Defusing the Demographic Time Bomb

[Nigel_Davies]

A new article offered as food for thought:

http://chessimprover.com/defusing-the-d ... time-bomb/

[Roger de Coverly]

A new article offered as food for thought

What you advocate was the position up to around five years ago, with the difference that the organisations running chess were expected to finance the ECF and the BCF before it. The people now running the ECF firmly believe that an individual membership model is the only one possible and don't really care about its effects of inhibiting the recruiting of new players.

The numbers of players taking part in graded competitions in England remains static at around the 15,000 mark. Within that, I think the turnover is around 1500 a year, but graders would have more up to date figures. Many new players aren't beginners though, although there will be a continual turnover of junior players at pre-secondary school ages. There will be chess players visiting for international tournaments and the 4NCL boosting the numbers, as well as those working either permanently or temporarily in the UK. Alongside them will be returnees, those playing again having retired from work or more active pastimes. The serious shortage is of players between the ages of 14 and 40, reflecting both the number who give up with the threat of exams and that this effect started as long ago as the early 1990s.

Many tournaments publish entry lists in the weeks before the start of the tournament. If you see every player with an established grade and grading code, there are no new players being enticed to play.

[Mick Norris]

Many tournaments publish entry lists in the weeks before the start of the tournament. If you see every player with an established grade and grading code, there are no new players being enticed to play.

Well, you aren't going to are you? How many new players start off in Congresses rather than Leagues?

Last night's MCF Council meeting noted there have been quite a few new players joined the Manchester League this season - in fact, 42 since the season started, only 8 of which have an existing grade, so possibly 34 new to chess

[Roger de Coverly]

How many new players start off in Congresses rather than Leagues?

Go back far enough in time and Congresses were a major recruiting ground. It's people who might have played at school or on the Internet and haven't really realised there's a club and Congress scene as well. It's Nigel D's contention that if you make it easier to play in tournaments, you might get more entries.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I agree with Mick. Lots of the new players I see come through club and league chess. You will get those who learnt to play chess online making the jump straight to a congress, but am not sure what the proportions would be. Does the ECF ever try and survey those new to chess, or does the fact that they are new make that difficult? Can people here remember what started them playing chess seriously?

[Mick Norris]

My uncle taught me, then my primary school head got a few of us playing, when I went to Grammar School I joined the school chess club, played for the school team, and joined an adult club when I was about 11 or 12 - depends what you mean by seriously

[Roger de Coverly]

depends what you mean by seriously

In a BCF/ECF context, use "first graded game" as a proxy.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Playing congresses without joining the ECF is perfectly doable if you want to, provided you are not an English person trying to play in a FIDE-rated congress. There is a surcharge of £(s-b) on your entry fee, where s and b are the prices of a silver and bronze membership respectively.

[Paolo Casaschi]

A new article offered as food for thought:

http://chessimprover.com/defusing-the-d ... time-bomb/

If you add to your article the issue of online chess and how chess federations could leverage online chess activity, then you get to the same conclusion as FIDE (and some national federation) already did: you'd try to extend as much a possible to the lower end the ELO system and you'd blur the lines between online and over the board ratings.
The main difference with your suggestion:
- you do not really need yet another rating system, the FIDE ELO system is already quick enough with monthly updates (even faster for the online version); you just need to make it more accessible
- you do not necessarily make that new rating free, you can probably afford to ask for few quids a year

[Mick Norris]

depends what you mean by seriously

In a BCF/ECF context, use "first graded game" as a proxy.

My club was Chorley (1976 I guess) so of course there's the complication of whether the leagues we played in were part of the BCF grading system, or opted out in the Lancashire way

Preston schools competitions - no idea if they were graded, but we played in the National Schools too

[Roger de Coverly]

Playing congresses without joining the ECF is perfectly doable if you want to, provided you are not an English person trying to play in a FIDE-rated congress.

Indeed so. But what of those on the ECF Board or their supporters on Council who mutter darkly about doing away with Game Fee entirely?

[Angus French]

After that you should have a second tier of ‘serious’ membership which should include those who want to play in internationally rated events and achieve an Elo rating. For this there should be a charge and they in turn would get to vote on who runs things.

So, if the ECF was to adopt Nigel's scheme then, as I read it, only those who are currently Gold or Platinum members would pay for their membership. This would beg a question about funding - the current year's budget has membership income at £176K with Gold/Platinum members contributing £63K. How would the £113K shortfall be made up?

[Andrew Zigmond]

As has been noted you do not have to be an ECF member to enter a congress; somebody with no prior knowledge of chess politics would just see ECF membership as a way of obtaining a discount.

Let's put ourselves in the position of twenty one year old Joe Bloggs who was taught chess by his Grandad as a child and has recently found a cheap playing program online which he enjoys playing against. He's also played some friendly games on the internet and wonders if there is any way of playing over the board chess locally.

He might see a congress advertised locally. It's possible he would assume that it is an event for really good players and doesn't know that the lower sections aren't that strong. That's the first barrier. However if he overcomes that one (perhaps by ringing the organiser to find out more about it and being encouraged to enter) the next problem is that he doesn't just need to know how to play chess; he also needs to know how to use a clock and scoresheet. Those of us who play regularly know that there is a certain technique to it and might have forgotten that we didn't acquire it overnight. Perhaps Joe assumes that using the bit of paper by his board is optional and is startled a few moves in when his opponent angrily calls over the controller. Embarrassment might make him decide proper chess isn't for him. That's another barrier.

Or he could decide that the congress isn't for him and more googling turns up his local chess club. Perhaps he finds out where they meet and turns up or contacts the secretary for details (as an ex secretary I'm no longer working in the realms of speculation here). The club meets on a weekday night (not ideal for Joe who works flexible hours but he manages to get one free) in a side room at the church hall. Everybody there is much older than him and although the secretary is friendly enough some people just look at him suspiciously. Somebody gives him a game, he loses quickly and when seeking to ask where he went wrong gets loudly hushed. There are no refreshments offered. Another member comes in and Joe's opponent decides he's going to play him instead. After spending forty five minutes waiting in case somebody else comes Joe leaves.

Of course it could be that the club meets in a local pub and when Joe goes along he gets a game against a really friendly guy who insists on buying him a pint and showing him where he went wrong. After a few nights they tell Joe about a local congress and suggest he enters; offering to play a few training games so Joe can get used to using a clock and a scoresheet. However we all know which scenario is more likely.

I've written at length because for me this is how the chess scene in this country is failing and why we have a demographic problem. To be fair some of it is due to cultural changes (I put in an aside about Joe's job for a reason). I agree with a lot (not all) of Nigel Davies' piece and there are ways we can harness the Joes and their mates playing online chess with little idea how the game is enjoyed by so many. However we will not see real change until we tackle the elephant in the room; the unfriendly and unwelcoming chess culture we've allowed to develop in this country.

[NickFaulks]

the current year's budget has membership income at £176K with Gold/Platinum members contributing £63K. How would the £113K shortfall be made up?

As noted in another thread, the shortfall would be bigger than that. There would be fewer Gold members, therefore fewer rated events for them to play in, therefore fewer Gold members...

[NickFaulks]

the unfriendly and unwelcoming chess culture we've allowed to develop in this country.

Do other countries do it better? If so, does anyone know how?