I’m a member in a rural area (about halfway between Morgantown, WV and Washington DC). Needless to say there is no chess club here. I have a couple of friends coming to my house every couple of weeks to play and I’m prepping them to go to their first tournament soon, which will be at least 2 hours away assuming the Morgantown club keeps holding regular tourneys and 3 1/2 hours away if we go to DC. The questions I would like to put to this forum are: When do you affiliate? I know you don’t need to be a great chess player to be a club TD, but I’ve always just wanted to have fun playing. I like the idea of keeping a rating as some sort of indicator of where I am in my chess proficiency, but if I set up a local club and all we do is play each other then the accuracy of that rating is partially suspect unless we play enough tourneys outside of our small group. I am not ready to travel to national events right now so anything within a day trip is it for me. I think if my regular chess get togethers grow to include any others, affiliation will happen at some point. I personally don’t want the hassle of being a club president, but I’ll do it if no one else is available, which seems to be the case. (We are just 3 now, though we’ve had 4 twice). I also have the random thought about how much it would take to draw people from a couple hours away and how to find a TD that’s willing to host something like that, should I be able to drum up local sponsorship for an event like that. I’m just talking about bringing in a few people from DC or Pittsburg with the lure of a good tourney. That’s probably way down the road, but I’m thinking about it right now. I was pretty much the only chess player around growing up in this small town. Now that I have returned I feel like I want to generate some more interest, if only to give me some others to share my enthusiasm for chess. Anyone had a similar experience out there?
According to USCF records there are around 75 current USCF members who live within about 60 miles of you and over 1200 within 100 miles, so holding a tournament might not be as difficult as you think.
One benefit to USCF affiliation is that you could order mailing labels for those members. (Any members who have requested their address be kept from such lists would not appear, though.)
Neat. It seems that some of the folks coming over for chess have drummed up some more interest. I think I may have to find some more equipment before our next “chess night” and maybe start talking about affiliation and actually incorporating into a club and if there are a lot finding somewhere other than my home to hold meetings. Maybe there will be someone there who is more into the governance type work, as it isn ‘t my cup o’ tea.
One thing to note. If you just want to get the affiliate so you can rate tourneys and be a club TD, you don’t have to have an ‘official’ club. You can have an affiliate for the sole purpose of rating your tournaments. There doesn’t have to be a ‘club president’ or meeting minutes or any formal regalia.
All you have to do is advertise: Chess at my place on Tuesday nights. Or whichever.
If you start to grow and want to formalize things, you can, but you don’t have to do this at first.
You were correct about needing to get to outside tournaments to make sure your ratings stay accurate. We did some models on the rating system with as close to accurate formulas we could get to the bonus system and such.
A group of 4-8 players, equally skilled(we tested it on the 1100-1400 range), and only playing each other, have the potential to all increase in rating according to how the wins and losses fall with bonus points. This would lead to your pool being highly inflated. Going to outside tournaments now and then helps to keep that inflation in check.
One simulation we ran had 6 players rated around 1200 playing a weekly RR, and in a year, they were all rated over 1400, only playing each other.
Another option (if the $40/year for affiliate is not possible) is if you have a friend that is part of an affiliate in another location, you could ask if they could certify you.
We have an affiliate locally that allows all competent local TD’s to use his affiliate to encourage TD’s to hold more tournaments.
Good Luck
Josh
If I don’t have to formalize things right away, that’s great! I’ll talk it over with those that come next Thursday and I may decide to just front the affiliation fee myself with whoever can or would like to chip in.