Chess social event

[David Blower]

Do any of your clubs do this sort of thing such as "Chess in the cafe" "Chess in the park" sort of social events? I am really keen to increase the community involvement of our chess club within our local community and have arranged a social event for my chess club on Monday 26th January "Chess in the pub" (we usually play in a church hall.) The aim is to increase awareness (and also membership) of our chess club within Brewood. We meet on a Tuesday night which is the idea of hosting the social event on the Monday evening.

Of course anyone is always invited to our club anyway, but past experience has shown that when league matches are taking place it can then be difficult for new members to get used to how it is (all the chess takes place in one room, including the league matches and there is no separate room available.) The idea of this kind of event is that it will be more of a relaxed setting than our league matches are.

That is not to say that Brewood wasn't welcoming to me when I first joined, as they were, and within 2 years I was on the committee and now arranging this type of event! The key thing is I think my chess club could make this sort of thing a success.

Does anyone have any advice for this sort of social event based on past experience? Thanks in advance for your answers.

[Francis Fields]

I played chess in Hyde Park on one occasion when somebody was showing up on a Sunday afternoon with a box of chess sets. It is a great place to play social chess in my view though there was a bit of a problem with the boards on the long grass. Over a dozen people showed up.

[Brendan O'Gorman]

There may be useful contacts in Bradford -> http://www.bradfordchess.co.uk/chesstiv ... e-park.php

[Stewart Reuben]

It is a good idea to arrange a free simul by the club champion and invite local shoolchildren.
Do you still have a local newspaper? Find a club member willing to commit to providing a column every week and approach the editor. I once did that in Islington. There ws no response. So I sent in a column anyway. That continued every week until I moved away from the area. They always published and there was never any interaction.
In the summer arrange an event in a local park or open area, preferably of as high visibility as possible.
Arrange for a roster of members so that one is available every week to welcome potential new members.
Banks and building societies used to have funds administered by the local manager to encourage local activity. I don't know whether such funding still exists.

[Gordon Cadden]

There may be useful contacts in Bradford -> http://www.bradfordchess.co.uk/chesstiv ... e-park.php

Wonder how many chess players in Bradford, are aware that the Trophy presented to the British Champion was made by Thomas Fattorini Est.1827

[Gordon Cadden]

The Newport club has annual Summer Events, where we play chess in John Frost Square, and the City coffee houses. The manager of COSTA is very obliging, even allowing us to give advance notice of a nominated day, when chess players occupy many of the tables.

[Stewart Reuben]

Gordon >
Wonder how many chess players in Bradford, are aware that the Trophy presented to the British Champion was made by Thomas Fattorini Est.1827<

That is strange. I was assured it was made by Mr Mappin of what became Mappin nd Webb.

[Andrew Zigmond]

I experimented this year with a second `social` club night but was forced to pull it following poor attendance. I'm toying with the idea of seeing if I can get something going at a local pub instead. Like David and, I suspect, many other clubs Harrogate only have the use of a single room and welcoming new members is difficult when we have club matches going on for which players expect quiet - occasionally there can be tension when players having a (not excessively loud) conversation are shushed by others (which I personally find more distracting than the occasional bit of background noise). It's got to the point where I've moved my local league team to a local pub where we can get the use of a private room for home matches and if I want a few social games I'd rather go down the pub.

If a pub isn't too busy on a week night they are normally quite happy for a few people to set up chess sets and take a little extra at the bar as a result. Obviously not everybody enjoys a pub atmosphere and it's a non starter where young players are concerned. For me it's about building a wider chess community outside of the main club night.

[Paul Buswell]

Gordon >
Wonder how many chess players in Bradford, are aware that the Trophy presented to the British Champion was made by Thomas Fattorini Est.1827<

That is strange. I was assured it was made by Mr Mappin of what became Mappin nd Webb.

No, definitely Fattorini's.... I remember when I was BCF General Secretary and something minor was needed for the Trophy I wrote to them "Further to our order of 1904..."

PB

[Jon Mahony]

If a pub isn't too busy on a week night they are normally quite happy for a few people to set up chess sets and take a little extra at the bar as a result. Obviously not everybody enjoys a pub atmosphere and it's a non starter where young players are concerned. For me it's about building a wider chess community outside of the main club night.

If you are after new members, a good idea is to get a mate from chess club, and simply go round a couple bars with a board, and play a few games. You will get on average 20 showings of interest, some of which will convert into actual visits to the club.

We keep the club running all season, but interest does drop off July/August time. I've found running any complicated club championship is a mistake as nearly every round you get someone asking for a bye for holidays. I am planning to do some sort of rapid swiss this year but nothing too stressful.

And yes, friendly nights are always more popular when people have a pint in front of them I think you have to accept, about 50% of players only join the club to play graded match games, and aren't interested in the off-season.

[Stewart Reuben]

Jon Mahoney > I've found running any complicated club championship is a mistake as nearly every round you get someone asking for a bye for holidays. I am planning to do some sort of rapid Swiss this year but nothing too stressful.

Have you ever tried a ladder tournament? That is very low maintenance; players can play each other several times and it could be graded if wanted.

[Jon Mahony]

Jon Mahoney > I've found running any complicated club championship is a mistake as nearly every round you get someone asking for a bye for holidays. I am planning to do some sort of rapid Swiss this year but nothing too stressful.

Have you ever tried a ladder tournament? That is very low maintenance; players can play each other several times and it could be graded if wanted.

Yeah we have played a ladder in the past, I found it fun, but interest sort of declined after the first month or so doing it - I think the problem was Leeds Chess Club is small-ish we have 3 or 4 stronger players, and the rest are 100 grade or below. So once the dust had settled the battle for top spot was always occupied by the same couple of people, no one else got a look in.

However it will certainly be preferable to my 8 round all-play-all monster, which I tried to organise 2 years ago - 3 weeks before the start of the season we still had something like 14 postponed games, I was pulling my hair out Any re-attempt at that will be short and Swiss!

[Gordon Cadden]

Gordon >
Wonder how many chess players in Bradford, are aware that the Trophy presented to the British Champion was made by Thomas Fattorini Est.1827<

That is strange. I was assured it was made by Mr Mappin of what became Mappin nd Webb.

No, definitely Fattorini's.... I remember when I was BCF General Secretary and something minor was needed for the Trophy I wrote to them "Further to our order of 1904..."

PB

The 1904 BCM volume has an illustration of the British Championship Trophy, with the name " Fattorini & Sons, Bradford ".
The Trophy was presented to the Federation by Mr F.G. Naumann. Do hope that this magnificent trophy is adequately insured.

[Gordon Cadden]

Gordon >
Wonder how many chess players in Bradford, are aware that the Trophy presented to the British Champion was made by Thomas Fattorini Est.1827<

That is strange. I was assured it was made by Mr Mappin of what became Mappin nd Webb.

No, definitely Fattorini's.... I remember when I was BCF General Secretary and something minor was needed for the Trophy I wrote to them "Further to our order of 1904..."

PB

The 1904 BCM volume has an illustration of the British Championship Trophy, with the name " Fattorini & Sons, Bradford ".
The Trophy was presented to the Federation by Mr F.G. Naumann. Do hope that this magnificent trophy is adequately insured.

The Lusitania was torpedoed by enemy action on 7 May 1915. F.G. Naumann was on board; he did not survive.

[David Blower]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I have read through everything, even if I haven't responded on the topic (until now.)

I don't really know if "Chess social event" is the right topic title for this thread. It is not going to have a giant chess set or anything like that, in fact it probably is just closer to an evening at the pub. But I want to avoid it "just" being that.

We do at least have the advantage of the venue providing us with the space at no cost to the club. Therefore there is nothing to lose by doing this.