Cornwall Chess

There's a lot to consider. Some of the issues are new, but the important ones are not.
Hardy perennials include: how to get females into the game; how to improve the current disgraceful, embarrassing, number of active juniors. And crucially how to recruit more players, of any age or gender. Most of the posts don't touch these.
FYI I'm steadily contacting schools and trying to find tutors to go in to schools. There are 300+ schools in the county, so, like Cap'n Oates, I may be some time.
I have proposed some sessions for totally new players - early club starts, informal chess evenings, coaching. Members of the Truro/Falmouth club have indicated a willingness to help with this.

I see the above as vastly more important than the points I'm going to mention below. I can scarcely be bothered with the rest of this, but here goes.
Some venues simply need to be larger. If there is space for 12 people, no newcomer will feel welcome.
Silent match sessions will almost never attract newbies.
We need more organisers. Even Ian G can't run any more stuff, surely; I'm focusing on juniors and the Truro/Fal club.
Ages ago, Devon organised their competitions into a mixture of weekend and evening matches: weekdays are used for local leagues, Saturdays (or Sundays) for whole-county events. Some of us are reluctant to do long evening drives (I could go on about my migraines but many of you already know).
As far as I know, nobody is suggesting a wholesale change to weekend play, and the number of weekend days IMHO would be small. Since OTB county matches may not resume (we are about the last team standing) we have a few days available annually without altering our lives much.

In all, I'm concerned that we may attempt too many competitions, online and OTB. Rationalising it will be hard. But we have financial resources like never before!

Again, how can we get more people into the game? There are some signs that online matches, and the Netflix Queens Gambit, are stimulating interest, both locally (at Camborne and Truro/Fal). I hope the same is happening elsewhere.
More players ...more players ...more players ....(cont p94)

Quote from: David Jenkins on May 22, 2021, 04:49:35 am

Proposed rule changes 2021/22


My intention is that the online operation should continue in its present form when OTB chess returns. That means organising the following events:
Cornwall Online League
Cornwall Online Congress
Cornwall Knock-out tournament
Western Counties Championship
International online matches (meaning against teams outside the county boundaries!)
Thematic tournaments
Zoom analysis sessions
Involvement of Cornish teams/players in 4NCL competitions.

I'm confident that there will be sufficient support from the players to make this a viable project.

I think there will not be enough players wishing to play regularly to justify all these. The list sounds like the current online offering, though if there is ONE Cornwall online league (I favour Swiss, best solution to our widely disparate teams and works because no venues need to be booked), one set of cups, one online Congress, and a limited number of other matches then there'd be space for a return to OTB. As far as OTB goes, I think that should be scaled back from the pre-pandemic total, to leave space for online chess. If OTB chess returns, then so will the rest of normal life and other activities will occupy a lot of my time; and I'm guessing that many other people will be similarly itching to do a greater variety of things.

FROM HUGH BROWN

A few initial thoughts.
In the knock-out competitions, I think each club (or group of clubs) should only be allowed one entry. This would avoid a repetition of Carrick's ploy last season of entering two teams and deciding which one to default after the draw.
If there are more than four teams in a knock-out competition, there should be an elimination to reduce the number to four. Otherwise the final could be the third match played by one or both teams on a single day.
I would recommend that the mileage cut-off be set to 40 miles. Otherwise Bude might never get a home match.

It wasn't a ploy!! We lost players between signing up 2 teams and the match dates. And something happened to one of the opposing teams too. However, given our loss of players (Adam, Toby, Bea, Boris) I reckon we'd enter just one team anyway. But I don't agree that it should be a rule. Let clubs expand, more players, more chess.