KevinCampbell Wrote:It's a shame such things are happening within Chess Scotland.
If the last Council meeting went well, then hopefully the issues have been sorted.
When I spoke of a decline in Chess, i'm in total agreement with Ian, it has been on going for sometime, I am comparing now to when I started playing as a junior about 14 years ago. Back then I played for Holycross and Bellshill. Bellshill had a few juniors but was mostly an adult club. Holycross had loads of juniors and some adults.
In that time the internet has come to dominate, indeed maybe a big reason for the decline. Personally, I have never played on the internet, it's just of no interest to me.
In relation to live chess, maybe it is just what it is. It would be good, however, to see an increase in numbers.
There are a good number of juniors playing, and lots of seniors playing, but not so many in the middle age brackets say 22-55. Also there is a lack of female players in the game. Wonder if this is just in the UK, or if these stats are similar throughout the chess playing world.
It's a really difficult question on how to promote/ increase interest in the game and there is no easy answer.
I know of several clubs with adult novice members who find it difficult to break through into teams. These players often turn up to club nights more regularly than others, but are overlooked for team places because they don't have an established grade, or have been unable to demonstrate the potential to improve.
I've been trying to think of ways to give these adult novices a chance to get involved with matchplay, it's the only way they'll gain the experience to be able to compete in the future. Part of the trouble is that teams want to be competitive, whether that be to win leagues or to avoid relegation, and a team captain might take pelters for playing someone relatively inexperienced when there are others available who are better placed to win games.
I've thought that perhaps lower divisions might introduce rules about playing novices in lower boards (something along the lines of under 21s in football squads), but different leagues have different constructions and team sizes, and some divisions are small, so it simply wouldn't be practical.
I was fortunate enough when i first attended my local club in my late 20s that i played a bounce game against an established player who gave me a royal whooping, but he saw enough potential there that he contacted the captain of one of the club's teams and i got played in the next match.
Unfortunately the ever diminishing funding available is directed more towards juniors, since that's where more potential lies for a future star player, if only there was enough to go round all categories of player.
