'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

If I were writing a webpage to show the ropes to aspiring players (competitive and/or club), there's some things that don't present much in the way of problems to discuss. For example, telling viewers to look at the CFC webpage re: club listings, for contacts. There used to be a long list of governors (now called voting members) that also would have been useful to mention as possible contacts, in case the CFC's club page fails to list any club near where the aspiring player lives (a VM might know an unlisted club). At the moment only the CFC executives are listed as contacts, so newbies may have to settle for that as a last resort. Also, a short blurb on how aspiring players are expected to conduct themselves when games at a tournament or club are in progress (quietly, unless it's known to be casual game night at a club, or a casual club), as well as a link to the rules of chess as it applies to competitive play (a reassurance can be given that people normally take time to learn some of the finer points). Plus, mention that a club normally charges a club membership fee.

One obstacle for newbies and veterans alike that annoys me is that nowadays tournament or club organizers do not always take a CFC membership fee if it's required for playing (usually the case, i.e. to have games played CFC rated). Thus one may have to contact the CFC office to pay somehow, in plenty of time too. In the case of newbies, what kind of a welcome is that? All but require me to pay even before I might have had the chance to talk with an organizer to decide whether I might not want to play such serious chess?? At least there's a CFC tournament fee for a single event, where organizers take them, but is this made well known by the CFC or organizers? Plus, the fee is almost half an Ordinary adult membership. Anyway, at some point the welcoming webpage showing the ropes to newbies will also mention that to play rated chess, there's a rating fee for each event.

Somewhere it might be explained that a newbie may do best to first play in a club, perhaps even one without rated chess at first, if available nearby, before venturing into tournament play on weekends, where there are entry fees well over $10 normally, though people get a chance to win cash prizes. Also mention that unrated players may play in the lowest section, depending on the tournament and organizer.

The nicest part may come when describing how chess is a rewarding hobby in many ways for many people, and that there is lots of chess literature and computer resources, not to mention stuff on the internet, including practising on a chess server, and then there's the social aspect of chess.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

Btw, I should have included in my last post: it may be essential to sometime make the CFC website a bit more friendly to newbies somehow (e.g. after a welcoming link to a webpage specifically for newbies, include general info for showing the ropes to aspiring players [competitive and/or club] on that page).

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

Hello again Neil

I've looked back on many of my old wishes about what the CFC might strive for in future, and I'll recap those you may have missed, in case you might care to post your thoughts on any of them:

Short-term wishes:
...
4. Figure out how to promote chess better [as exciting] {cultural activity};
5. Try to use community TV channels across Canada to promote chess.
...

My own ideas on #4, fwiw:
Basic principles of propaganda (aka advertising):
A. Simplicity (appeal to the lowest common denoninator, so everyone gets the idea);
B. Vivid imagery;
C. Appeal to emotion.

Thus, a symbol or screen that might be used somehow is a striking royal blue background with a black-and-white chessboard smack in the middle, with or without any pieces (I would have preferred a red background, but that may be too close to Chessbase's brilliant logo).

Also, two ideas for TV spots, if ever affordable:

1) a simple shot of a coffeetable with a nice decorative chess set on it, as well a plate of cookies and two glasses of milk (no people present); then an announcer says "Remember playing chess with your grandpa? Visit the Chess Federation of Canada website to brush up in a big way". (then flash CFC address);

2) a simple shot of a park bench with a nice wooden chess set on it, as well as two cans of soda pop with straws (no people present); then an announcer says "Remember playing chess with your friends in the park? Visit the Chess Federation of Canada website to brush up in a big way". (then flash CFC address).

Inspired at all, or did I lay 3 eggs? :)

[Neil Frarey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

Also in regard to your latest post here, the idea of a SoCA newsfeed is nice. Perhaps in future it might include much news about amateur/class player level chess in Canada. Games from such levels don't much make the [online] magazine anymore, the way they commonly did in the 20th century. A SoCA mag might one day be possible, who knows?

Had a chance to broaden this out a bit more.

Searched the innerwebs for a chess Variants news source, can't find one. Interesting links tho, thanks.

Our 3rd and final reskin will be finished this month (what's today's date?) with a soft launch shortly thereafter and a hard launch (including e-commence) targeted Xmas ...and that is going to be a lot of fun!



Chess is ...invincible.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

Some of my long-term wishes are very long-term, Vlad. :) They also sometimes assume a much enlarged membership size.

P.S.: Not that many years ago a CFC presidential candidate ran on a platform that included a vision of 100,000 CFC members, and he won (or was it 1 million members?).

I thought 10,000 was possible. I still think it is though that wouldn't change the cost dynamics of a magazine.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

Some of my long-term wishes are very long-term, Vlad. :) They also sometimes assume a much enlarged membership size.

P.S.: Not that many years ago a CFC presidential candidate ran on a platform that included a vision of 100,000 CFC members, and he won (or was it 1 million members?).

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

Hello again Neil

I've looked back on many of my old wishes about what the CFC might strive for in future, and I'll recap those you may have missed, in case you might care to post your thoughts on any of them:

Short-term wishes:

1. Have a server available for CFC members that's ready to be used;

We could have had a server but lacked volunteers to staff it.

2. Have a USCF-style rating floor (e.g. if you're ever 15xx you can't go below 1400 ever);

The USCF rating floor for a peak rating of 15xx is 1300.

3. Occasional membership surveys;
4. Figure out how to promote chess better [as exciting] {cultural activity};
5. Try to use community TV channels across Canada to promote chess.

Long-term(?) wishes:

6. Provide list of top Senior players in Canada;
7. Provide something for non-elite adult players (e.g. more funding for some types of local events);
8. Encourage growth of Canadian chess clubs (helps promote team chess eventually too);
9. Regain Charitable Status for CFC;
10. New classes of Senior and Military memberships (discounted), and perhaps a class for women too;
11. Provide seperate Active and Blitz ratings;
12. Provide print CFC magazine again eventually;

I doubt the economics will ever allow that to happen again. Postal rates keep going up.

13. Get a CFC office (and store) again eventually;
14. Provide Bughouse ratings eventually;
15. Eventually lower CFC membership fees;
16. Eventually lower CFC rating fees.

I don't see how these are in any way compatible. You can't have lower fees and more services. We are operating near break even as it is with everything firing on all cylinders. At some point things are going to go awry and we are looking at at least small deficits if everything stays the same.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

Hello again Neil

I've looked back on many of my old wishes about what the CFC might strive for in future, and I'll recap those you may have missed, in case you might care to post your thoughts on any of them:

Short-term wishes:

1. Have a server available for CFC members that's ready to be used;
2. Have a USCF-style rating floor (e.g. if you're ever 15xx you can't go below 1300 ever);
3. Occasional membership surveys;
4. Figure out how to promote chess better [as exciting] {cultural activity};
5. Try to use community TV channels across Canada to promote chess.

Long-term(?) wishes:

6. Provide list of top Senior players in Canada;
7. Provide something for non-elite adult players (e.g. more funding for some types of local events);
8. Encourage growth of Canadian chess clubs (helps promote team chess eventually too);
9. Regain Charitable Status for CFC;
10. New classes of Senior and Military memberships (discounted), and perhaps a class for women too;
11. Provide seperate Active and Blitz ratings;
12. Provide print CFC magazine again eventually;
13. Get a CFC office (and store) again eventually;
14. Provide Bughouse ratings eventually;
15. Eventually lower CFC membership fees;
16. Eventually lower CFC rating fees.

[Neil Frarey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

Great! I'll go through those this evening.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

I've edited my previous post, in case you missed it, Neil.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

An internet search revealed to me that there used to be a chess variant magazine, but I suppose it's gone defunct along with the British Chess Variants Society. So, on the bright side, that niche is wide open:

http://www.chessvariants.com/books.dir/vc.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britis...riants_Society

P.S.: Oops, I missed a bit of a gold mine of books & periodicals listed on the Chess Variant Pages website. Perhaps some of them are magazines not yet defunct that refer to chess variants (note that this particular webpage seems to be rather old):

http://www.chessvariants.com/index/m...nd+Periodicals


FYI, there's also a so-called world bughouse chess federation (corporation) located in L.A., but I don't think it has claim to any sort of world bughouse championship rights:

https://www.bebuzee.com/world-bughouse-chess-federation

[Neil Frarey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

A SoCA mag might one day be possible, who knows?

Great idea ... is there a chess variants mag?

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

FYI, today I added a post script (re: chess variant equipment) to my second last post.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

Hi Kevin, sup yo?
...

I'm suffering a bit because of the occasional Ottawa heat. As of last summer I'm not allowed to have an air conditioner hanging out of my room's apartment window, so I have to settle for a fan. There's still the provided air conditioner in the living room that hangs out on the balcony, at least. So, at least for now I'm not playing on the major chess variant website I've gone to (The Chess Variant Pages), as my 'playstation' is in my room (I have no truly mobile devices). Instead I settle for occasionally viewing some games being played (on what's called Game Courier there) of what seems to be the best variant I've invented by far ("Sac Chess", a 10x10 two player game with 30 pieces per side), as it seems to have had a momentary wave of interest after I discussed it there on a forum after a long lull. It's not easy to invent a quality chess variant, especially a truly popular one, at least for me. Some people go the commercial route, but I chose to make my variants public domain, as this was easier, and may allow them to become popular sooner, if ever.

Towards the end of June I played in the Eastern Ontario Open. I seldom seem to play my best when the weather is hot, but I still won some of my entry fee back. I had a perfect score with White, but two draws and a loss to David Gordon otherwise. Fwiw, Dave thinks the only really good chess variant he's aware of is Bughouse, in his opinion.

For the summer I hope I'll get around to being fitter, and studying chess when it's not so muggy even inside. Other than that there's chess message boards (abstract chess politics like in this thread, plus any stuff that arises which inspires me), and seeing how my chess variant is promoting itself under various keywords on Google, or the number of views of my CFC blog entries about it. Exciting stuff. A lot of viewers are sending blog entries to a friend, but I suspect it may just be the last one entered, i.e. mine, about why chess is so popular. I play both sides of the argument about chess vs. chess variants. :) I may start showing up at the RA again shortly. The last couple of summers I was a bit miffed that the bar was closed during weather deemed acceptable, so people had to use the patio deck to get a (more limited) menu selection plus drinks. Every now and then I think about changing my set opening repertoire (which I largely don't deviate from), but it still seems perfect for me, even though it's wide and varied. I worry about getting largely inert, like chess in Canada. At least there's always the TV. Hope you have plenty to occupy yourself.

Kevin


P.S.: Here's a link to all logs of finished Sac Chess games played on Game Courier to date:

http://play.chessvariants.com/pbmlog...&stat=finished

Plus, if you care to visit, here's a link to a CFC blog entry of mine that includes a link to a package by Dutch math professor H.G. Muller that allows one to play a number of variants against a computer, including Sac Chess:

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...Chess-variant)

A list of chess variants I've invented to date, as can be found on The Chess Variant Pages (and in many cases, available for Play-By-Mail (PBM) on Game Courier):

http://www.chessvariants.com/index/m...y+Kevin++Pacey

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: 'Ottawa & Eastern Ontario chesstalk Public Social Group' thread 1.0

Good to hear of your conferring with the councillor, Neil. For any possible CFC presidential run any year soon, this would seem a feather in your cap. One concern I have is whether running SoCA might cause some sort of conflict, if you were to one day become a CFC officer (e.g. Prez). Maybe it wouldn't, if SoCA would not be a main source of income, if SoCA comes to bring such. I can't recall the exact rule offhand.

Also in regard to your latest post here, the idea of a SoCA newsfeed is nice. Perhaps in future it might include much news about amateur/class player level chess in Canada. Games from such levels don't much make the [online] magazine anymore, the way they commonly did in the 20th century. A SoCA mag might one day be possible, who knows?

Regarding a long-term plan for SoCA, I'd forgot it seems you already have (partially?) outlined one on chesstalk (or maybe it's a medium-term plan!?), perhaps as largely given in post #11 in the following link:

http://forum.chesstalk.com/showthrea...highlight=soca

I'm intrigued about the idea of SoCA one day publishing chess authors. Also, were you aware that books about chess variant(s) are published in the world, at least from time to time?

Very ambitious goals for some organization to have would be not only run a chess server offering the odd chess variants, but offer for sale chess variant pieces and boards (at least the most popular ones) - moulds for a factory in Canada might be out of reach for even the most ambitious for a long time though, even if variant equipment's to be a sideline in a chess equipment factory. Meanwhile, Bughouse events are slowly becoming more popular worldwide, as is apparent by the internet (a considerable number held per year even in Canada, judging by an internet search for recent years).

The CFC put together a long-term plan some years ago. Key parts of it have been realized, but other parts were unrealistic IMHO. However, even flawed or incomplete plans can largely lead to success, if there is excellent execution. Afaik, the EOCA and OCA don't (at least currently) have what might be called long-term (nor medium-term?) plans - my impression is that any planning looks ahead just one year at a time for most chess organizations.


P.S.: Here's a link re: photos of some chess variant pieces (chess variant boards can sometimes be found, e.g. 10x10 was sold as a checkers [aka draughts] board type on amazon.ca last I looked). At the moment the 5 piece kits depicted are quite expensive, outrageously so on amazon.ca afaik. There is enough variety that the figurines in all of the kits combined are more or less suitable for many chess variants, perhaps even for my own Sac Chess variant invention. FYI, the Archbishop (moves like B+N) and the Chancellor (moves like R+N), which have other names too, are the most popular fairy chess piece types in practice. The Unicorn is also a name for a fairy chess piece (has different moves depending on the variant played, e.g. in 3D chess variants it standardly changes all 3 coordinates at a time as it moves). IMHO it's quite deserving of honourable mention, in terms of popular use or perhaps even overuse by variant inventors, and in variants played. There are many other relatively popular fairy piece types, but the frequency ranking of such isn't clear to me. The piece kits are based on Musketeer Chess, a commercial variant, though the idea is for the kits to be used for any sort of chess variants that they can be:

http://www.chessvariants.com/d.photo/hos-cv-kits/

I'd add that there are many multi-player chess variants, and I believe Strategy Games at least at one time sold a multi-player game clock in Ottawa, much like a chess clock is for just 2 players.