What is it with chess clubs?

Chess Clubs could be perfect for promoting and organizing OTB chess but somehow they fail.

I've visited many in my city (large city in Germany) but, besides one exception, they were all almost empty.

Their schedules and demand for commitment seemed to fit only retired seniors, children or players very focused on competition. That is probably why they are managed by retired seniors anyway and also why many players can't find their peers there.

And all that only if you are lucky enough to have one close to you.

As a result, most players don't go to a chess club and many players can't really play OTB although they would. And, on top of that, chess players have a tendency to not know many other chess players or, at least, not players with the same skills.

I thought about it for a while and then built Chess Royale. This site aims at helping chess players find each other and play OTB chess.

If you had the same experience with chess clubs as I did, maybe you'd like to try it.

/M

PS: Sorry for the blunt self promotion but I can't see any other way to reach chess players.

it seems strange to me that you have trouble finding a chess club that ticks your criteria in germany. I think most of german chess clubs are pretty respectable. The bundesliga is after all one of the best in the world. Of course I do not know the german situation but you should be able to find at least one no? And what do you mean by schedules and commitment? for chess one day in the week is the standard in Belgium (I'm lucky to have found a club that has two but that is extremely rare). And I guess with demand for commitment you mean asking members to play in competition. I cannot see why you have a problem with this. When playing soccer there's also the expectation that you join the training and are there when a match has to be played. Chess is no different.

In Germany! A friend of mine visited a chess club in Hamburg and he says it was like heaven. Never saw anything like that here.

I don't mean that chess clubs in Germany are bad or worse than anywhere else. 

What I think is that chess clubs, in general, are not well suited for most chess players. Not everybody wants to play in tournaments and develop a FIDE ranking but most players love to play OTB chess, learn and improve.

Cannot agree more.

When I ask apart from tournament games and certain play times, if anyone comes for play some skirmish games or training plays. No one responds to my e-mails. Still the same in 2022.

I mean look at this:

https://saintlouischessclub.org/events/event-calendar

Or this:

https://www.marshallchessclub.org/calendar

It is more or less impossible to find a chess club in Germany (Munich for me) which offers lots of events instead of 18:30 play time. Sigh, I leave sometimes from work at that time. How can I manage that? Germans especially in Bavaria please give me suggestions.

I am not even talking about weekend play times. That would be miracle to find such thing.

Yeah, OTB stuff here in rural Oz is oldster stuff. Wednesday afternoon, once a week in a licenced, members only club. And I say 'oldster' being over 50 myself, lol... Maybe geriatric is more correct.

I like the last question you asked, what replaced leisure time social interaction? - yes, most simply, it's media consumption, but paired with that 'text a friend in the same room' social media screen addiction. On the other hand, in my post above, I complained about the local club I attended being held in a (alcohol/tobacco) licensed venue, you needed to become a (paid) member of. I see the wisdom of that now, from your anecdote. 

Problem is that drop rate of players probably started way earlier than social media and mainstream internet usage from 2010s. Problem is that most small clubs, at least here in Sweden, don't offer anything to the regular player. And when possibilities to play, learn and talk online became easy for everyone, the reason to go to the club disappeared completely for regular Joe.

You often have one lesson a week for kids, then one or two times for adults where we play either local speed tournament (10 min games) or with clubs in other city. Often the time is right after working/studying hours so you better be quick. From what I remember there are no adult intro courses so I don't know if there is even that much help an adult beginner can get at the club without someone having to sacrifice their already small time to analyze your games and trying to explain it. You rarely have another study partner in similar position of similar age. So why go to the club instead of playing at home, whenever you like with whoever you like?

Kinda like the difference between my old aikido club and a gym. Was looking for getting back in shape so tried going back to aikido club I trained at for a couple of years in the early 2000s. Before we hade one pass (lesson, shift ? ) for beginner kids, one for advanced kids, one for beginner adults and one for advanced adults. In most groups you had 10 - 25 people any given day. And you could have some free sparring and training on Saturdays. Compare to now, right before covid, where we had only one pass per week for adults. Two late teens - young adults who trained for a couple of years, me who was out of totally out of shape and yet still was on same level as them and a couple of slightly older people with brown - black belts who both trained and acted as coaches. At best I would need to spend more time practicing at home from youtube and grinding stances.

Compare to the gym which is slightly pricier but offer training both in groups and solo almost any time of the day. 

I went to one here in Australia. Old men (nice guys) and a few socially inept kids. The president had been running the club for years and showed zero interest in doing anything new, such as a junior tournament. The club just runs exactly the same way with its 5 round weeknight tournaments starting half an hour late and going until 11:00+. My membership expired last month and I'm still undecided if I will renew. I don't know if other clubs are any different though.

"new generations/lifestyles come up"

Unfortunately not, at least no new generations. As far I can see the players on the DWZ list (Deutscher Schachbund), there are the same people as 2 or 3 decades ago. Some of them are gone (may they rest in peace), but there are only very few new players.

That's the new lifestyle: not playing in chess club and either play online or compensate with alternative hobbies ( poker, strategic video games ). From what I could see in clubs near me there are a lot of kids playing chess but, as usual, it is the transition from pre-teen to teen and a lack of a good entry point for adults which act as both exit points and blocked entry points for new players.

You don't know anything about me or the club I was in so how can you ? that I am "complaining on a high level"?

It isn't structured at all and numbers are never above 7. They aren't my age group either.

Almost as important questions is how many are on your or similar level in chess? Because if you don't neither good games or social interaction, why would you even be there?

They’re fun!

I don't think that I know many people who would be in a chess club on cc for playing chess tho..

Pretty sure we are talking about real, physical chess clubs out there in the real, physical world. What chess clubs are used for on chess.com I have no idea.

But it would be probably good for real clubs to create digital clubs on chess/lichess so that new players could speak to them and maybe learn and play chess as well as find out about club life in a more relaxed no-pressure atmosphere. I knew one club in a city nearby which used lichess for tournaments during covid but it seems very dead now after irl games are open.

Exactly, which is why I have decided to stop going.