What needs to change in US chess

 I won't dispute that the USCF needs an overhaul, but I am saying that even with the USCF the way it is, it's possible to hold a ten dollar tournament.  The first step is to get rid of the cash prize.

I've already done it in Detroit, and I'm doing it again this spring.

In nearby Ann Arbor, there are montly three round, "quad" style, rated tournaments for a $5.00 entry fee... and a $15.00 prize for each quad. 

Obviously, they have a sweetheart deal.  Their site is free.  That can't easily be arranged, but there are churches, libraries, and community centers that can easily be had for ten bucks per person.

Again, I can only say what we do in South Africa.

Shopping Malls here are quite willing to provide you with free space in the public areas of the malls, foyers, etc. They would also often provide tables and chairs, you just need to supply equipment. (Remember, if you are trying to attract new players they probably don't own clocks). Frequently they will also sponsor prize money.

It's quite an experience to play a tournament in a noisy mall, but it somehow "demystifies" the game for casual players. If you make this a regular thing, you can often get casual players to sign up for the next tournament, there is normally a fair bit of interest.

And you're right too, about holding tournaments. Formal bodies are never going to popularize the game. It's up to local clubs.

About the prize money, you do need that to attract some good players. Casual players and the public at large find it fascinating to watch the good(?) guys blitzing or post morteming between rounds.

Yeah, right outside the Supermarket doors. You get shopping trolleys moving between the tables, lol. Good fun, if you don't take it too seriously.

Here in Gaithersburg we have a regular chess club in the local shopping mall. They play off to the side in the food court. But I think a lot of that is because there was one guy organizing the thing. But he's doing it as part of his business. He's a coach, he teaches in the local elementary schools, he runs a summer camp for kids. Saturday mornings he runs classes for kids in the mall. He's not really involved with the adult side of the club anymore, but it still carries on. It's small, maybe five to ten people. But they're there every Saturday.

I've played a lot of games there. It's noisy, there are TVs with videos, security guards rolling by on their Segways. Whatever. You deal with it.

As a Eurotrash immigrant, I've found the USCF's membership fees exorbitant for what you actually get. The spanking new chess excellence centre close to me (where this year's US Championship was held) charges a fairly hefty annual membership fee. Then there is the cost of entering the tournaments themselves, with a player like me having basically zilch chance of winning anything.

But on Chess.com, for a modest annual fee, I can play all the chess I want from all strength of opponents from all round the world and it doesn't cost me an extra dime. No travelling, no hotel bills, no food bills, no entry fees. All can be done from the comfort of my living room.

What incentive do I currently have to play in USCF tourneys, apart from the pleasure of gaining an official rating?

I agree entirely with Reb, tournament chess needs to get cheaper. Much cheaper.

Over the years I have been a member of chess clubs that met in public restaurants on their "slow" night. One of my favorites was a pizza place in Augusta Georgia. They didnt charge the chess players anything for the space but did expect them to patronize the place while there and playing chess. The players there would number from 6 to 20 players normally, and everyone would normally have dinner there on chess club nights which helped the business. Here in Portugal I have played many events in gymnasiums. They usually charge very little and if you are lucky you might get it for nothing. You will need people willing to help moving tables and chairs into the gym and back out when finished..... the draw back with this venue is that it usually isnt air conditioned in summer nor heated in winter, so you have to allow for the weather too .

i think the idea has a lot of potential in my current location. The predominant population is hispanic and word of mouth is very strong in that community. If it were allowed to have maybe 25 boards I think a big movement would be created.

Having a chess club at your local mall also sounds like an incredibly enchanting idea..  I believe Grandmaster Alex Shabalov has a chess club in a mall/shopping facility.

And I need "good players" because....?

If they';re so good that they won't play me unless I pay them, they aren't much use to me.

I'm not saying that there shouldn't be cash prizes or high priced, presitigious tournaments.  What I am saying is that that style of tournament is not going to appeal to a newcomer.  If you don't have an entry level tournament, you don't have a chess community.  Do something for the entry level, as well as for the "good player", and the Chess community will grow.

There's no reason it should cost more to spend a day playing Chess than it should to spend a few hours sitting in a movie theater.  Make the price competitive, and people will show up.

And, I think you would find that over time, if there were more entry level tournaments, you would find a change in the culture, and the "good players" would show up to the little tournaments as well, but that's a long term change.

its mathematics :)

thank you so much for that input :D

Ill give my remarks about chess in Oregon. (And my history as a chess player to boot)

I learned chess because my best friend in elementary school played in lots of scholastic tournaments (he went to a different school than I did, I dont think mine had any). During middle school, we stopped hanging out, and I didn't play much chess, I don't think there was a middle school chess club of any sort where I was.

In high school, 2000-2004, the first couple years, a couple seniors would play chess by the library, or in the cafeteria. My junior year I tried to organize a chess club, I got a room we could meet in, I had a teacher-advisor in charge. We met Tuesday nights from 6-8, or 7-9 (I can't remember exactly). Despite having fliers up on school walls, and talking to at least a dozen people I would see around the school playing chess, we had 5 people show up once, 4 people show up a couple times, and 2 or 3 a few, and several weeks I would be alone. I have no idea why people at my school would play chess recreationally but didn't want to join a chess club that met after hours. After about 6 months of this, I gave up and by my senior year of high school, I was pretty burnt out.

Additionally, I was volunteering at an elementary school chess club during this time, that had probably 15-25 members. They had a tournament at their school, it went well from what I remember. Maybe it was just my age group that wasn't interested, but the younger kids clearly seemed to have a knack for it.

So, what is the conclusion from this rambling?

There are lots of scholastic opportunities for elementary school kids, but it peters out by the high school level. To play in a nonscholastic tournament in Oregon, I have to go to Portland (90 miles away), and it costs at least 25$ for the tournament, plus another 25-100$ in membership fees. Costs and distance definitely limit my ability to play in tournaments, and I do feel like theres potential for Corvallis to host a decent sized club and maybe even a yearly tournament, but right now our monday night club gets about 2-8 people in attendance. Maybe its just publicity, or organization, but I sure would like to have more variety of opponents.

I look forward to seeing what you guys and gals come up with as suggestions for US chess in general.

Hi, it seems like to me that your in need of more members. there have been plenty of outspoken voices in the threat that have talked about how to increase numbers in their club or location:

Well, I can't speak for the USA, but I can tell you how we increased membership of a slowly dying club in South Africa from fewer than 10 to over 60 members:

Monthly 25/25 5 round Swiss Tournaments, on Sunday afternoons. Start at 12 noon, and everybody is home in time for dinner.

Entry fee R50.00, (about $7.00). Open to everybody, does not have to be registerd with any formal body, and the complete entry fee goes to to prize money for the top 5 finishers. Of course you need a TD who is willing to run this for the love of it, without getting paid (that usually ended up being me), but because it is informal, and not rated, he does not have to be qualified.

Just put out a few flyers in the area, the response might surprise you.

I highly encounrage you to follow the thread. Please keep in touch with your progress and feel free to contact me for any additional help.

charles

 Ditto to most remarks. Get big time sponsors with deep pockets and you will get interest like the comment above. Then you will probably get some notable people making the news when they win the big $$$$$$ . (cash) 

I know when you go to some amusement parks, you can get a picture of yourself riding the rollercoaster. I would like to get a picture of my opponent and their contorted face as they are in the throes of pain after I make a remarkable move. If I could get little comemorative plaques, with my opponents tortured little faces on them, I would certainly attend more chess tournaments.

The sad fact of the matter is that the majority of Americans would rather watch a baseball game or go to a concert than give chess a minute of their attention.

It is all very simple, because humans are very simple.

Feeling stupid by losing at chess = pain

Humans are hardwired to avoid pain.

Paying money to watch some highly skilled player take it from you = more pain

The people who will go to chess tournaments are those that truly have a passion for the game, not those who wish to win the pie in the sky money. You want to make chess more popular, then try and build up a larger base of passionate players. Think about chess.com. How much does Erik pay me to come to his site... absolutely nothing! Why do I come here, why do I pay money when I have no chance at a cash prize?  I come here because I love chess, and Erik caters to all the wants and needs of true devotees to our noble game.

My conclusion for US tournament chess? Stop paying such crazy prizes to lure titled players, because the amateurs don't feel like bankrolling their livings. With lower entry fees, it is more apt to draw in more 'on the fence' players. If any players are willing to pay outrageous fees to try and 'get a shot at the Master', you are doing us all a disservice. You want to get busted up by a titled player? Instead of paying crazy entry fees, buy some lessons from a titled player. I'm sure they'd be happy to smack you around and take your money for it. Remember, all get rich schemes are doomed to failure, so put chess first, and get this money crap out of the way.

The solution is to hold the sort of tournament you wish someone else was holding.  It's really easy.

Of course, the world will not beat a path to your door, and it might be difficult starting out.  You won't paste three fliers on a library door and get 100 players,  but it can be done.  Find a place where you can play for free with a very small crowd, or for a small fee with a slightly bigger crowd, and charge 10 dollars or less. 

One thing you must do is find a way for people to play in your tournament without buying a USCF membership.  There are two options.  One is hold unrated play.  The other is to take their entry fee, and use it to purchase a one event membership from USCF.  They don't publicize those, but you can get them.  The down side is that they cost 12 dollars, last time I checked, which means you might be losing money on a ten dollar entry fee, but depending on circumstances, you can make it work.

Here's a gimmick I used last year.  My son's chess club holds a successful annual torunament, attracting 60 or so kids every year.  Last year, I had a "parent-child" section.  I got six parents to enter, none of whom had ever been in a chess tournament before.  I have since seen two of them at other local tournaments.

My rating is 700.  I can find plenty of challenge before I get to someone who makes his living, or even supplements his income, playing Chess.  Meanwhile, if you want to grow Chess, you have to get me to your tournament.  The Master level players are already coming.

You say that you need big prizes to attract those players?  I disagree.  If they have a choice between  a big prize tourney and a small prize tourney, they'll go to the big prize tourney.  What if you took away that choice?  Eliminate the big prize tourney. Would they stop playing?  If so, Chess has a much bigger problem than is being discussed here.

Of course, it's nice that the big prizes exist, but if there are no tournaments for players like me, it's unsustainable.  The only way the community grows is to add new members, and new members aren't going to come in if they have to play 25 bucks or more.  The prize money doesn't draw them in, because they have no chance of winning, and the chance of playing great players doesn't draw them in, because not only will they not win, there's too much of a gap to even realistically learn from the loss.

We have free rated chess at least 3 times a week now here in Phoenix. Borders has been really nice about letting their locations be used for chess. 

If Masters are looking for a revenue stream, they should look to market their services. When I hit Master, I will look to be a private coach, offer simultaneous exhibitions in partnership with local businesses, hold camps, and of course there is always being an author. Unless you are some ice-cold killer GM, it is very impractical to earn a living off of tourney earnings. If we continue to require prize funds to feed the money sharks, the rest of us amatuers will get eaten up like so many fish. I think chess would do well to follow Nintendo's business model and really take a different approach. The main customer base of dedicated tournament players is already established, the key is how to draw in the non-player or the hobby player who is on the fence. The current system is NOT working, so maybe some dramatic change is in order. So the question to the chess players is what kind of experience can we make the chess tournament? It would serve us well to really investigate what draws people to play in tournaments, and work harder to meet that need and enhance that experience. Maybe I'm wrong, but I highly doubt that the majority of players go to a tournament to try and win money. So why do we set up the system to use that as the main draw? Perhaps using a portion of entry fees from large state tournaments to start or grow chess clubs in that state would be helpful. Chess is a community activity. When I first started playing chess, my friend and I would go to a local bookstore every Wednesday and have a good time with our chess friends. With some monitary support, who knows how many people that club could have inspired. Instead, the club is now a distant, but very fond memory.

What do people expect the USCF to provide for $30? The organization is only chartered to run the US Championship. I don't think it was ever intended to be the main organizer of tournaments, that is what people like Goichberg and other organizers/TDs are for. I think the majority of tournaments probably do not have outrageous fees like the CCA ones that have massive prize funds. Every month there is a G/60 tournament in Phoenix that costs $12 to play in. I've played in a G/45 tournament in Joshua Tree, CA that I think had a $20 entry fee. If the USCF is in the business of making money, they are horrible at it. They have been chronically short of money for at least a decade, and are close to bankrupt right now with the Polgar lawsuits sucking up so much money. Earlier this year the office went to a 4-day work week and laid off some staff.

What is really needed is a revival of chess club activity. If chess clubs were to grow and thrive again, more tournaments would spring up to service the needs of those players. The problem these days is finding affordable locations to have a club. Many places that used to be free now cost money.