English Chess Forum

Have any clubs planned stuff this year (perhaps for the 20 July International Chess Day - a Saturday) to make use of the global celebrations to raise the profile of chess locally?
I'm looking to do something at the Jonathan Penrose Chess Park ( https://www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/jonath ... hess-park/ ) and a game or two with other places could be fun - Wivenhoe Chess Club was involved in one last year https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php? ... 6346963185

I would expect the FIDE NGB for England (the ECF) to take a lead in this anniversary celebration.

I imagine that the ECF FIDE delegate is busy behind the scenes planning stuff.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 27, 2024 4:53 pm

I would expect the FIDE NGB for England (the ECF) to take a lead in this anniversary celebration.

I imagine that the ECF FIDE delegate is busy behind the scenes planning stuff.

If everyone has the same expectation then no clubs are using this opportunity. Certainly none that has a member of this forum. Probably all too busy playing chess to worry about marketing...

David York wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 05, 2024 9:44 pm

John Upham wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 27, 2024 4:53 pm

I would expect the FIDE NGB for England (the ECF) to take a lead in this anniversary celebration.

I imagine that the ECF FIDE delegate is busy behind the scenes planning stuff.

If everyone has the same expectation then no clubs are using this opportunity. Certainly none that has a member of this forum. Probably all too busy playing chess to worry about marketing...

Absolutely right and thank you for highlighting the centenary of which I, for one, was totally unaware.

The anniversary has been mentioned before

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10930

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 06, 2024 8:54 am

The anniversary has been mentioned before

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10930

Your link is to a very old mention. I see this year a few online events are planned but nothing I can see OTB. By now all the publicity is for the British Championship, which starts after the International Day of Chess. Surely as it is on a Saturday this year, clubs could do something on 20 July?

David York wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 05, 2024 6:46 pm

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 06, 2024 8:54 am

The anniversary has been mentioned before

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10930

Your link is to a very old mention. I see this year a few online events are planned but nothing I can see OTB. By now all the publicity is for the British Championship, which starts after the International Day of Chess. Surely as it is on a Saturday this year, clubs could do something on 20 July?

There are two issues with trying to get clubs to do anything on that date: it's in July, and it's a Saturday.

David York wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 05, 2024 6:46 pm

Surely as it is on a Saturday this year, clubs could do something on 20 July?

Perhaps a Fide rated league match

In Colchester we are already setting up a public chess event including the Jonathan Penrose Chess Park https://www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/jonath ... hess-park/ as one of the venus for 100 games of chess to celebrate 100 years of FIDE. It comes as a pleasant suprise to find FIDE has got its act together in a way that UK clubs can leverage.
https://100.fide.com/2024/05/04/guinnes ... -in-a-day/ This is a great excuse to get outdoors and publicise chess. If you need any motivation for that, see this social media of popup weekend chess events at and outside an art gallery that attracted huge interest. https://twitter.com/ChessInColter/statu ... 7872918982

So much interest that the chess club had more new members than it could house and had to find new premises! https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558848695128

The Colchester FIDE centenary event is called 100 Handshakes. This celebrates the way chess brings people together. Before and after a game it is traditional that the players shake hands. So, dependimg how you count handshakes, we may be playing 100 games or 50!

Games can be played with or without a time control. But if a chess clock (or a chess clock app) is used, the time control should celebrate the number 100. That could be a long game with 100 minutes each or, couting a different way, 50 minutes each. A bullet game could substitute seconds for minutes here. Rapid games at ten minutes with a ten second increment would tick a 100 box if you allow multiplication of 10 by 10 and so on.

The main venue for the afternnon is the Jonathan Penrose Chess Park. More venues and times will be added.
https://colchesster.org.uk/clubs-and-me ... 00?popup=1

On 20 July there are three World Chess Day events in Colchester - this is one of them https://colchesster.org.uk/clubs-and-me ... 00?popup=1

The fact that a care home is prepared to put on such an event might shame those chess clubs who do nothing to market themselves into action?

Probably a forlorn hope - despite the ECF offering free money:
From the prospectus for Grassroots chess support:
6. Social Chess Support - Financial support for clubs to run social/community chess events using non-club venues. This could have a big effect on making over the board chess more visible and mainstream and on attracting more players to join clubs and play in leagues and congresses. This could be linked to the Tables in Parks initiative in partnership with local authorities and Chess in Schools and Communities. The funding could go either direct to the clubs or via leagues/associations to help run the events and maybe pay for some top-level players to appear.

David York wrote: ↑

Tue May 07, 2024 4:28 pm

It comes as a pleasant suprise to find FIDE has got its act together.
https://100.fide.com/2024/05/04/guinnes ... -in-a-day/

The final total was 7,284,970 games. I played 0.0000412% of those games - every little helps.

Only three games? (Some people can do that calculation without a calculator, not me!)

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 24, 2024 10:29 am

Only three games? (Some people can do that calculation without a calculator, not me!)

Pleased to have confirmation that I got the decimal point in the right place.

7.2 million games? Where was everybody? Most of the 600 million chess players did not participate. Anybody would think most of them don't exist.