Clubs, their admins and leagues on Chess.com: Open letter to Magnus Carlsen

Clubs, their admins and leagues on Chess.com: Open letter to Magnus Carlsen

Dear Magnus,

we're writing this message to you as Chess.com's ambassador: We're convinced, that you know quite well, what's needed to manage chess clubs and their participation in competitions. Unfortunately Chess.com shows some long lasting difficulties to understand these needs of clubs, their admins and leagues.

One of your five clubs on Chess.com are The Great Viking Warriors: They are a well known and a very strong virtual chess club, which participates e.g. in the TEAM MATCH CHAMPIONSHIP LEAGUE (TMCL) and the ONE WORLD League (1WL) on Chess.com. For years this club has been managed by GM Thorsten Michael Haub (@DJ_Haubi).

A few weeks ago, Thorsten has been muted by Chess.com for "club spamming" after having sent – as usual – several messages to club members to prepare an important match for one of his clubs. This muting for fourteen days was one of many, which prevents admins from doing their job. During the last few months Chess.com is more and more rigorously chasing members, who are sending out a few more messages than others.

Many club admins have already reduced or completely stopped their activities recently: Thorsten did the same after receiving an automated message from Chess.com accusing him showing a "behavior, that negatively impacts the community". From his point of view, it looked to be pointless continuing his activities in an environment, which looks to be detrimental for clubs, their admins and leagues.

His case is only the most prominent one and muting more and more admins is only one of several structural problems that clubs, their admins and leagues are facing on Chess.com. For those, who are interested, there are several others described in this blog post: https://www.chess.com/blog/Tournamentix/structural-problems-for-clubs-on-chess-com

For a long time many of us club admins have tried to be heard and understood by Chess.com – without success. For clubs, their admins and leagues, nothing became better during the last few years. Quite sure, that you can help us, if you like to do so: With your support, there should be a way towards improvements and a better environment for our activities on Chess.com.

Best regards,

Signatories in the name of competitions:

@Chambro1970 (County Championship Council UK & Ireland), @ImperfectAge (US Team Chess League), @Libra_64 (TCMAC), @tournamentix (ONE WORLD League and European InterRegio Championship)

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Signatories in the name of clubs:

@ahsanbd (Glory of Red Green), @al2fresco (The Great British Empire.), @Andrea (Oracles, Asger’s Children Of The Revolution), @AndrewSmith (Team Match Chess, Chess Bombers, Chess House Cafe, Adults allowed, Glamorgan), @AugustoMacri (Argentina Chess Club), @blackfirestorm („too many clubs to name“), @Chambro1970 (Hertfordshire County Chess, Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire BDG, Bedfordshire-Northamptonshire, Edinburgh-Lothian, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Munster, Oxford Ospreys, Team Connacht, Team Leinster, Team Wiltshire), @Chess_Star88 (3 CHECK FUN), @Commando-Poppins (Squadron Commandos, Total 960), @Dollbraegen (Warriors of the Rainbow), @DragonWest (Devon Chess Club), @Garbeyes (Catholic Chess Club, Team Asturias), @Giampero111 (Team Italia DOC), @gibsori (Warwickshire County Chess), @GordonRichardson (Eagles Nest), @GrandURAL (⇚✯УРАЛ✯URAL✯⇛), @ikeepminehidden (NO PASARAN, Battle For Victory, Chexx Pistols), @ImperfectAge (The Golden Phoenix, Powder Monkeys, Team Oregon, Munster), @JIDEMONI (Royal Wallachian Chess Club, TJ Valašská Bystřice - šachy), @JRC_96 (The Globetrotters, TEAM IRAN+ and others), @kcbarnes (Big Game Hunters), @knetfan (Adriana Nikolova FANCLUB, Anna Muzychuk Fan Club, FanatikClub, Friends of Femme Fatales, Magnus Carlsen’s fan club, Young Beauties), @Libra_64 (1 day per move club), @lvali40 (BEAUTIFUL ROMANIA), @martinhind3 (Inverness Chess Club, Team Scotland and others), @MindlessDirt (Friends Uniting Against Mental Illness Chess Club), @N8Sun (Dhaka Warriors), @Nachogm57 (Team México), @Naitikkadam (Asia National Team, The Royal Falcon Club, Vedic Warriors), @Obifunk-Kenobi (Exercitatio Artem Parat, Ab Imo Pectore), @phantomisback (Eternals-Superheroes, Asian Chess Masters, Europe National Team), @Pomb113 (Los amigos de Chanquete), @Rodic68 (SK LESTANE, Free World League and others), @tjanus71 (Mateisci I Drwale), @tournamentix (Art Of Chess, Earthlings United, European Chess Players, Peace for Ukraine, Union der Regionalvereine, Cevennes Chess Club, Adlerauge Brandenburg, Berliner Schachbären, Bremer Schachartisten, Die Baden-Württemberger, Die Rheinländer, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rochade Südbayern, Rot-Weiß Hessen, Sachsen-Anhalt Team, Schachfreunde Franken, Schachfreunde Hamburg, Schachfreunde Sachsen, Springer Niedersachsen, Springer Westfalen-Lippe, Union Rheinland-Pfalz-Saar, Team Thorsten Michael Haub and others), @Tricky_Dicky (Yorkshire Terriers), @uglyork (ANTI NAZI LEAGUE, PURPLE HAZE), @weeding45 (Little Big Pawn, NAMASTÉ, Earth Air Fire Water, Team Utopia), @yahary (Peak Performers, Alpha Female Sorority)

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[Addendum] New supporters:

5 competitions and 133+ clubs now

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@CenturioneRomanoXXX (TCMAC), @herdwars (The Netherlands, Iron Maiden, Elite Chess Team, Premium Members, Knights of Honor), @Honor_Leslie (The Green Team, Chess Tourists, Team anime and manga), @M-DinhHoangViet (Thí Vua Lấy Tốt - TungJohn Playing Chess), @Rapszodia (Zwei Konzertetüden, 2SetViolin), @racine6 (LEGIO I ITALICA, Team Sicilia, Team Italia), @Rodic68 (SLOVENSKO BRATSTVO, CIGORIN MIHAIL, Balkan Team, BUGHOUSE CLUB, Serbia-Russia Team, Team Beograd, ISK Craven Zvezda, Svetozar Gligoric Chess Club, Chess Club Cukarica Bgd., Poisoned Pawn, Karpov Fans, BLITZ WORLD LEAGUE, Israel - Russia - SA, Sahovska sekcija TQM Centar), @Ukranian_boy (Team Ternopil, Chess Team Zaporizhzhia)

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Feel free to support our initiative with your statement here. 

That's dumb.

Dark blue letters on a black blackground? Excellent idea! Assuming that the contents of this open letter are secret.

Dear Bernd, to the list you can add me, racine6 and the TCMAC league, which as an owner, I agree with your analysis and conclusion, of a serious problem, not only of silencing , but also recognize the great work we do ... free, to make a site better, which does not consider us, important, and in my opinion wrong, but above all the question you have told.

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If you've difficulties to read a text, you only need to switch from "Dark UI" to the "Light UI" (or from the "Light UI" to the "Dark UI"). It's just another particularity on this site. 😉

Addendum: Thanks for the hint. Should be easier to read now.

Really? Ever heard about Carlsen's Offerspill Sjakklubb? https://english.offerspill.com/ Probably it's Norway's biggest chess club, which has its own online league and organizes frequently large OTB tournaments. By doing this, Magnus Carlsen should know, "what's needed to manage chess clubs and their participation in competitions", shouldn't he?

I and the owner of the club Thí Vua Lấy Tốt - TungJohn Playing Chess support

@racine6 owner of LEGIO I ITALICA, Team Sicilia and Team Italia

@CenturioneRomanoXXX owner TCMAC league

[Addendum] New supporters:

5 competitions and 133+ clubs now

.

@CenturioneRomanoXXX (TCMAC), @herdwars (The Netherlands, Iron Maiden, Elite Chess Team, Premium Members, Knights of Honor), @Honor_Leslie (The Green Team, Chess Tourists, Team anime and manga), @M-DinhHoangViet (Thí Vua Lấy Tốt - TungJohn Playing Chess), @Rapszodia (Zwei Konzertetüden, 2SetViolin), @racine6 (LEGIO I ITALICA, Team Sicilia, Team Italia), @Rodic68 (SLOVENSKO BRATSTVO, CIGORIN MIHAIL, Balkan Team, BUGHOUSE CLUB, Serbia-Russia Team, Team Beograd, ISK Craven Zvezda, Svetozar Gligoric Chess Club, Chess Club Cukarica Bgd., Poisoned Pawn, Karpov Fans, BLITZ WORLD LEAGUE, Israel - Russia - SA, Sahovska sekcija TQM Centar), @Ukranian_boy (Team Ternopil, Chess Team Zaporizhzhia)

I was one of the first to show how much less problems an admin has on another platform. I agree to sign the letter, of course.

Warnefrit on behalf of Team Greenland

Clubs are for weak players. Carlsen hasn't been that weak since he was 8 years old. He lends his name to clubs because he's world champion and Norway is his home country. I'm sure some very nice and generous local people run it. If they're lucky Carlsen visits once a year.

Chess.com clubs specifically are mostly for silly people... IMO. Mostly kids and beginners... I'd be shocked if Carlsen were ever interested in such a silly thing.

Paper Llama, you can stop trolling now. Clubs are in important organisational tool for groups of all kinds.

I'm biased but not trolling. That's really my (admittedly subjective) view of clubs... that they're full of ridiculous children.

We have local regional clubs here for Australia to organise OTB matches and are affiliated with our local chess associations. How is that not important????? We even ran our OTB matches here during lockdown for covid. Even ran the school fixtures. For all the children. And still run events daily and extra events during holidays.
Our clubs are very important. Very important.

I didn't know that. Thanks for letting me know.

I mostly use the forums, and so my experience with clubs is usually some 10 year old spamming invites to a club where they'll make all their friends SA and then they'll all abandon it 1 month from now.

But yeah, in this topic, we have someone asking MAGNUS CARLSEN to pressure chess.com to unmute someone who was spamming messages...

That's like... peak child behavior. Completely stupid.

But I don't want to sound like I'm trolling or being overly negative, so here, let me help the OP... have that guy send a message to chess.com support. Even if they've been muted for "1 year" chess.com will quickly unmute them if they send an email saying they wont do it again.

And after they're unmuted follow the rules... that's the simple resolution... not writing messages to Carlsen lol.

 @paper_llama, as a fairly typical representantive of these 'Silly people", who are "Mostly Kids", (I'm a 68 years old, retired, engineering director), I am involved in quite a few league clubs which provide matches for many hundreds of members (Matches with board numbers from 3 up to 700+) . The standard of play varies from absolute beginner to titled players. Perhaps it would be better to get some facts first before posting opinions with dubious accuracy. 

I mean, I could go into more detail, but because I'd be revealing I have additional contempt for various reasons it'd just be abusive at this point, so I'll keep quiet about it.

In the past I've heard some SAs of large groups complain about how chess.com restricts them, so sure, maybe OP's gripe is legitimate. Good luck.

@paper_llama and KingVandheer: Your accounts are a few months/weeks old and you aren't participating with any of your clubs in a competition, right?

"That guy", who was in your eyes "spamming messages" and should send an email "saying they won't do it again" and "follow the rules" is GM Thorsten Michael Haub, who was one of the most active club admins on Chess.com for nearly ten years. He build up two exemplary clubs, the France-Deutschland Group (founded 2014) and the The Great Viking Warriors (founded 2015); the latter club has the pleasure seeing GM Magnus Carlsen as their inactive member. Do your comments really sound fact-based and appropriate for yourself?

With the open letter five competitions and more than 140 clubs are trying to get some attention for the fact, that the competitions, in which our clubs are participating, are in danger due to Chess.com's lack of reliability, neutrality and transparency. Many of us have been automatically muted ..., just to get a few days later confirmation, that this wasn't intended at all. Our competitions are suffering, because results become more and more arbitrary due to muted, discouraged and frustrated admins.

As Thorsten got muted a few weeks ago, he did exactly the same as in many previous years. Neither his nor our behavior has changed, changementsa are on Chess.com's site and make conditions for our club worser and worser for roundabout two years now. In these two years probably none of us found a way to get heard and understood by Chess.com.

I've been on the site almost every day since 2010, and no I don't play in club competitions lol... that doesn't work at my rating.

There are glass ceilings on long time controls...