I wouldn't play otb chess if you paid me part 2

The last otb chess game that I played was in a FIDE rated tournament in 2006.

Three things would have to happen for me to think about playing otb chess again:

[1.] I would need tournaments on a weekend in the daytime. I can not play chess in the evenings. My mind is never there. The pieces seem to swim around the board. I get tired out. It's no fun at all.

[2.] I would need support from another chess player who is going to the same chess event.I've never had this. I found chess tournaments totally lonely affairs.

[3.] I would need arbiters who do not favour a 2300 player over say a 1500 player because the 2300 player has more political clout regardless of the rights/wrongs/facts of any dispute.

But I am not holding my breath on any of these 3 things being met within my lifetime.

These are excellent points.

I'm not interested in OTB events either for these reasons and more.

I decided to make a second thread on this because this time I am more constructive. I am saying that IF these 3 points were satisfied I would play otb chess. I regret that I cannot play it.

For point 2 sometimes I wonder if Laszlo Polgar's project would have produced any success above the average level if there had been only one Polgar sister to teach. That is the worst point for me. [1] and [3] are bad. But the lack of support is an absolute killer. My otb playing strength suffers I would say by at least 500 ELO points for otb chess being such a God-forsaken, l;onely afair.

1)Deifine where you seperate 'daytime' from evening? surely you dont expect it to be over before 12?

2)If you go to tournaments maybe youll make friends who play chess then it wont be lonely? This isnt something other people can solve for you, do you want ACF or FIDE to pay someone to hold your hand?

3)How does 3 affect your chess at all? The chances you will be consistently playing people around 2300 are next to nothing.
 

Not sure where your from but here in the States we have plenty of weekend tournaments that run from mid morning into the evening. Needing social interaction seems to be an issue on your end and unrelated to over the board chess itself or its organizers, and the third, at least in the states, seems like an improbability so not sure what that complaint is all about. We have sections in our tournaments so a 1500 would never play a 2300, he would play in Under 1700.

To say you play chess and not participate in over the board tournament play denies yourself the real chess experience. Having played over the board tournament I don't believe the online experience is anywhere near a substitute for the real chess experience of over the board tournament play. I couldn't imagine not playing in over the board tournaments. Its just missing out on the chess experience. Your really missing out not playing in them in my opinion.

Its easy to make friends in tournaments. You have a common interest. Just talk to people about chess. Go to eat with people between rounds. It really isn't very hard. 

Not at home. But in the 1990's I used to play some casual games in community centres. I don't play those now; I only play online.

Almost no impoliteness - no cowards hiding behind the screen hurling abuse at you.

********

I agree with that at the time. But afterwards I have had otb players saying online that my "chess is a load of crap". Even worse these people are professional chess coaches [?] in Australia.

I don't care what rating or reputation a chess coach has. If there is that sort of rudeness and lack of constructive respect then I would rather be coached by a vodka-breathed Russian on a park bench.

I've never seen favouritism otb. Mainly I base my cynicism from correspondence chess experiences in which an arbiter did blatantly favour the other player; I was not allowed to obtain the scoresheet in spite of the dispute being about the content of it. Specifically, I was accused of marking the envelopes with a false date to give myself more time. Pathetic? Absolutely. But I took the accusation seriously and tried to respond with the facts [?] of the matter. But without the scoresheets and the dates how the heck could I respond with facts? I walked out of the tournament. I am probably banned from correspondence chess worldwide for life for this. But heck, stuff them. What do I care?

"punch them in the kisser"

that was e8nf9's old warcry

Yeah. The reality was that yes, sometimes the date on the envelope didn't always match the one on the scoresheet. True. BUT IN spite of my best efforts sometimes I would put it in the envelope and forget to go to the post office. get distracted etc. So it would look as though I had cheated myself an extra day. But what was also true was that on just as many time I cheated myself OUT OF an extra day because I put a date onto the envelope or the sheet before I posted it.

So my opponent without telling me told the arbiter that I was fudging days. Then I get a letter saying "please explain accusations...". At that stage I don't have the scoresheet - the arbiter has got it or the opponent has. I would need to have it to point out all of the above. Heck, for a dispute that is this trivial should i have photocopied every envelope lol?

Had I been given the scoresheet I would have explained as above and I would have made some effort to get my envelope/write move routine undistracted by life, the universe and everything.

But as it was I couldn't be bothered anymore. I wanted to play on in the tournament. I was about to get a  draw with a 2200 FIDE player in another game. I add that the position was dead even in our dispute game. It was clear to me that there was favouritism - I was not being given the opportunity to defend and explain. To me the absence of a scoresheet was like an otb time scramble where the arbiter takes the sheets of both players and then says to you "why did you fudge this move?" without allowing you to see either sheet. You would walk out then.

Today, I learnt they are still correspondance chess played by post mails.

Why not send the moves via email, especially in countries where post mail is not-so-reliable (I heard rumors it's the case in the US, but don't have any real idea) then the transmission time is almost zero and they are completely tracable if any dispute arises ?

(of course, there is the case where people don't have free internet access, but it isn't really an issue for at least 90% of correspondance chess players, that have time for this kind of hobby, live in advanced countries, etc.).

For a piece of absolute amusement the name of the opponent in that disputed postal game was Peter Caissa. Yes. He had changed his surname to Caissa by deed poll. That is not a joke. He seriously did.

This was in the mid 1990's when email CC had not taken off

I enjoy OTB the most, but the OP #1 is my complaint. It's not that  I can't physically or mentally handle it, but I don't want to spend 2-3 days, all day and into the late evening. playing chess; especially in a place where there are other things to do, e.g., Vegas, Chicago, Fla., etc.

Peter Caissa. THIS guy -

https://sites.google.com/site/hobsonsbayyarravillechessclub/peter-caissa

Warning - if you play this guy in post chess he will turn the whole game into an accounting exercise. Though to be fair to him I did not walk out [ i.e rip the letter up and tell the tournamant to stuff itself] because of his complaint as such. It was the arbiter's accusative follow up that did it.

Not likely.

The most fun i have had in otb games have not come from tournaments but from belonging to a chess club where all the games were nonrated.I have played in some rated tournaments (which were fine for a change of pace) but there is alot of dead time and often you are either vastly over-matched or vastly under-matched. In most chess clubs you can find a few individuals who are roughly your own strength and play most of your games against them.

The most fun that I had otb was one night when we played team transfer - that is team crazyhouse with 2 players each. So when you capture an opponent's piece you can put it on a square on your teammate's board.

That got pretty insane