Non-elite adult chess in Canada

[Kevin Pacey]

In another thread, Paul Bonham posted:

"... What a waste of time organized chess was to me! And that would be because I was already an adult when I joined, I didn't know chess opening theory, I lost most of my games on time because I spent all my time in the opening, it was too expensive in terms of time and money to learn openings from books....

Or as Vlad Drkulec would translate the above: "blah, blah, blah, blah. You're an adult, we at the CFC don't care what you think."

So the CFC is all about kids now. The only adults that count in the CFC now are the ones that are competing internationally (go Canada!) or the ones who are teaching kids or organizing events, especially kids events..."


Whatever one thinks about Paul's assessment of the CFC's attitude towards its adult members, he's alluded to at least two issues concerning adult chess in Canada that may be of interest to many readers:

1. How can adult novice or veteran players improve quickly and inexpensively in Canada, whether learning openings or something else?

2. What can the CFC do to improve chess for adults in Canada who are not elite players?


As far as the first question goes, these days there is relatively inexpensive coaching or instruction available over the Internet, if not locally. When it comes to selecting an opening repertoire, even for novices one can probably without a lot of effort select a relatively small number of appropriate books - even a stronger, experienced friend can often make suggestions to save time searching for books for such a small library. Again, a coach, a friend or even some books can give advice on how to cut down on study time.

Suggestions for dealing with the second question have been made elsewhere already, but some viewers may wish to offer their latest thoughts in this thread, or to discuss at least some of their previous ideas.

[Ken Kurkowski]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

As a veteran adult OTB player I don't need the CFC to do anything else for me other than rate my games! Playing opportunities are thanks to the volunteers (of which I am one) who run chess clubs, and the folks who organize/direct local tournaments. Instruction of all kinds is available on the Internet: ebooks on openings, video lectures (some free!), game scores from tournaments around the world. Game analysis I get from my copy of Fritz or other engines. Yes, the CFC newsletter has some interesting articles, but there are many other resources out there.
Now, if I were an elite adult player, or a kid good enough to qualify for WYCC then I would need the CFC to represent my interests to FIDE, I guess.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

The CFC could improve things, if it had the resources and time, or some creativity in figuring out HOW, were it to promote chess as more than a sporting activity but also as a cultural activity. Chess as culture might include: chess history, the problem world and heterodox chess and variants, chess as a means of educational excellence for children, teaching competitive aspects of chess to those who have no intention, or ability perhaps, to play competitive chess, etc. But this is like politicians taking the long view, beyond their 4/5 year mandate, and perhaps is too much to ask for a small, volunteer-based organization.

Still, chess is culture in many parts of the world, and they continue to reproduce that culture, so maybe we could learn from them. We have artistic education, music education, and appreciation of both. Imagine the same for chess and it will be so.

What I see is that passions for chess are dispersed into things like global cold war politics, we do not work much with the USCF, Mexican CF, etc., and beauty is replaced by ugliness. Secretiveness even characterizes aspects of competitive chess and there is a lack of magnanimous generosity characteristic of all great and long-lasting arts. Our chess becomes, or is, like "the miser who, having wrapped his valuables in a cloak, buries them in a deserted place while the cold hand of death is already upon his head." It does not have to be so; we make it so.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

Fwiw, here's what I've found (so far) that pertains directly to the CFC possibly developing non-elite adult chess further than at present, from the 2012 Outgoing CFC AGM Long-term Planning Committee's report:

"APPENDIX THREE: THOUGHTS ON ADULT AND JUNIOR CHESS
ADULT CHESS

Serious thought should be given to developing programs for adults which can parallel the programs that we have for children. As noted in the sections where we look at what other sports are doing, soccer and tennis have senior soccer and senior tennis which begins at a relatively young age and offers a bridge for junior sports participants to continue to be involved in the game.

JUNIOR CHESS
..."

[Paul Leblanc]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

The BC Senor Championship brought out quite a few players. Perhaps more of this type of event would help.
Chess activity is driven by local initiatives, not generally as a result of top down policy.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

Senior's chess deserves to be developed more in Canada, though it is just a subset of adult chess. I understand that these days the lower age limit for Senior's championships has dropped to 50 (once again), at the World and Canadian levels, at least.

I think I might agree with Ken that non-elite adults can feel content with the CFC rating their games, and providing a newsletter, as far as the CFC's efforts to reaching out to these adults goes. That's possibly excepting seniors, who deserve more of their own events, and perhaps a lower membership fee.

I would also add that it would be nice if the CFC had more money to devote to various programs providing incentives for people to organize various types of non-age group specific tournaments (these would therefore often include many adult participants). In the old days there would have been more money available for such various programs, should the CFC have chosen to expand them or create them. An example would be the Local Tournament Incentive Program, which allows organizers within small population centres to apply for a grant on a first-come-first-serve basis, limited to a certain total amount available annually under this program.

[Vlad Dobrich]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

'Non-elite chess' - is that another name for coffeehouse chess?
Toronto used to have a vibrant coffeehouse scene with chess played til the wee hours of the morning. That was about 50 years ago. Now the coffee houses - Starbucks, Second Cup and others mostly go after the early morning business and close at nine or ten in the evening. And they would look askance at anyone hogging a table for a chess game. My attempt to revive the chess coffeehouse scene has met with limited success with at most some five or six chess players showing up on a good night. The idea is to use the internet to access casual chess players - it's called meetups, and is available all over North America. So far meetups has channeled 415 people wanting to play friendly games from time to time. Of the players who show up, a few ask about tournaments and chess clubs - so this is a good way to grow a chess community.
This is where the Toronto meetup players play >>>>>>>
http://www.meetup.com/chess-at-the-c...o/?scroll=true
So come by next Wednesday. There are no membership fees (chess sets are provided by the Café) and the coffees and teas are excellent!
On the other hand, why not try to start a chess meetup at a café near you?

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

The good thing about the NFP process is that it reset things and we can start over again without being weighed down by what we did in the past. In a world where the CFC had infinite resources we could initiate many more programs but at a certain point you have to face reality and look at what you can do. Lower membership fees for seniors did not succeed recently and deservedly so, the proposers of the motion had no idea of what the cost to the CFC would be. If you define senior as 50 most of our players would be seniors and juniors based on what I see at the Canadian Open.

We cannot function without at least one person in the office and having one person is costly and puts a strain on that person. In addition the roles of FIDE rep and youth coordinator are extremely hectic at the moment. FIDE America is imposing all kinds of fees on us while our revenues are under constant pressure due to declining memberships. The healthiest area is youth chess but that could easily be torpedoed with one or two idiotic decisions like trying to move CYCC to a time of year that would be convenient to only one province or one region.

We have to pay our bills and lowering fees at this point is not in the cards.

We are talking to people about initiatives to integrate internet chess to help hold events in remote areas and tie them into less remote areas. That is something that needs to be encouraged.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

Lower membership fees for seniors did not succeed recently and deservedly so, the proposers of the motion had no idea of what the cost to the CFC would be. If you define senior as 50 most of our players would be seniors and juniors based on what I see at the Canadian Open.

I'd define a senior at 65 and over. The Government of Canada sends a seniors card at that age and it can be used for store seniors discounts and that sort of thing.

Using 50 as an eligible age to play in seniors events, and sandbag the prizes, is different than a membership for a legitimate seniors discount for membership.

I didn't know there was a seniors discount awhile back or I might have renewed my membership.

[John Upper]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

2. What can the CFC do to improve chess for adults in Canada who are not elite players?

Eliminate the disadvantage of having to learn piles of opening theory by regularly running Fischer Random/Chess960 events.


I think responses to Fischer Random are an equilibrium breaker between two groups of people who complain that: "There's too much opening theory".

Some people who say this mean:

a) "Having to keep track of opening theory takes some of the fun out of chess";

and others mean:

b) "The amount of opening theory I know is fine, but when I have to play an opponent who knows more opening theory than me... that takes some of the fun out of chess."

People who complain that "There's too much opening theory" but don't want to play Fischer Random mean (b).


I'd suggest that the main reason people don't like Fischer Random is the sunk cost of their opening preparation.

[Paul Bonham]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

Fwiw, here's what I've found (so far) that pertains directly to the CFC possibly developing non-elite adult chess further than at present, from the 2012 Outgoing CFC AGM Long-term Planning Committee's report:

"APPENDIX THREE: THOUGHTS ON ADULT AND JUNIOR CHESS
ADULT CHESS

Serious thought should be given to developing programs for adults which can parallel the programs that we have for children.

In Vlad Drkulec's CFC, that serious thought will never be given. Rather, the CFC will sentence adult chess in Canada to forever hold its current ultra-niche status, by expending the least effort to please the least number of adults: simply provide somewhat up-to-date ratings.

For the shrinking group of adult players that care about this, it has only 1 purpose: to ensure that in rated events they play only those close to them in chess strength. They just want a good, hard-fought game -- not to blow someone off the board or be similarly blown off the board themselves.

Meanwhile, Vlad's CFC will morph into something like the CMA. All attention and effort is channeled into youth chess and chess in the K-12 education system. It isn't even important what percentage of such youth turn into adult members. I even suggested Vlad could rename the CFC to the CCFC: Children's Chess Federation of Canada... and Vlad agreed this could be good. Anyone with eyes to see should know from this that Vlad and the CFC care nothing about adult chess besides keeping alive the little thing they have going there.

But as Vlad also did say, there is nothing to stop anyone from forming an alternate for-profit chess federation. Such a new federation could focus its attention only on adult members. It could expand adult chess beyond it's current ultra-niche status not by teaching chess, and not by any of Nigel's 'chess culture' suggestions, but by totally transforming and reinventing chess itself.

One way of doing this would be to offer only chess960 events. That eliminates opening memorization as a factor in game results. Opening memorization is something that takes years of investment to achieve, making it unwanted for novice adult chess. So that one step alone could grow adult membership, maybe even double it. Vlad Dobrich, who likes to do thing differently, could perhaps try holding a weekly chess960-only event, not even bothering with starting a new federation for it.

Edit: I just saw before posting this John Upper's post in this thread just before mine, also proposing chess960 events.

For a new federation, this alone isn't enough... desperate times require desperate measures.

There are imaginative measures one can take that still leave you with the core of chess strategy and tactics. To that can be added new elements that allow for increased dynamics and increased variance, both necessary to achieve radical growth in adult membership (because chess strategy and tactics alone will only appeal to a small niche adult membership).

[Jason Manley]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

b) "The amount of opening theory I know is fine, but when I have to play an opponent who knows more opening theory than me... that takes some of the fun out of chess."

I don't know if this is something anyone else runs into, but I've found that the perception of opponents knowing more opening theory is one which affects the play of many at the non-elite level. When I play someone who is lower rated than myself, or doesn't play serious games all that often (quite common in Maritime tournaments), in post-game analysis I often hear a comment along the lines of "I wanted to avoid main lines because I figured you must know more theory than I do." What gets me is that this comment frequently comes a move or two after we'd already left any theory I knew.

I would wonder if many of the people you're talking about in (b) aren't simply convincing themselves beforehand that their opponents know more theory than they do, rather than testing their opponents' theoretical knowledge.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

The problem concerning perception that you've mentioned is one I would assume happens in many contests at all levels, Jason. There are ways to prepare for this dilemma. Some suggestions can be found in books that discuss opening preparation. Suggestions can also be given by a coach.

Prepared decisive novelties in tactical openings are the hardest (occasional) eventualities to cope with. As Nunn and others have alluded to, they are an occupational hazard if you play tactical openings.

[edit: An example of a book that discusses opening preparation is... Opening Preparation by Dvoretsky and Yusupov. There is one chapter by Yusupov devoted entirely to preparing for a game. The chapter starts out with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of having a narrow vs. wider repertoire.

Granted, this book was published in 1994, and is geared more for master strength players than class players, but this is only one example of advice offered on the topic.]

[Steve Douglas]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

One thing which I've seen done, albeit rarely, is to not have ratings posted on cross-tables or pairing tables, just the class or section. Obviously if the pairings are posted well in advance, players will be able to look up an opponent's rating, but that also means they can look up games to help choose an opening (or bone up on one).

Steve

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: Non-elite adult chess in Canada

The problem concerning perception that you've mentioned is one I would assume happens in many contests at all levels, Jason. There are ways to prepare for this dilemma. Some suggestions can be found in books that discuss opening preparation. Suggestions can also be given by a coach.

Prepared decisive novelties in tactical openings are the hardest (occasional) eventualities to cope with. As Nunn and others have alluded to, they are an occupational hazard if you play tactical openings.

[edit: An example of a book that discusses opening preparation is... Opening Preparation by Dvoretsky and Yusupov. There is one chapter by Yusupov devoted entirely to preparing for a game. The chapter starts out with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of having a narrow vs. wider repertoire.

Granted, this book was published in 1994, and is geared more for master strength players than class players, but this is only one example of advice offered on the topic.]

Another book that's a bit old is Secrets of Practical Chess by Nunn (1998). There is a chapter called 'The Opening' that has a section 'Building a repertoire'.

Knowing what I do about this section, and my recollections of some of Paul's chesstalk posts, what might I recommend to Paul, for example, as a possible repertoire if ever he wished to play tournament chess again, but still had relatively little study time?

Well, I think I recall Paul wishes for tactical positions, like many players. Given little time for study, playing exceptionally mainline openings is out of the question (assuming Paul never absorbed much theory when he was younger, if he had more time then). Not wishing to recommend highly suspect stuff for more than social occasions or experiments, I'd recommend slightly offbeat stuff that's often tactical at some point in practice.

Starting with possible defences with Black, against 1.e4 it seems to me that both 1...g6 and 1...b6 require Black needing to know much less theory than is the case after many other first moves (1...d6, intending the Pirc via 2.e4 Nf6, is one such case). There is also the possibility of Black playing both ...g6 and ...b6 in the same game, if he wishes. The tactics in these fianchetto defences normally don't happen exceptionally early, but often after quite a few moves, where both sides can play creatively in their buildups.

Against other first moves than 1.e4, Black can play either or both 1...g6 or 1...b6 as well. To make sure Black has at least two choices against every first move (Nunn doesn't suggest this, but I do), except vs. the rare 1.g4?!, which is easy to improvise against, Black can play various Dutch defence setups beginning with 1...f5 too. Dutch theory that needs to be known doesn't run too deep.

With White, there are many possible ways to meet the criteria I'm suggesting for Paul. One tactical way to begin is the King's Indian Attack, i.e. White plays 1.Nf3, then g3, Bg2, 0-0, d3, Nbd2, e4 normally follows. Theory can run deep in a handful of cases, but it is not so vital for White to memorize since he is the one who is usually trying to attack (say against French or Sicilian Defence setups).

Another first move that's fairly tactical is 1.f4 (the Bird's Opening), though the From Gambit (1..e5) pretty much requires learning either accepting (2.fxe5) or learning enough about the risky King's Gambit, which can be transposed to (2.e4). Hence I'm a tiny bit leery about recommending the Bird's.

A way to play 1.d4 that can be tactical, often, is to play the Trompovsky (1...Nf6 2.Bg5). White's second move can also be used against 1...d5 or 1...f5. In case of 1...c5 White has a bit of an issue avoiding fairly heavy theory (if 2.d5) but White can duck with 2.dxc5 or 2.Nf3. in case of 2.c3 or e3 White is going to need to know in detail other setups than the Tromp, though he may wish to learn some as alternatives to the Tromp (in case of 1...e6 he may need to, if he doesn't wish to transpose to a 2.d4 French). Such could include the Colle, for example, but note that, in the present case, Black could play 2...cxd4 when White can find himself by transposition in a line of the Slav or Caro-Kann he may not wish to play (after ...d5 next).

A final way I can suggest for White is to start with 1.e4 (but avoid the heaviest mainline theory). Then I'd suggest, for example, if 1...c5 2.Nc3 (Closed Sicilian or Grand Prix Attack), 1...e5 2.Bc4 (Bishop's Opening) or else learn 2.Nf3 Nc6 (if 2...Nf6 3.d4 is out of fashion yet interesting, and if 2...f5 3.d4 is a calm way to meet the Latvian) 3.Bc4 intending to play a d3 and c3 setup. Against 1...e6 play 2.Nc3 d5 (if 2...c5 it's a 2.Nc3 Sicilian) 3.Nf3 to really cut down on theory against an opening you might not face a lot depending on your customers. Same story for 1...c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 (3.Qf3 is odd but can be fun). Then there's 1...Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.Nc3 and if Nxc3 the ambitious 4.bxc3!? Also, if 1...d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 (or 2...Nf6 3.Bb5 ) 3.Nf3 intending d4 and c4 again can cut down on theory and possibly disappoint Black.