a lot of people would not be interested in playing in online money tournaments.
I was recently talking with a FIDE 21xx player from Germany and he said the German league play was anchored in chess clubs in major chess centers.
Yes, the way I meant to make that statement was it would be much easier for players not immediately near a major center to travel to one for a weekend league game / other tournament. Hope that cleared it up.
Do chess.com or ICC hold money events now?
I believe Chess.com holds Arena Kings weekly tournaments with a modest prize pool, but there is no entry fee. I’m too young to know about ICC 
.
The Pittsburgh Chess League has been in operation providing rated team play since 1960. Over the years we smoothed out the format, changed the time control, and moved to different venues. Our constitution and bylaws can be used as a model for others to use to set up and run a league. We have both round robin and Swiss system sections. We also have an alternate pool for alternate team members to play. There are Quick Chess and Blitz tournaments before regular League play this year. Play is on one Sunday per month from September through April. We play from 2 pm to around 7 pm. This year’s first round starts on September 29. For details you can check out the TLA in the Upcoming Tournament section on this website or google the “Western Pennsylvania Tournament Clearinghouse” to find the section on the PCL.
It is not hard to set up a chess league. It is not hard to run a league, especially if you use the PCL format. What is hard is to find people to stick with it like some of our members, team captains, and directors for many decades. You do not have to go high tech or provide thousands of dollars in prizes to be successful. The PCL provides a service to the chess community and gives out trophies or small cash prizes to teams in each section as well as individual board prizes. Players play for pride and social interaction. We have introduced hundreds of younger players to slower played games. Team play is fun. It is not as expensive or time consuming as regular tournament play. However, it is just as competitive.
While a section on this website to promote league play could be useful, if it gets tied up with payments, pairings, and other details, then it could snarl the running of the league. Our guiding premise was to keep it simple so that anyone could follow and maintain the league. Leagues in the US are generally local and draw on players within 50 to 100 miles of the league site. The European leagues, like the Bundesliga, rely on sponsorship and a core of active city chess clubs. Their scope is national, and sometimes international as they pay foreign players to participate. My preference is for face to face OTB games rather than online play as it is difficult to manage or police the online world.
Maps to sites, schedules, standings, announcements, rosters, captains, co-captains, coaches, contact information for teams and the league and game and match results all strike me as things that are on other league sites that are also useful, among other things.
The site doesn’t need to get tied up with any of that in terms of ACTUALLY PERFORMING it. If only needs to allow for easy commerce transactions to SIMPLIFY it. Let Paypal, Stripe or whomever provide the financial service. That doesn’t mean we can’t make a link to make it easy for people to pay.