Missing, presumed lost

We’ve been missing a lot of regular faces at Rooty Hill lately. I’m sure the same thing is happening at other chess clubs.

Two years ago we mustered eight teams for the Grade Matches. This year we’ve managed only four teams for the WSCP and those teams have a rather cobbled-together feel about them. (In my U1600 team we have three players and four reserves. Of the three players Ernesto Alberici will be away on holidays for four weeks and I’ll be off for another two.) That leaves team captain, Allan Butler, to battle the opposition on his own with whatever help he can scrounge.

(It’s a bit like the old Rugby League joke when Australia sent only two players to battle the Poms. Leading 30-nil at half time one of them went to the pub leaving his mate to handle the entire English team on his own. When he learned that the final score had been 30-18 he asked how it had happened. His mate explained that he had been sent off ten minutes into the second half. Good luck Allan!)

But it’s not just the Rooty Hill U1600s who are struggling. The whole WSCP is in trouble.

Division A has only three teams from two clubs: Koala and Parramatta.
Division B is almost as bad: three teams from three clubs—Rooty Hill, Mounties and Parramatta.
Division C in another year would be in bad shape but this year is the strongest of the divisions. There are five U1600 teams from Liverpool, Mounties, Parramatta, Ryde Eastwood and Rooty Hill.
Division D also have five teams, but from only three clubs. They are Parramatta U1300 and U1400, Rooty Hill U1400 and U1500, and Wests U1400.

So what’s the common denominator? Apart from the normal ebb-and-flow of players in and out of the game we’re facing a strong new competitor. Poker.

It’s growing in popularity and, let’s face it, poker is a fascinating game. The current version offers good prize money for a limited outlay and seems to be sponsored by more and more licensed clubs. You can have a night’s cheap entertainment and, with luck, win a cash prize.

If money is the criterion by which we evaluate a game’s worth then chess can’t hope to compete with poker—the money isn’t there and never can be. Even so, I’d like to think there’s more to playing chess than winning cash.

Maybe we need a gimmick of our own. We might even pinch one from poker itself. Like Strip Chess. I’ve never played it myself but I understand it’s fun when you get mated. But perhaps not. After all, most chess players are blokes . . .

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