English Chess Forum

Dear Friends

We've been running rapidplay events at Golders Green for many years, and costs inevitably go up. Next year's rent increase at the hall will be much more substantial than expected, and I need to prepare for this, or find a new venue. Our current venue is familiar to many, close to the tube and rail, and parking is easy.

At the moment the entry fee is £15 (£14 for members of Hendon Chess Club and U16s) and £20 on the day. Prizes are currently £60, £30, £20 (grading) in each section.

From January 2012 I propose to increase the entry fee to those who send a cheque or enter online (no payment required) to £20 (£19 for members of Hendon or U16s) or £25 if you turn up on the day, and also to increase the guaranteed prizes to £100, £50 and £30 (grading) in each section.

I also propose to make this event open to English Chess Federation members only from January 2012, which will save me about £700 game fee each year, but may cost me some entries. This requirement for ECF membership would be irrespective of any other Federation membership or nationality.

Until August 2012 I will accept entries from non-members, but it will cost them £30 to play, whether or not they enter online. This is because the ECF may implement a compulsory membership scheme by that date - until then I am asking for ECF membership because of the high cost of Game Fee, and also to support the ECF, of which I am a Director.

Comments are welcome!

It's rare for me to offer a note of slowing down; I usually dive in with both feet when it comes to things like this ... but, I'd wait until we know what's happening from August 2012. If we have a membership scheme, you solve your problem. If we don't, then consider alternatives.

You'll have 8 events where this will be an issue. I'd just increase the entry fee, while keeping prize money the same during that time.

Adam Raoof wrote:until then I am asking for ECF membership because of the high cost of Game Fee,

I know you will say this is the obvious comment but Golders Green is a rapidplay event for which the Game Fee will be 29p per game. The cost for six rounds is £ 1.74 per head. So your members discount could be £1.50, £ 1.75 or £ 2.00. On a hundred player event consisting entirely of ECF members you are saving £ 174 on a turnover of around £ 2,000.

At ten pounds extra, you will certainly improve your finances if anybody pays that amount. You may also find a drop in entries. I don't know how many tourists you get, but I expect you've discouraged them.

Adam Raoof wrote:This is because the ECF may implement a compulsory membership scheme by that date

I know the proposed scheme keeps on changing, but haven't compulsion or even universal approaches been abandoned for Congress players. I though the proposed rule was that if you are a Silver member (£ 18) or Gold member (£ 27) that you didn't have to pay an extra £ 6 levy as a non-member. So a Congress entry fee would be £ 26, but £ 20 for ECF members.

You could however pay the £ 6 as often as you liked and you would be treated in the same way as a member for basic grading services. This would apply even if you were a members of the Welsh or Scottish federations.

If you were running the events in the USA, USCF rules would require all players to be members, even if visiting tourists. The proposed ECF rules are somewhat weaker.

In the current economic climate Adam will struggle anyway with a big price rise but he needs to see if people will pay it before he takes the step of looking for a different venue if he feels the current one would be difficult to match. A club in the Birmingham League was hit with a big price rise 4 or 5 years ago. They had a vote on whether to pay the extra and it was narrowly lost. The next couple of years were a disaster for them with the first new venue going bust within weeks. They have never found anything nearly as good and quite a lot of members left never to be replaced. So they are literally half the club they used to be. What annoys some of them is that most of the people who left were the ones who voted not to pay more to stay where they were!
Interesting idea about membership. I suspect many of the people who play are already members if not it could be a bit risky since people would be joining just to play in one event rather than to play all their chess.

michele clack wrote:I I suspect many of the people who play are already members

I'd suspect not. If they were already members, the Game Fee bill for the events would already have been reduced because of the exemptions.

From a strict financial viewpoint, it doesn't benefit an individual to become a member of the ECF at £ 27 a head just to get £ 1.50 or £ 1.75 off the entry fee at the odd rapid-play.

Well yes there is obviously a big financial hurdle with the price rise as well. However, if Adam is prepared to try it the results will be interesting.

Roger de Coverly wrote:I know you will say this is the obvious comment but Golders Green is a rapidplay event for which the Game Fee will be 29p per game. The cost for six rounds is £ 1.74 per head. So your members discount could be £1.50, £ 1.75 or £ 2.00. On a hundred player event consisting entirely of ECF members you are saving £ 174 on a turnover of around £ 2,000.

1 game equates to 2 results.

The average payment per entrant is about £16.

Currently we get a modest proportion of ECF members, so it would definitely be a risk.

With the Northern Membership Scheme, Northern Counties get a 10% commission for players that they sign up. Under the new scheme will they still get this 10% and would congresses like Golders Green get commission for signing up members?

Matthew Turner wrote:With the Northern Membership Scheme, Northern Counties get a 10% commission for players that they sign up. Under the new scheme will they still get this 10% and would congresses like Golders Green get commission for signing up members?

I'm not sure about the first question - I think the answer is that the MOs will cease to exist, therefore no.

The answer to the second question is no, I don't think congresses would be expected to process memberships at all and I wouldn't be looking for a commission.

Roger de Coverly wrote:From a strict financial viewpoint, it doesn't benefit an individual to become a member of the ECF at £ 27 a head just to get £ 1.50 or £ 1.75 off the entry fee at the odd rapid-play.

Could we stick to the point of this thread please Roger and not let it turn into another ECF debate

Adam,

With the above change i will play in the major providing my grade stays around 167 and the major is U170

I have now had news of the proposed rent increases at Golders Green, and this will be the format from September 2012.

All competitors will have to be Silver members of the ECF, or Gold/Platinum/Rhodium if entering either the Open or Major section. Only players listed on the FIDE website with nations other than ENG will be exempt from this requirement. The Open and Major will continue to be FIDE rated.

The entry fee to any section will be £20.00.
Entry on the day, if accepted, will be £25.00.
Members of Hendon Chess Club and Juniors Under 16 will pay £18.00.

Prizes at the moment are £60, £30 in each of the four sections. I will probably raise this to £100, £50 once I see how entry numbers are holding up.

Adam Raoof wrote: All competitors will have to be Silver members of the ECF, or Gold/Platinum/Rhodium if entering either the Open or Major section. Only players listed on the FIDE website with nations other than ENG will be exempt from this requirement. The Open and Major will continue to be FIDE rated.

These requirements conflict with those of the 4NCL Rapid Play, also FIDE rated, which doesn't require membership, but offers a £ 6 discount to those who are Silver or Gold.

Adam Raoof wrote:I have now had news of the proposed rent increases at Golders Green, and this will be the format from September 2012.

All competitors will have to be Silver members of the ECF, or Gold/Platinum/Rhodium if entering either the Open or Major section. Only players listed on the FIDE website with nations other than ENG will be exempt from this requirement. The Open and Major will continue to be FIDE rated.

The entry fee to any section will be £20.00.
Entry on the day, if accepted, will be £25.00.
Members of Hendon Chess Club and Juniors Under 16 will pay £18.00.

Prizes at the moment are £60, £30 in each of the four sections. I will probably raise this to £100, £50 once I see how entry numbers are holding up.

Hi Adam,

I think it is great that you are putting this up here for everyone to talk about. I have heard nothing but good stuff about the Golders Green Rapidplays and have wanted to bring my boys for a long time now. As you have asked people to comment, I hope that you do not mind what I am about to say.

The costs for playing chess seem to be spiralling. Although we have yet to travel to Golders Green, we have always considered it in the past. This price increase would most definitely rule guys like us out.

Travel costs and petrol costs are rising very steeply and internet chess is free once you have paid your initial fee, which seems to be a reasonable price for a whole year. Some websites you can play for free. The social aspect of chess is very important, but there does come a point when you make the cut off and this would be it for me.

I think that the ECF is very focussed on squeezing its current members for all that it can get, rather than bringing more people in.

I do believe that instead, the ECF should focus on making chess have mass appeal - promoting chess and our young IMs/GMs to the mass media, encouraging more juniors into the sport and then keeping them playing. In addition, they should focus on ensuring that current members (especially those on low incomes - students and pensioners) are treated fairly and well.

I have been very vocal on this forum about this being the way forward rather than charging more. There are many ways that more money can be brought into chess and I do believe that the new JD has made massive leaps forward in terms of direction and encouraging more juniors to play. However there still remains much to be done, especially in the world of adult chess.

Charging more, will ultimately impact on participation. Participation is at a low. I have said this before that many congresses are experiencing a fall in numbers. In addition, most people at congresses are the other side of 50. This in itself is not a bad thing, but it does mean that if we do not do something about it now, we will have a long term problem.

We do need somebody in chess to glamourise it as Bobby Fischer did in his day. We need to promote chess as never before and we need this to be done at a national level. We do have the raw talent. I have said it before. Our young GMs/IMs are good-looking and well placed to promote chess. I am sure that we have out there some good PR guys who could organise billboards/advertisements etc as Magnus has done through his PR team.

I know that people will say that this costs money; but lets face it, how much did we just blow on the FIDE case? There are people willing to invest money in chess. They have just put it in the wrong place.

Kind regards,

Krishna