Major investment to transform future of English chess announced

[Paul McKeown]

Total waste of money, and Nick and Matt are spot on with regard to the government's rule by worthy sounding slogan, cynically broadcast without the slightest intent to act thereupon (the slogans are not even meant to convince the public who know better, but are meant to drive criticism from the news cycle by providing intentionally misleading talking points for their client media to focus on). Moreover, I wouldn't mind a wager that a large number of these boards (no pieces) have black squares in the right hand corners, too.

[Roger Lancaster]

Total waste of money, and Nick and Matt are spot on with regard to the government's rule by worthy sounding slogan, cynically broadcast without the slightest intent to act thereupon (the slogans are not even meant to convince the public who know better, but are meant to drive criticism from the news cycle by providing intentionally misleading talking points for their client media to focus on). Moreover, I wouldn't mind a wager that a large number of these boards (no pieces) have black squares in the right hand corners, too.

I've already indicated I'm not in the "wonderful investment" camp but I think "total waste of money" might be going too far in the opposite direction. In past years, when the weather forecast was particularly promising and schools were closed, my club organised junior meetings in a local park. Decent chess tables would have been an asset but, in their absence, boards were brought along together with sets and clocks. It helped that the local park had other amenities including a cafe and a play area (swings etc) for those younger kids not actually playing to stop them getting bored. We're not due to receive HMG tables but, had we been, they would have served a purpose. Downside, of course, is that there aren't too many days (at weekends or in non-term time) when the forecast is reliably encouraging - I think the best we managed was 3 or 4 meetings in a year. Maybe others did better.

[Roland Kensdale]

Daily Telegraph 9.5.24 (sometimes paywalled) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/0 ... ss-tables/

Case in point are the park’s public toilets which she says the council “don’t look after. It’s just little things, isn’t it, and they’ve spent all that money on that [chess board]. The soap dispenser doesn’t work. There’s no toilet roll in one.”

...

Samantha Sampson, 40, a housewife who lives on the outskirts of the park and treats it “like our garden” insists it has only been used as “the rolling table and the drinking table”. Rolling? “Joints and things like that. It doesn’t get used as a chess table, unfortunately. It’s a shame.”

...

Although rare is the chess player who carts their own pieces around, the park ranger tells me there is a young man trying to source a communal set for the park and encouraging people to play. “He’s really enthusiastic. Once people see it being used, I think it will encourage other people to start getting involved.” And that is “a good thing,” he says. “Chess is a universal game everyone can play.”

Sadly, the £2,500 board has already been graffitied with the cryptic message “boc mat” which the park ranger tells me he can’t remove with chemicals or “the warranty is out of the window”.

The journalist eventually finds an opponent and enjoys the experience.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

We want a photo of the "very ugly wooden top with no chessboard".

I found a picture of the Bury Knowle (Headington) chess table after the concrete table top got vandalised and replaced by an ugly wooden top:


A close up (I am not responsible for this!):

[Gerard Killoran]

Rolling? “Joints and things like that. It doesn’t get used as a chess table, unfortunately. It’s a shame.”

Of course, it can be used as both. I could name one or two chess players for whom this would be an incentive.