Declining entries

[Matthew Turner]

Could Allegro and blitz events be the way forward for Chess Scotland?

I love the congresses and think the standard set in recent years has been incredibly high; better venues, live boards and instant results - we really have been spoilt. I do not think the quality of the congresses can be questioned. It may just be the fact that people aren't willing to give up their whole weekend. 

Chess is speeding up in general. Thoughts?

I think in general you are right about chess speeding up and I wish there was more innovation in tournament format.  In the Summer I played a tournament in Sweden which had 4 rapid play games and then 4 long play games to enable a properly strong international event to be played over a long weekend.  That aside, I don't believe this is the primary problem facing Scottish Chess, in the first instance we just need more events.  If there is a tournament every three months then of course it will clash with music lessons, trips to the football, that time you've allocated to feeding the cat.  If there is a tournament every two weeks then it will become the sort of thing that you do at weekend, the music lesson will have to move, you'll take up hockey where they play on a Tuesday evening or you'll get an alligator that can feed itself.
I don't see a magic bullet of an answer, but we certainly need to very thankful to those people who keep plugging on and organising tournaments.