Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Venting about Chess in Massachusetts

I wish the Greater Boston area or the Metrowest had a chess club like this one in St. Louis!

Damn...I'm tired of church basements or basements in general, college centers, senior centers, poor parking, Burger King joints and every other second rate spot to host a chess club! Massachusetts is considered one of the strongest regions in the country for chess, yet we play chess at 3rd rate locations. Oh well, I guess at least we have these places to play at, which is better than no place at all.

Why can't the BBC find a better location than at the Social Security Center with no parking or parking with the probability of being ticketed? A club with so much tradition and players that are conceivably the best that Massachusetts has to offer deserve a better location. With a better location, I would guess that club membership would rise.

Metrowest doesn't want to publicly promote its club due to the possibility of player overflow, i.e., not enough room at that club to expand.

Sven Brask Club is rather small and last I knew plays in some basement...at least they have decent parking.

The Greater Worcester Chess Club can't seem to get more than a dozen or two participants to play at their club at any one time, and they are operating in the second largest city in New England; having at least eight college campuses to egage or recruit from. There has to be more than 12 to 20, O.K., maybe 30 people in the area that have a love for chess.

If only chess players were not so damn cheap!! Is there anyone out there that would be so kind as to donate a few hundred thousand dollars or million to develop a really nice chess center for Massachusetts Chess? We would name the building after you and donate to your favorite charities.

By the way...where is MACA? I just joined MACA for a very small fee of 12 dollars for a year membership. Hey, I want to do my part for Chess in Massachusetts. But the question is, how the hell do they make any money to promote chess? I mean c'mon...the twelve bucks I just gave them isn't even enough to support their quarterly publication.

I'd like to see the MACA board tackling fresh ideas to bring the organization into the black. Don't tell me they operate on the plus side, cause that's a bunch of crap and status quo just isn't going to do it very much longer!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Smitty, This is Donna Alarie - President of the Greater Worcester Chess Club and Vice President of MACA.

    MACA is running an election and had 15 individuals running for 16 seats. I believe that it is highly likely that there will be an open seat after the election and I seriously recommend that you consider attending a board meeting and consider applying for the opening if it's not filled by write in vote at the end of May.

    As for the Greater Worcester Chess Club, I've been running it since 2001 and have 66 individuals on my weekly email list for the adult events and 56 individuals for my scholastics email list. Unfortunately, life gets in the way, players come and go, some come to those colleges and then leave when they graduate. Some get jobs in the area and some lose them. With the advent of the internet, finding individuals who can commit to playing every Thursday at a local club becomes more difficult. Our club may be small, but it's friendly, it's social, players interact well with each other, and we have chess for every level from beginner to master level so it's competitive.

    Having been involved in organizing for many years, I can see the downturn in over the board attendance and the uptick in internet play...I do both. While I can understand the frustration, I don't expect things to change overnight. Plenty of individuals who think things could be done better, but the best way to effect change is to volunteer to help and then just do it. :) MACA could use all the volunteers it can get and the contact information is on their web page at www.masschess.org

    My contact information is at www.chesspals.com and my email is Donnachesspals@aol.com

    Thanks for caring enough to post this though...I had never heard of your blog before today and don't know if we've ever met, but would be glad to welcome you to pop into our club some Thursday night. :)

    Cheers,

    Donna

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  2. Donna, thanks so much for visiting my blog and leaving your constructive comments.

    To address your last question, yes, we have met years ago when your club first introduced itself to the Worcester area. I played several side games here and there and maybe a tournament or two when you were located in Shrewsbury.

    I applaud your dedication and efforts in keeping your club active and attractive for area chess players. And I do very much agree that your club is quite friendly and social.

    I have no quarrels with the demeanor of any the chess clubs I mention here. I only mention these clubs in my blog as a result of being familiar with them at one time or another and wishing that better things would come their way to make them much more "richer in chess"...so to say.

    I understand how the advent of the internet has taken away from OTB, but I also understand that when a new technology comes along to take a piece of the pie, then the baker of that pie must adapt and reinvent the way the pie is made so that people will come back to it.

    Personally, I would gladly volunteer my time, and perhaps, I just may take you up on the matter with MACA. But as it stands right now, I have volunteered a good portion of my time at MCC to help Mark run his club.

    Let me know when your next board meeting is and I'll indeed pencil it in. If I feel like my efforts of being a board member will help, I'll gladly throw in my hat; however, if the board is a resistant one, particularly to new ideas or change, then it would only discourage me from participating.

    Thanks again Donna!

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