what do you consider as biggest threat to organized chess?

[NickFaulks]

You can characterise the generation of players in favour of adjudications as those who would think very carefully about how to avoid endings, particularly if the end of the session was approaching.

I don't think there was such a generation. There were certainly individuals who liked adjudications, but I barely consider them to be chess players at all.

[Paul Cooksey]

I'm not sure. I played in the Surrey League when the rule was one player offered two of RP, Adjourn and adjudicate and the other chose. I saw a lot of adjudications on other boards, and considerable surprise when I always choose adjourn instead of adjudicate.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Djuna,

We appear to have got slightly mixed up. You posted ; "...volume of email communications, speeches of ten-minutes-plus at meetings, insisting that they can't meet remotely, or dragging out meetings so that they last longer than working people can accommodate."

Your main concern seems to be people in a position of authority running the whole organisation. My 'Other' choice was regarding the little people, non-post holders, who take on the less glamorous club tasks and are not in anyway involved in the decision making in the league they play in.

I did not have the Edinburgh Chess Club in mind, that place is a thriving institution. I was thinking about the wee clubs I know that are run by one or two elderly individuals. Small clubs but equally as just as important. Others here will know of such clubs and some may even be that person.

Sometimes when the person involved passes away or becomes too old to carry on the club just folds. And I know when I attend that fixtures meeting I'll be seeing a few well known old faces who run their club single-handed doing everything from arranging a venue, organising a team, sorting out league fixtures, collecting clubs subs to putting the pieces away at night and turning off the lights.

Next time you are up in Edinburgh give me a call, I'll show you a room that is fast becoming a graveyard of now defunct clubs equipment and trophies. Not just from Edinburgh but from the whole of Scotland. We either take this precious stuff, and we are glad to too, else it could end up in a skip.

I do fear for OTB chess and I admit this is an old man rambling and pining for the good old days of Chess B.C. (Chess Before Computers)
I can see a time when there will be no chess clubs, only online clubs and the Edinburgh Chess Club will be a museum so people can see how the game use to be played.

I guess by then I'll be a guide. I see myself dressed in a smart blue uniform with medal ribbons and a peaked cap showing visitors around.
"..and here Alekhine strutted his stuff giving a simultaneous display."
A puzzled face will look up from staring at the screen on their smart phone; 'Who?'

[Roger de Coverly]

I saw a lot of adjudications on other boards, and considerable surprise when I always choose adjourn instead of adjudicate.

Berks League and Bucks League both had a two way option, adjudicate or adjourn, at the end of the session. Invariably I would choose adjourn, if only to attempt to thwart those players hoping to rely on an adjudicator to win their better position or save their worse one. The local Maidenhead club used to have an early closing, so thirty moves was the standard session. When playing against them, I would recommend players in my club to treat it as a two session game. This was just before the days when computer engines could give any useful opinions or were widely available.

I think compulsory adjudications particularly at move 30 had an effect on my opening choices. I was reluctant to defend against 1. e4 with 1. .. e5 and a main line Lopez because of the long sequences of moves before either player had to make any decisions in unfamiliar positions.

[NickFaulks]

I'm not sure. I played in the Surrey League when the rule was one player offered two of RP, Adjourn and adjudicate and the other chose. I saw a lot of adjudications on other boards, and considerable surprise when I always choose adjourn instead of adjudicate.

As from 2023/24, all played to a finish on the night. Thames Valley League almost there.

[Roger Lancaster]

You can characterise the generation of players in favour of adjudications as those who would think very carefully about how to avoid endings, particularly if the end of the session was approaching.

I don't think there was such a generation. There were certainly individuals who liked adjudications, but I barely consider them to be chess players at all.

I certainly favoured adjournment over adjudication although I could understand why, when playing an evening league game against an opponent without his own transport who would have had to travel on resumption, he might feel otherwise. Games in London or other major cities might be different but, in most shire counties, late-night public transport tends to be non-existent.

[Ian Jamieson]

Are cash prizes worth having at all?

For amateur players definitely not, that’s exactly my point.

Try organising a tournament without any prizes and see how you get on

This may be a UK thing.

I played in an admittedly small tournament in Portugal where all the participants won books. It was played in the library of a museum in Lisbon in Portugal and I was given the illustrated guidebook to the museum as a prize although unfortunately it seems to have been “misplaced” in one of my flat moves since then.

Maybe the emphasis elsewhere at least for some players is the enjoyment rather than the prize especially if it means events can be held in more attractive venues.

[NickFaulks]

Maybe the emphasis elsewhere at least for some players is the enjoyment rather than the prize especially if it means events can be held in more attractive venues.

For most, I expect. Particularly in rating limited events where the prizes are likely to be won by players whose ratings are lower than they probably should be.

[Tim Spanton]

For amateur players definitely not, that’s exactly my point.

Try organising a tournament without any prizes and see how you get on

This may be a UK thing.

I played in an admittedly small tournament in Portugal where all the participants won books. It was played in the library of a museum in Lisbon in Portugal and I was given the illustrated guidebook to the museum as a prize although unfortunately it seems to have been “misplaced” in one of my flat moves since then.

Maybe the emphasis elsewhere at least for some players is the enjoyment rather than the prize especially if it means events can be held in more attractive venues.

Yes, but your tournament in Lisbon still had prizes, only non-monetary.

[Tim Spanton]

Maybe the emphasis elsewhere at least for some players is the enjoyment rather than the prize especially if it means events can be held in more attractive venues.

For most, I expect. Particularly in rating limited events where the prizes are likely to be won by players whose ratings are lower than they probably should be.

4NCL congresses somehow manage to combine attractive venues with relatively good prizes.

[Ian Jamieson]

Try organising a tournament without any prizes and see how you get on

This may be a UK thing.

I played in an admittedly small tournament in Portugal where all the participants won books. It was played in the library of a museum in Lisbon in Portugal and I was given the illustrated guidebook to the museum as a prize although unfortunately it seems to have been “misplaced” in one of my flat moves since then.

Maybe the emphasis elsewhere at least for some players is the enjoyment rather than the prize especially if it means events can be held in more attractive venues.

Yes, but your tournament in Lisbon still had prizes, only non-monetary.

Yes, but none of the players played with any thought of what book they may or may not receive.

[Tim Spanton]

This may be a UK thing.

I played in an admittedly small tournament in Portugal where all the participants won books. It was played in the library of a museum in Lisbon in Portugal and I was given the illustrated guidebook to the museum as a prize although unfortunately it seems to have been “misplaced” in one of my flat moves since then.

Maybe the emphasis elsewhere at least for some players is the enjoyment rather than the prize especially if it means events can be held in more attractive venues.

Yes, but your tournament in Lisbon still had prizes, only non-monetary.

Yes, but none of the players played with any thought of what book they may or may not receive.

How do you know that?

[Ian Jamieson]

Yes, but your tournament in Lisbon still had prizes, only non-monetary.

Yes, but none of the players played with any thought of what book they may or may not receive.

How do you know that?

Because the players didn’t know what the books were until the prize giving. I think but I could be wrong that each entrant donated a book as a prize and the players then got to choose which one they would like based on their place in the tournament. I don’t think any of the players even knew which books they were going to get to choose from (I got the impression that several of the books had been donated as prizes at previous tournaments a bit like unwanted Xmas presents)

[Paul Cooksey]

Prizes irrelevant to me when choosing a tournament, as I said in my first post on this forum. But certainly not for some people.

I think English weekenders and their prize structures are unique to England and an invention of the Fischer generation. So possible demographic change will end them. Perhaps to be replaced by something more European or American. But perhaps not.

[Tim Spanton]

Prizes irrelevant to me when choosing a tournament, as I said in my first post on this forum. But certainly not for some people.

I think English weekenders and their prize structures are unique to England and an invention of the Fischer generation. So possible demographic change will end them. Perhaps to be replaced by something more European or American. But perhaps not.

Prizes certainly don't affect me, but the costs, for example of flights or compulsory accommodation, do.