A report by Mark Jenkins following the June 8 South-West Winnipeg Chess Club’s first organizing meeting. Three organizers were in attendance at the first meeting.
The next organizing meeting of the South-West Winnipeg Chess Club will be on Saturday July 20 at 2pm at the 1510 Pembina Highway location. Please note, there are multiple Tim Hortens locations on Pembina Highway, this location is the one next to Tony Romas between Chevrier Blvd and Clarence Ave.
[Note, Winnipeg Chess Association has a tournament July 20, doors 9am at RRC Polytech (Red River) Notre Dame campus. This is a bit of a conflict as a collaboration with these organizers may be useful and other potential organizers may want to play in this event. Stay tuned for an update, we may postpone our organizer meeting]
To get the club started, we would like to hold some chess meetups, tournaments, and/or special events that will be free previews of our new club and a chance to do some fundraising. The original idea was to do this in August, but we may defer. To make these initial events happen, we need additional volunteers, a temporary venue and possibly sponsorship to cover the cost of a temporary venue. Please reach out.
We hope to get the club fully operating on a weekly schedule. This was first considered for September, but may start later. At that time we will probably make a weekly booking of a meeting room at one of four south-west Winnipeg library branches, as they are quite affordable at about $14 per hour and easy to reserve.
The organizers discussed the South West Winnipeg Chess Club being an independent entity and not being a sub-group of an existing chess organization. The upsides and downsides of incorporating early or starting as a volunteer unincorporated association were weighed. These points are worth revisiting.
Community feedback is requested. Of the four south-west library branches, where would you like to meet? What day of the week and time is best? What is an acceptable amount to pay as a monthly membership? Are there additional venues to bring to our attention? Interest in sponsoring?
Please reply with our Google Form.
https://forms.gle/nh7RnH65tzgtqE4r7
Additional details
Below is a more detailed report of discussions at our first organizing meeting and Mark’s thinking after.
First, what is a casual chess club exactly? Is it just a place where people play fun games in an entirely unorganized way? Or, should there be more organizing that goes into it such as:
- special events like simuls
- education opportunities
- a system for informing players who will be closer ability such as a ladder?
- or even low stakes tournaments
And what exactly is the distinction between a low-stakes and a high-stakes tournament? Any event that’s a qualifier for a more prestigious event has some stakes to it. This includes all rated CFC and FIDE rating events where good performance can lead to a high rating and invites to closed events.
Second, if an event has a big entry fee and big prizes, that’s also high stakes.
A low stakes event may not even have an entry fee or prizes. But, if it allows the best players a chance to go head to head for the prestige of being the event winner it can simultaneously be both fun and competitive.
I’m convinced now that a well organized club day can accommodate both fully unorganized or low-stakes organized play. Here’s a possible format:
For the first two hours, invite players to just play in an unorganized way. They don’t even have to play chess, if they want to play bughouse or completely unrelated table-top games entirely, so be it.
In the second two hours, have a blitz tournament, perhaps even just 4 rounds with 16 player swiss sections or 5 rounds with 6 player round-robin groups by level.
The idea is to give strong players a reason to make a quick club visit by offering the opportunity for competitive play on short time. Put the players in small sections by ability so that weaker and stronger players aren’t wasting their time with each other. (they’ll still get acquainted in the casual time or in the big tournaments)
Not all club members need to play in these quick and fun tournaments. A few tables can still be reserved for fully casual play with or without time controls.
The room won’t need to be at a strict code of silence as a CFC or FIDE rated event would rightly call for. In a low stakes setting we should still permit some degree of chatter, including post-mortems.
There is a balance to be had. We should recognize that many players at the lowest levels are not interested in any kind of tournament play or often even in the use of the clock. A well run club should accommodate these players throughout the day, as they are quite numerous. Look at the rating distribution chart for chess.com or lichess if you’re unsure how many players this is.
As for the stronger players, though they are few in numbers they are high in their enthusiasm for the game. A great club should attract them with a degree of competitive play against worthy competition. This will heighten the prestige of the club and also attract ambitious intermediate players who would like the chance to meet stronger players in a casual setting.
With a proper rented club room, all of this can be had.
Meeting timing
Next, let’s talk about two interrelated subjects, the balance between youth and adult participation and also the day and time appropriate for club meetups.
First, the timing. Club meetings need to be at a consistent time and place. The natural starting point is one day per week. To maximize the participation of adults, this first meeting time should be on a weekday evening or weekend, as the largest segment of the adult population works during weekday daytime hours.
At our meeting we talked about the downside to weekday evenings for adults with kids. A lot of youth activities are organized on weekday evenings. Weekends can also be busy for families, particularly when sporting activities include tournaments, but on the whole weekends are more open.
When it comes to weekends, I would argue against both mornings and evenings.
Sunday evenings are a gathering time for many extended families, a tradition that was re-enforced for decades in Manitoba with a prohibition on the opening of large retailers after 6pm.
Saturday nights have a strong cultural value with a great popularity for concerts, theatre and film.
Weekend mornings are popular times to sleep in, particularly for a chess crowd known to contain many night owls. They are also popular times to hold worship services.
We believe weekend afternoons are the best place to start. A great club can and should grow to have both Saturday and Sunday afternoons and then evolve to include some weekday evenings and afternoons.
Initially we have to choose one day per week, and I’m going to make the case for Saturdays over Sundays.
I see Saturdays as a transitional day following a work-week with a day job. I’m more inclined to put in the work of organizing a chess club or to push myself to compete with that “work” mentality carried over to some serious leisure.
Sundays I’m more inclined to relax in a less workful way.
Both Saturdays and Sundays feature monthly or near monthly tournaments from the Manitoba Chess Association (CFC/FIDE) and the Manitoba Scholastic Chess Association (Chess N Math) during the school year. There are also other independent chess organizers with Saturday and Sunday events as well.
In the end, I believe there is room to have overlap, a drop-in/drop-out casual chess club meeting and elsewhere, the best, most well run tournaments offered by these other organizations. Folks can decide what they’re looking for.
As a casual focused club, we don’t need to have low-stakes tournaments when there are better tournaments happening in parallel.
Saturdays also offer us best venue flexibility.
On a weekend with a scholastic tournament, we can offer the most enthusiastic families the ultimate weekend combination, warm up at the casual club on Saturday, compete for trophies, ribbons and kid glory on a Sunday.
Ultimately, not conflicting with Sunday tournaments in the beginning is a better growth path. Young casual players are going to be the adult club members and organizers of tomorrow. A Saturday-first approach builds that relationship.
The ideal progression for a young chess player is to play casually first, to enter youth only tournaments second, and to compete in CFC and FIDE rated events with adults last.
Youth Participation
Ultimately, this ties in with a theme I brought up before. Should we limit or discourage youth participation?
What my fellow organizers have told me is “no”. Though many adults came into chess in recent years thanks to the pandemic, The Queens Gambit, and online streamers, the growth of the game is best going to happen by creating as many supportive environments as possible for youth.
How will we keep this in balance?
Two elements were discussed.
First, reserving some tables for players under 12 years of age.
Second, a code of conduct for chess club members that would cover several themes:
- A healthy relationship between all players, including some specifics about what these means in a chess club context
- Expectation that parents and guardians are present for their under 12 players, which includes not pressuring them to play and recognizing when their children are bored of the chess and ready to go home
- Some detail around how the under 12 tables vs other tables work. What are the exceptions for participant flow?
Conclusion
Thanks for reading our long report. Consider attending our July 20th, 2pm organizer meeting at Tim Hortons 1510 Pembina Highway and pardon the short notice. If you can’t make it but would like to help organize, please reach out.
Feedback is requested on our Google form which includes room for comments and exchange of contact.