Would you like to see the CFC promote bughouse (double chess) besides chess

[Kevin Pacey]

This is poll to see if respondents would like to see the CFC to some extent promote bughouse (double chess), besides promoting chess. An old chesstalk poll I did showed many respondents were against the idea of the CFC promoting any number of variants, besides chess, but I'm wondering if more people might like it if only bughouse were chosen for such. Note that I've read that at least some national federations already do this, to some extent.

[Michael Song]

Re: Would you like to see the CFC promote bughouse (double chess) besides chess

If only we had the money... or do we? We'll never truly know with CFC :)

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: Would you like to see the CFC promote bughouse (double chess) besides chess

If only we had the money... or do we? We'll never truly know with CFC :)

In the beginning, perhaps, the CFC might just promote bughouse to the extent of giving official bughouse rules on the CFC website, permit/encourage the posting of bughouse tournament notices on the CFC Discussion board's forum for tournament notices, and sanction bids by organizers for Canadian bughouse championships, or even for more ordinary bughouse events. In addition, the CFC might mention bughouse as a true team version of chess at times, when promoting chess, too. Some might argue that all this might at times draw any number of players, or at least some of the CFC's time & resources, away from the play of standard chess.

Clear, and considerable, financial costs would arise if later some sort of a bughouse rating system were kept, or CFC programs came into being for [partial] funding of bughouse events, and/or to send bughouse champions abroad.

IMHO, in spite of the concerns noted, there might be a beneficial effect for the CFC in the long run, and for the playing of organized chess in Canada, as bughouse is one chess variant that doesn't in a way compete with chess since it's [usually] played with 4 players.

[Matthew Nicholson]

Re: Would you like to see the CFC promote bughouse (double chess) besides chess

Let's get a hang of promoting real chess first...

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: Would you like to see the CFC promote bughouse (double chess) besides chess

Let's get a hang of promoting real chess first...

For now, it would only take a minimal amount of multi-tasking by the CFC to minimally promote bughouse... perhaps many poll respondents don't have that kind of faith in the CFC, at present, though.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Would you like to see the CFC promote bughouse (double chess) besides chess

For now, it would only take a minimal amount of multi-tasking by the CFC to minimally promote bughouse... perhaps many poll respondents don't have that kind of faith in the CFC, at present, though.

We had a bughouse event at CYCC after the tournament was over. We had a blitz event at the Canadian Open before the fifth round. I directed it. There is no policy against advertising bughouse or blitz events (or Fischer 360) on the CFC coming events section.

At the moment the CFC is in a bit of crazy busy mode with the CYCC/CO and now prep for NAYCC for myself and the Windsor organizers and the sending of teams to the under 16 Olympiad in Slovakia, the Olympiad in Azerbaijan, the WYCC in Russia and WCCC in Georgia all reaching critical mass at almost the same time.

Anyone who wants to promote bughouse should step forward and start doing it.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Would you like to see the CFC promote bughouse (double chess) besides chess

For now, it would only take a minimal amount of multi-tasking by the CFC to minimally promote bughouse... perhaps many poll respondents don't have that kind of faith in the CFC, at present, though.

What about Kreigspiel (sp?) ... seriously, the promotion of classical chess should be the focus of the CFC. If people want to fool around with variants etc that is fine but it should at most be a sideline. The CFC has rather limited resources (way too limited) and wasting any of that on trivial variants is a waste of precious time/money etc.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: Would you like to see the CFC promote bughouse (double chess) besides chess

I'm encouraged that the CFC Discussion Board tournament announcements forum allows the posting of bughouse event notices, at least under Vlad's watch. Not clear if the CFC will ever seriously think to get into promoting bughouse one day, even minimally, even if eventually enough people organize events in Canada to encourage the CFC more to do just that (a server with a bughouse option is an advanced idea I forgot to mention). There is the distant, albeit remote, danger that the CFC will gradually let slip an opportunity to promote bughouse itself at some point before, much farther down the road, an independent Canadian bughouse federation is established and claims the whole market share.

What makes bughouse truly special as a variant is that it is, afaik, the world's most popular variant, plus it is true team chess, which uses the basic rules of chess, with drops, time management and communication allowed too. It is also rather computer-resistant, for the most part. In addition it's great fun, especially for the young, and it's easy to learn for chessplayers since it's so close to chess.

As I wrote earlier, some national chess federations are already promoting bughouse (yes, as a sideline), and I also anticipated arguments that have been made, in my second last post. It's a matter of debating how busy the CFC is on average, and how truly scarce its resources are. We are not entirely in a position to know... but where there's a will, there's a way, for the CFC.

[Neil Frarey]

Re: Would you like to see the CFC promote bughouse (double chess) besides chess

Kev, why not start by having you write a feature article for the CFC's mag? It would take very little effort (especially if your article is correctly formatted) for the Editor to place it just as with placing any other submitted content. Support the article by CFC Forum thread(s), CFC Facebook update, etc..

Perhaps from there that would start a discourse amongst the membership. Important to generate membership feedback, CFC Forum participation, CFC Facebook etc., for your passion.

IMHO, that would be key to any further effort(s), such as you have mentioned above.

Make it happen!

[Paul Bonham]

Re: Would you like to see the CFC promote bughouse (double chess) besides chess

Kev, why not start by having you write a feature article for the CFC's mag? It would take very little effort (especially if your article is correctly formatted) for the Editor to place it just as with placing any other submitted content. Support the article by CFC Forum thread(s), CFC Facebook update, etc..

Perhaps from there that would start a discourse amongst the membership. Important to generate membership feedback, CFC Forum participation, CFC Facebook etc., for your passion.

IMHO, that would be key to any further effort(s), such as you have mentioned above.

Make it happen!

To add to that idea of "Make it happen!".....

Kevin, I know nothing about your financial situation or your job situation.... but if you really want and believe in bughouse as a viable variant that could become more popular (at least with kids) than regular chess, then start thinking of it from a business point of view.

Could it make money? The CFC has discovered that kids = $$$$, and part of this is because chess parents think chess will help their kids do better in school and end up in a better university, and eventually end up being much better off in life. If all you had to do was sell bughouse directly to the kids, you could give up your day job (if you have one) immediately. But the parents make the decisions for their kids, and you'd have to sell them on bughouse. Could that be done?

You could sell it as a 'counterpoint' to regular chess. That is, regular chess is stressful, competitive, and if the kid does badly as 90% of them will do, potentially harmful to the kid's self-esteem. Sell bughouse as a relief from this: it is totally fun, the kids absolutely love it, and the competitions would be based on teams and so not so bad for the self-esteem for the losers. Yes, there would still be ratings and rankings to inspire competition, but the fun aspect really dominates.

So find an investor or a few investors to whom you can really sell the idea of forming a bughouse federation, separate from the CFC. The money potential would be much better than CFC. Of course, this all depends on your personal situation and how much time you can put into it. Maybe if you set aside your personal chess studies, you would have the time. It all depends on your own viewpoint and your own initiative.