Covid-19 - Suspend Chess Immediately

[Jonathan Rogers]

Andrew, no man is an island. You don't just take a personal risk by exposing yourself to coronavirus. Should you get it at a congress, which I imagine is a non-trivial risk or very soon will be, you will then likely then spread it to countless others over the next few days whilst you are still asymptomatic. Those whom you infect will infect others, and conceivably one of those who catches it from you will have less robust health than you might do, and might die.

Does that help?

[Andrew Zigmond]

those of us taking a `keep calm and carry on` approach have rights too.

Which would be what, specifically

To be able to continue participating in chess.

[David Robertson]

To be able to continue participating in chess.

And to Jonathan Rogers, you say...?

[Matt Bridgeman]

Is it likely the Blackpool Chess Congress will be the last 'large' chess event in England for the foreseeable future, due to low entries and cancellations?

[JustinHorton]

those of us taking a `keep calm and carry on` approach have rights too.

Which would be what, specifically

To be able to continue participating in chess.

And do you intend to put that on your headstone, or somebody else's?

[Roger de Coverly]

Is it likely the Blackpool Chess Congress will be the last 'large' chess event in England for the foreseeable future, due to low entries and cancellations?

There aren't so many "large" events scheduled in the near future apart from the 4NCL Weekends and the Easter Congresses. St Albans, which attracted over 200 last year has already been cancelled in its current April slot. After that there's the Frome Congress in May. I'd regard that at risk of cancellation as it's held in a school.

It's the season of junior mega-finals though.

[Matt Bridgeman]

Ah yes, the Megafinals. Reasonably crowded events in themselves, usually at schools. The 4 Gigafinals in July - London, South, Midlands and North - average around 600 kids a weekend each.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Which would be what, specifically

To be able to continue participating in chess.

And do you intend to put that on your headstone, or somebody else's?

If the Blackpool event is not cancelled, it is up to each individual to consider whether to play or not.

They should, of course, take appropriate precautions if they decide on participating.

[JustinHorton]

Let's hope they can take the appropriate precautions retrospectively

[Matt Bridgeman]

I don’t think there’s a bottle of alcohol hand gel left for sale in the whole country.

[JustinHorton]

Nobody has the right to play chess in a situation of emergency.

Nobody has the right to have their holiday go uncancelled. Nobody has the right to go about their normal business as if these were normal circumstances. And nobody has the right to play chess.

[Chris Goodall]

Andrew, no man is an island. You don't just take a personal risk by exposing yourself to coronavirus. Should you get it at a congress, which I imagine is a non-trivial risk or very soon will be, you will then likely then spread it to countless others over the next few days whilst you are still asymptomatic. Those whom you infect will infect others, and conceivably one of those who catches it from you will have less robust health than you might do, and might die.

Does that help?

How many times do we see a news item along the lines of:

[Local player] has died aged 76 after a short illness

For some reason, the chess community doesn't react to that news with "have you tracked down the person who gave him the illness?" We wouldn't expect the family of the deceased to have given it much thought. Sometimes people get ill.

Right now that "short illness" may be coronavirus. Coronavirus is easy to distinguish from other illnesses, which makes it a liability trap. Even if you're less likely to kill someone by giving them coronavirus than by giving them the flu, the NHS will trace their contacts, which means you are more likely to be identified as the source of the infection. Instead of the moral responsibility being diffused among the whole population in which the illness is circulating, it lands on you, and people start asking why you went out in public when you might have had coronavirus.

It's nothing to do with how deadly or how contagious it is - it's purely the fact that it's unique and traceable that means you have to protect yourself from that liability. Which is daft, if you ask me.

Nobody has the right to play chess in a situation of emergency.

Nobody has the right to have their holiday go uncancelled. Nobody has the right to go about their normal business as if these were normal circumstances. And nobody has the right to play chess.

That is one school of thought. I have a feeling that school of thought is more popular in China than it is here.

[Andrew Zigmond]

Obviously we don't know how this thing is going to play out. If restrictions similar to Italy are brought in then that's something I (and others) will have to consider.

As things stand there is a chess congress in Blackpool this weekend. It hasn't been cancelled and nothing is preventing me from going there. I haven't had any Coronavirus symptoms, nor has anybody I know. I will say this; my job involves dealing with members of the public so from the perspective of some contributors equally selfish people have been putting me at risk.

Earlier this week a Chinese student was beaten by thugs who held him in some way responsible for the virus. If we begin distrusting everybody because they might have this virus then I see that as an equally worrying contagion, known as mass hysteria.

I'll risk making a few further points.

A few weeks ago it was suggested that the virus was spreading because people were not developing symptoms and thus not realising they had it (or if they did, the symptoms weren't severe and they dismissed it as a cold). I also saw a social media post that noted there had been a nasty cold doing the rounds in November and that this could easily have been coronavirus before it gained its name. And finally the last time there was a similar pandemic it was the Swine flu outbreak of ten years ago - if memory serves, just as swine flu appeared to be spreading the MP's expenses scandal broke and the media promptly focused on that instead.

[Nick Grey]

It was the 6 foot/15 minute between PEOPLE for a virus this morning on the news.
That ought to rule out chess.

[NickFaulks]

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