English Chess Forum

I'm surprised nobody has replied to this.

I'm all for a bit of a dress code, nothing too over the top mind. I always try to keep a smart appearance, be clean shaven, smart hair, wash daily and remain well spoken etc. and generally expect everybody else to at least TRY to be similar. Obviously as a teenager I'm going to have a lot of very casual clothing, but it isn't hard to look smart and still be entirely comfortable.

Chess is more "civilised" than the great sports of Rugby and Football, yet you always see those players keeping up smart appearances (off the pitch, of course...). As for those who don't wash, now that's just purely unhygenic and needs to change. Clean Jeans and a Shirt should be the minimum I think.

I'm not demanding this from anybody, and who am I to tell anybody what to do/dress/think, but wouldn't it just be common courtesy?

I didn't post because sponsorship in chess is easy, but like all chess players we blame everyone else and not our selves. Dress has nothing to do with sponsorship.

Football gets loads of sponsorship and yet none of the fans turn up in suits.

I get £25k a year funding and at least twice that in sponsorship the reason is simple, we spent a lot of time picking and working heavily with prospective sponsors working out their needs and knowing when that good will will run out. There is a lot of sponsorship in chess but its mostly around junior events, we don't get to see it in the adult chess world because the junior events are so frequent so sponsorship is spread out over many events, or the junior events are too disconnected from the adult chess for us to know the exact details.

Want sponsorship in chess, pick up the phone and call 400 to a 1000 prospective sponsors. Its hard work but worth it.