Why are Chess Clubs Dieing?

The news came into our club and reported on a siml the kids loved to see that on the news. Might help keep them around.

Again more clubs and events for kids. Nothing for adults. Kids will leave chess when their hormones kick in. I have seen it often. Luckily some of those kids return when they become adult and sane, but when they return they find that there is nothing for them.

As well as resurrecting the very thing you enjoy so others can enjoy it along with you?

Like in Russia and Britain, chess should be part of the curriculum.

video games and the lack of appreciation for human ingenuity in more primative times...

The chess club in my school actually had a decent amount of people. We all suck and the freshmen will probably leave the next year, but hell, it's fun for now.

Part of the curriculum in Britain? I've never heard of this and have difficulty believing it is true...

I played as a member of various OTB clubs on and off for around 15 years. I was even the Treasurer for my last club in Bristol. I gave up OTB because:

a) The time commitment (a whole evening a week) when I was working fulltime and wanted to spend more time with my partner

b) Frustration due to spending 3-4 hours on a single league match, perhaps having a good position, then blundering and losing - it made me wonder if there were perhaps more enjoyable ways to spend my time

c) The clubs were often cold, and I would get cold and wet travelling to and from

d) As a disabled person, many of my away matches were not accessible. I also couldn't reach the far side of the board, and while most opponents didn't mind moving my pieces, I didn't feel it was fair to have to interrupt their concentration - and I think some opponents did resent it especially if I won

Slightly off-topic post maybe.. several people here have hinted that chess is a grandpa game, and only old men play chess.

I believe that is a western phenomenon. About a year ago, I played a tournament in Sweden, where indeed most players were 50+ (and being in my 30s, that made me one of the youngest players there).

Then I moved to Taiwan. Chess here is a youngster's game. I recently played Taiwan championships and being in my 30s made me one of the oldest players around! The finals had mostly 20-somethings, and a few teenagers. In the qualifying rounds there were lots of teenagers, young adults and kids. Almost nobody over 40.

Also, in Sweden chess is guy's game. Here, significantly more females play chess. It is still, maybe 75% guys, but it is better from the 95% back in Sweden. 

It would not surprise me if we will have a Chinese world champion within 20 years.

There are plenty of players, but they prefer playing online since it's unrestricted and always accessible whenever you can spare some time.

I agree with a and b and to some extent c
adding to b spending more time because I am driving with 3 or 4 others in a small car. So I have to wait for them to be finished. one time they forgot to tell me that I shouldn't play because my opponent was sick and I had to wait 4 hours before going home. They told me I could watch some great games. I could only think off all the task at home. I could have completed while waiting.

with I am getting stressed taking a lot of courses and then come home I can barely get something to eat. Can't run because otherwise I don't get to the tournament in time.
C I have played in all sorts of rooms too cold, too warm, too much sun light, in a overcrowded room.
I played in a lot of OTB tournaments in the 5 years I have been in a club but know I think it is over.

I figure I would resurrect this thread based on my experience which took place just the other day. I saw in a local newsletter an advert for a chess club which had started up about 1 mile from my residence. The advert stated all ages welcome and bring a clock and set if possible. I decided to give it a go and showed up at the club and to my amusement the site that greeted me was that of a room full of children and their parents. I had to laugh and I did an abrupt about face and walked out. I had this same sort of experience at tournaments years ago which saw me vacate that scene. Heck, I’M a grown man and I like to spend my time playing the game with other adults. It just seems to me the whole chess club scene has been flooded with children and their parents. The USCF seems to cater to this lot. It does not help the chess club scene when you have events that are flooded with children. Adults spend their days with their children and when they have some time to spend on their love of chess the last thing they want is to spend that time with O.P.K (other peoples kids).  How can you expect an adult who is a beginner to get interested in chess clubs/tournaments when they are almost always paired against children? Boy, if his friends at work can see him now :D It is kind of like that Seinfeld episode where Krammer is taking the Karate class with all children:D Just my lowly two cents………..

Well all ages are welcome at my local chess club as well.  Yes that happens to include children, and infact we have some junior members at our chess club.  They are a pleasure to play against win or lose. 

If I am you I will teach these novices to get better, the better they get the higher the chance that they will like chess more.. I will also encourage these novices to bring along other people they know that might be interested in playing or learning chess..In this way the club might grow.

Here is a list of USCF tournaments for the rest of the year in Florida.

1. South Florida Chess Club Chess Magnet School Junior Grand Prix
2. Epicure Grand Prix Series at Miami Country Day (Scholastic and Non-scholastic)
3. Boca Raton Chess Club Chess Magnet School Junior Grand Prix
4. Celebrate National Chess Day at The Weiss School 5th. Annual Scholastic
5. Orlando Autumn Open & National Chess Day Scholastics Magnet School Junior Grand Prix
6. Stormont Kings National Chess Day Scholastic & Homeschool Tournament Pool Party & BBQ
7. Gulf Coast Classic Magnet School Junior Grand Prix
8. 11th. Annual Turkey Bowl Magnet School Junior Grand Prix
9. 2012 National K-12 Championship Magnet School Junior Grand Prix
10.December Scholastic Tournament

Is there a trend visible, like maybe if you ain't a kid don't bother with chess.

There are really many people who are interested to learn and play chess. All it takes is someone that will teach them how to play properly. For example in my area, even if it's raining heavy, more than 100 people come up to play against this NM(and learn) in the chess clinic.

For some reason I keep reading Why Are Chess Clubs Dieting?

I attend an in town chess club that meets on weekends so its more convinent. It is quite small and while there are many kids there are some teenagers and adults too. There is another local chess club that meets on thursday evenings with a lot stronger crowd than the one in town with many adults and regular tournament players I hear so and I might try to go there once in awhile because of that.

Someone mentioned that the internet is just more convinent and flexible with time than going to clubs and I agree that is one of the big reasons why clubs may be "dying" in the US. However I love playing over the board so much that I'll attend clubs whenever I can.

That is truely sad...................the USCF should be ashamed....

Here's my experience with chess clubs. I learned when I was in elementary school, and it was fun to go to chess club at the school. When I left that school, I went to a middle school for one year that had a chess club. Then we moved as a family and I was now on the extreme outskirts of the city and there was no chess club at my new school. In fact, almost nobody knew how to play. My chess growth was stunted by this, and the fact that there was noone to play lead me to leave chess for a bit. After a 3 year break (and getting my driver's liscence), I started playing in tournaments again. But I found a problem:

Scholastic tournaments, for which I was still eligible for, had no incentive. By this time, almost every scholastic I entered in had me as the highest rated in the top section. Winning a few rating points and a trophy just wasn't worth my time, especially during my senior year of high school.

Open tournaments were too expensive and too infrequent. I will say there used to be a 4 or 5 round 1 day swiss once a month that was very cheap and affordable, and a few strong players would show up. Other than that, though, the tournaments were too expensive for a senior in high school whose workload was too much to get a job, even coming from a poor family.

So I took another mini-break, playing in a couple tournaments here and there. I've recently gotten re-interested in chess despite my workload as a college student and having a part-time job. And while looking for a chess club in the area, I noticed something. All of the members are either 30+ years older than me, or 10 years younger than me. It's something I never noticed when I was younger, because I was younger with the kids. The reason why is that the majority of the population just simply doesn't have the time to go to a chess club. I sure don't. Another thing I want to say is that the majority of the population cannot afford tournament fees. That's why tournaments are also populated with young kids or old seniors (no offense). They have discretonary income. Kids have their parents pay the large tournament fees. Seniors have been working their whole lives and have built up some sort of savings. Seriously, $80 for a 5 round weekend swiss system where the top prize is $500 and only the top 2 are paid? Especially when there is 30 people in the section. Why is it that expensive? If tournament fees are lowered considerably and prices of membership fees are lowered considerably, more of the population will join the USCF and more will play in chess tournaments, which in turn will lead to a boom in chess clubs. I know I said the majority of the population doesn't have the time. But lowering of fees will cause more people to join. More people joining tournaments and USCF leads to more people interested and having fun. More people doing that will lead to people actually using their leisure time to go to chess clubs because they find the game fun again.