Summer chess

[J T Melsom]

Wycombe and Hazlemere club traditionally shuts at the end of May and re-opens in early September. And this is true of the majority of clubs in the county. Somebody has now suggested that it might be nice to try and extend the club year into June or further. Obviously we can't do anything about this for this year, but I'd be interested in the experiences of other clubs who do run through the summer, especially those where there is no summer league to keep folks occupied. What proportion of members continue to attend in these months? And do clubs absorb the addition hire costs as part of the annual membership or charge a per evening attendance charge? I personally think its nice for the small existing committee to have a rest, but we are now reaching a size where there might be demand for summer chess, and we might be able to find volunteers from amongst those who advocate it.

[Adam Raoof]

Hendon Chess Club have a summer membership of £20.00, which takes new members up to the end of the 'season'. This gives them free entry to the club championship (7 rounds standard), the summer quickplay (4 rounds rapidplay), reduced entry fees to the monthly "First Thursday" blitz and the Golders Green Rapidplay and of course use of the club for casual games on Thursdays. This really helps to keep the club going, but even then we shut in August between blitz events, mainly to save money as so few club members are around.

[Jon Mahony]

I keep Leeds CC going throughout the Summer, we are quite a small club, so there is always the fear that if people outside the “core” membership, who have been playing fairly regularly in league games, loose interest and pack in over the summer, we won’t have enough to field our 2 teams when the season restarts

Plus it’s for the chess junkies like me, who can’t face the prospect of 3 months, with only the occasional congress for OTB activity!

As our venue is free I don’t charge members any more for the summer season, however we have a club championship, which cost £7.00 to enter last year, and I’m reducing to £5.00 this year -just to get a bit of a prize pot together, to make it a bit interesting (games aren’t graded as I’ve found it puts certain players off entering).

There will also be one night blitz tournaments and stuff like that going on

[Ian Thompson]

One club local to me runs a club championship swiss over 8 weeks, with another 2 weeks for the top four to play off for the title and everyone to play a rapidplay swiss. No extra charge for members. Non-members can play on payment of an entry fee.

Another club organises lectures, simuls, etc, by its members, for its members, over roughly 2 months. No extra charge for it.

[Mike Truran]

Witney CC are just about to launch into our summer tournament - half an hour each on the clock, as many rounds as we are able to fit in before we close at the end of June. Players can play in each round or not as they see fit. Alex H does the pairings for us, and is infinitely patient when players drop out on the day before the round in question (thank you as always, Alex!).

Last season around half of our membership supported it, so it's definitely got a fan base. I advertised this year's version just today, and we already have ten confirmed entries.

No prizes, no entry fees - just a bit of fun, and designed to keep the interest going in the close season. Games finish by 8.30-9.00, so plenty of time to pop down the pub afterwards.

[James Toon]

Pimlico Chess Club runs a 5-round Swiss on weekday evenings from the end of May to the end of June (entry fee £20 for ECF Silver+ members, £26 others; three sections; prizes). This proved popular last year with 60 entrants consisting of both members and non-members.

In July and August we don't open every week but run some ad hoc events according to demand. Some of these are combined chess / social events. Last year we also ran an open blitz tournament and a couple of graded standardplay evenings. So we don't really have a closed season.

[Robert Stokes]

My club in Scunthorpe continues during the summer although less well attended than during the winter. Fortunately it costs the club nothing extra as it pays a yearly amount for the use of the premises which are part of a works social club.

Robert

[Jon Mahony]

I have switched the Leeds CC Club Championship to a 5 round Swiss format with one bye if required - I attempted a 9 round all-play-all last year and it was insain, pretty much every week people asked for a postponement to their game, so we had about 20 games yet to be played 3 weeks before the season started - I was pulling my hair out - lesson learned

[IM Jack Rudd]

Barnstaple chess club has separate Winter (October-April) and Summer (May-September) club championships. The latter has slightly fewer players, but it's still well worth coming along. There is no issue with league matches on club nights, because we don't play league matches on club nights.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Until my present club (Barrow) I never played anywhere that didn't have a mid-year break.

The summer competition here (a fairly lighthearted rapidplay event) is fairly well subscribed, but previous habit means I give it a miss

[David Blower]

The Wolverhampton Summer League runs from mid May-mid July.

Brewood compete with two teams one in division 2, one in division 3. That means that 13th May, 20th May, 27th May, 3rd June, 10th June, 24th June, two matches on 1st July, 8th July, 10th July, 15th July and 16th July (home matches in bold.)

The club will close probably with the last week on 22nd July (exact week to be decided, but there will be probably one week after all of the graded matches have finished.)

It will reopen on Tuesday 2nd September.

In terms of cost the membership fee runs for the whole year. Therefore the cost of the Summer months the club is open is included in the overall membership. But we also have a 30p per week "charge" for a cup of tea or coffee (not really, "charging" for the cup of tea or coffee at all, it is needed to pay the rent.)

We often have a reduced attendance because the juniors have the junior cricket club running on a Tuesday evening. (Something I encourage them to go to, if they want, as I don't think they should just concentrate on one thing in their life.) Other people go on holidays of course.