In the June 2009 issue of 'Chess Life', there is a story about the success of Fresno Chess Club in attracting new members. One of the success factors seems to be the location, a restaurant which allows players to use the facilities after hours. Fair enough. But here comes some unbelievable stuff:

"We considered other restaurants in Fresno. But most of them had booths. This made it difficult for our heavier members to participate, as they were too large to sit comfortably in booths.(...) ,one of the things that made the location optimal was that it had plenty of tables and chairs, instead of booths. This made it much more amenable to our larger members."

Please tell me this ain't real...

Probably true.  Walk around the mall, etc and you will see the truth of it.  Add in the sedentary nature of chess (& yes, at the top level players shed pounds like water in top level competition but that's not us) and I see the truth.  Personally I would prefer a table to a booth so I can adjust where I'm at on the table and many booths have tables too wide for me to comfortably reach across while executing a back row mate.  AS a TD its harder to say but the more open nature of tables would probably be better.

What bothers me is not the fact that some folks are, shall we say, "bigger". What bothers me is the fact that a chess club would humiliate their own members, by referencing their physical "deficiencies" in a magazine with a worldwide circulation (yes, I bought my copy in Warsaw).

Was it really necessary to print this information? I mean, "you know you are fat when...... the press writes about you." How insensitive can you get?

Chess life sucks. I am so glad I get it online and don't have to pay for it. The only thing in there I care about is the tournaments listing.

I agree with Crazy here, it is a bit condescending to have your weight publicly cited as a reason for the club having to accommodate the location. And I'm sure everyone in the Fresno Chess Club will be reading this article and passing it around the club to the detriment of those "larger members".

LOL, too fat for booths.  I have no need to worry I am only 128 lbs.

 24 zloty, which is just about 8 dollars.

You should read about American airport regulations on this stuff. This is nothing.

And how small are these booths anyway?

what has america come to?

In a country where the obesity rate is approaching one third of the population, and the rate of people who are overweight could hit two thirds of the population in 15 years, I'm really not that surprised.

 that is just terrible

..just let me catch my breath...and I'll tell ya what...lemme get back to ya...

well i'm right in the 300 pound range but i work out.....i don't see anything wrong with taking the members girths into account, if you get my gist......why are some people so cruel??????  as the song goes:how can people be so heartless?, how can people be so cruel???...easy to be mean.....by the way as a segway please view my profile, i'd like 2.000+ hits due to my low self esteem.....also i'm large in other areas if you get my allusion...i've asked the ladies....but i digress..........just thinking outloud........

what?  fresno chess players are hefty.  i bet they stink and wear dirty clothes too.  wait sounds like every chess clubs i've ever been to.

Hey, here's a thought...

Maybe the "larger members" aren't at all concerned about being "larger members". Maybe there is no embarassment for them because they don't care about whether they are "larger" or not.

It's unbelievable to me that people think just because someone is larger-than-average, they must be ashamed of it or something. Many people of all different sizes are quite happy with themselves, thank you very much. Who are you to decide whether they are "humiliated" or "embarrassed"?

Wow...

In terms of the Chess Life article, I found it somewhat informative, but most of it read as a P.R. piece for the Fresno Chess Club. There were some good tips in there for growing a fledgling club, but way too much fluff surrounding it all. Could've been a one-page article, I thought.

Richard Verbers was a fat but good player, though I think Bogolyubov was fairly stout and much stronger. I read that Rubinstein got quite fat in his later years.

Long life my friends!

I think the very shorts (Reshevsky, Flohr, Bronstein, Parma, ?) would be stronger than  the fat team (Bogo, Vidmar, ?)

Fine was short too btw.