Organize a league.
One possibility is an intercollegiate league. Every college is invited to field a team. Chess.com sets the schedule, keeps track of the standings, etc. I have been in and around a number of colleges and what's generally keeping schools from playing each other is 1) lack of travel ability and 2) lack of organization. Chess.com can solve both these problems while getting some talented young members.
Perhaps you could get some of your more popular titled players to do videos of their games, with forum commentaries where the masters could respond to questions from the likes of us. Look how popular curtains (Greg Shahade) 5 min game commentaries where for chessvideos.tv. Of course those videos had a great comic value as well.
Loomis wrote:
Organize a league. One possibility is an intercollegiate league. Every college is invited to field a team. Chess.com sets the schedule, keeps track of the standings, etc. I have been in and around a number of colleges and what's generally keeping schools from playing each other is 1) lack of travel ability and 2) lack of organization. Chess.com can solve both these problems while getting some talented young members.
This sounds like a really good idea if you can spread the word enough. And possibly have all the games be like "live chess" so that it's more like at OTB tournament.
I think you are doing great. When there was news of Kasparov's arrest, you broke it here first to the amazement of some chess friends. The network of people you already have is amazing in itself. Dedicated bloggers like batgirl come up with amazing material. Real time chess is coming along nicely. Also, you run a remarkably clean site. A friend recently complained that his site had a problem with filth, etc. I told him where he can find a clean game. He is now trying it out here.
For all I know, you will come up with some genius move, but the stuff you have is quite an accomplishment.
Getting money involved would be a nightmare, Lisa. If you think the cheating threads are bad now...
I thought about this for a little while, like, really considered the question deeply.
Maybe it's just all of my schooling rearing it's ugly head, but, well, I'm treating this as a final exam take home essay question.
Erik, I'll hand in my paper to you tomorrow morning. (The ideas are coming...)
Have the Chess.com member with the highest rateing ,play Chess with a crew member who is on the International Space Station the game would take place on the Chess.com web site. Another idea might be sending up a blimp that flashes the Chess.com web address. Find out if Chess.com members have a favorite food they like to eat before playing a game and how do they go about prepareing the food.
You could build a stronger community by encouraging chess.com members to meet each other. For example, in every city with at least 30 members appoint a local organizer who will try to setup a twice-a-year get-together... maybe for casual games at a local restaurant of coffeeshop. That might also help chess.com members learn about and get involved with existing chess clubs. For agreeing to organize things maybe you could send the organizer a free t-shirt or 1-month of chess mentor access. :)
Likesforests: Excellent idea. Obviously there will be a percentage of people (likely a rather high percentage) who will not be interested... but for those who would be interested in this, it would be a wonderful appendage to the website.
I'm unsure of my use of appendage there.. something tells me it was incorrect.
I think one area that has room for expansion is live coverage of big events. The game(s) could be presented in a discussion thread where the moves are relayed in real time. Perhaps you could employ a titled player to commentate, although this might not be necessary if enough strong players are attracted and post comments.
Also I see thousands of games in the games explorer with discussion pages attached but not many people are posting. Maybe there might be some way to get people posting in them by linking them to 'recently posted in topics' , giving them a place in the forums or maybe starting a 'game of the day' feature on the home page.
I'm not sure if this qualifies as "BUZZ" but I think it might add appeal to the site.
How about getting some chessbook publishers ( Everyman, Batsford, Cardoza ) sponsor some tourneys ? The prizes : a book or two or more or a decorative chess set, a video or some software. Whoever participates in them gets the chessbook publishers' advertisement flashing on the side of the screen/ board ( not sure how technical it is to achieve and also when paid members don't get ads ). Shouldn't be too big a distraction - whilst waiting for someone to move, I may browse some of these ads. Also gets round the cheating-to-win-prize-money problem...
Vote Chess: Chess.com vs anotherchesswebsite.com
likesforests wrote:
You could build a stronger community by encouraging chess.com members to meet each other. For example, in every city with at least 30 members appoint a local organizer who will try to setup a twice-a-year get-together... maybe for casual games at a local restaurant of coffeeshop. That might also help chess.com members learn about and get involved with existing chess clubs. For agreeing to organize things maybe you could send the organizer a free t-shirt or 1-month of chess mentor access. :)
Don't like the chess players I already know in this area. Just kidding, great idea likesforests.
An option for vote chess that isn't large-scale Chess.com vs Chess.com, but rather more of a league vote chess; where people can form teams of up to ten players and play vote chess games against other teams without site staff first having to approve it and put it up on public display. Basically, vote chess would now work very much like the current turn-based chess, only with teams that you can form to play games.
There should be games of the week for players according to rating levels.
i.e. 2700 - 2500
2400 - 2200
200 - 0
etc, etc, etc.
Maybe have some sort of "solve chess" volunteer program. Much like the seti computer program but for chess.
(thats maybe counter intuitive for the good of chess so maybe not)
Maybe some way of earning chess mentor time by completing games. I'm sure that would increase activity on your site. Although could result in a higher strain on people with fake accounts etc.
Have competions to find novelty lines in whatever opening. Give chess players a chance to have a variation named after them without having to compete in huge tournaments.
I'm drunk and rambling... my ginfers may not have been on the right kyes for msto of this but eh. I think I'm on to something... where did I put my wine!?!
Question: What is something we can do to add some "buzz" to Chess.com? To get people excited, interested, more engaged... give people something to talk about!
Tell me your ideas! If I like it, I'll give you a sweet prize :)