First visit to a chess club - please advise!

All Things Chess
1

Hello,

I’m an adult beginner (50 years old) who would like advice about going to a chess club for the first time. I thought it would be better to post this here, instead of under the “Chess Clubs” rubric, since it is not an organizational issue.

The small amount I already know about chess is immensely intriguing and enticing. I’ve wanted to learn how to play for a long time and have finally gotten into “carpe diem” mode and feel quite motivated. Although I am now only able to play on a beginning level, I am very keen to learn and am presently studying Volume I of GM Lev Alburt’s “Comprehensive Chess Course,” as well as using a bottom-of-the-line Saitek chess computer (can win sometimes). This spring, I joined the USCF and am trying to get as much as I can out of reading the more basic articles in Chess Life, trying out some of the positions on the chessboard and seeing what I can glean from them. It would be great to play against others face-to-face; of course I’d love to win but I don’t mind losing, as long as I can learn something from the experience and whoever beats me does not make me feel too humiliated!

As of now, I don’t personally know anyone who plays chess. So this weekend, I plan to visit a chess club for the first time and am seriously considering joining it for after-work and weekend play. Have looked at its website and the photos show only men players – didn’t see any women at all, which seems a little intimidating – but I am willing to go there and give it a try.

How can I maximize my chances of having a good experience as a beginner at this club? It is a large club and will certainly be a busy place. What is the proper etiquette that I need to know? Surely, there will be people there who think that playing against a beginner would be a total waste of their time. That’s understandable. But I am hoping there will be some who will be willing to play with me. How do I go about asking – is the simple, straightforward approach best? Is just watching others play OK (even if one cannot make constructive comments), or would this be considered intrusive, if one has nothing edifying to contribute?

If anyone out there could offer some helpful advice to me before my “maiden voyage” at the end of the week, it would be extremely appreciated!

Many grateful thanks in advance,
Laurie

2

Welcome and good luck on your visit to the club.

Most clubs that I’ve visited are VERY friendly to new players.

I doubt if you’ll have any trouble finding players willing to play a relative beginner. As you said “of course I’d love to win but I don’t mind losing, as long as I can learn something from the experience”. Most players feel the same way, so you’ll have little trouble finding an opponent.

Sometimes clubs are heavily “male dominated”, but that’s not a universal rule (especially in clubs that include scholastics).

Yes and yes (OK to watch). You’ll probably be asked if you show any interest in playing (setting up a board, for example).

Some clubs furnish sets and boards, others expect the players to bring their own – you might want to see which kind this club is (or just go ahead and bring a set & board).

3

You have the right attitude, Laurie. Be up front about being a beginner, and looking for same to start. Try to play without a clock, if you never had before, but try to move a little quickly, not to bore your partner.

If you are between games, watch the game with the most spectators. That can be entertaining. You can get into the feel of combat, and pick up a new idea.

See if they have any beginner tournaments for players under 1400 rating or lower.

Good luck and welcome!

All the best, Joe

4

Laurie,

You are lucky that you have a chess club in your area, and even if you don’t have a warm and fuzzy experience during your first visit, being able to play against a variety of players of different strengths will do wonders for chess ability. When you can, take a look at the Novice Nook column “Breaking Down Barriers” (#69 10/2006) by Dan Heisman, either on Chesscafe or on his own site. The first of his ten points in the article is about joining a chess club. I wish I had read it before my first visit to a “club”.

The only thing close to chess club in my area is a weekly game with a retired class B player. He tried to start a club at the library. Technically it still exists, but the only person who regularly attends is me. He is an excellent player (at least when compared with me!) but he hasn’t quite got the right stuff to encourage and retain those who stop by. My first game with him resulted in me getting trounced. He did not comment on any of my moves, offer to play through the game or a segment of it, or in any other way encourage me. He simply reset the pieces and spun the board so we could swap colors and asked if I wanted to play again. After a couple of months of regularly getting crushed, I decided to stop attending. On what would have been my last night playing, I made an off-hand comment about wishing I knew what I was doing wrong. So he showed me. I guess he was waiting for a special invitation to help me become a better player. It’s been just about a year since my first game at the library, and I now have a mentor and am a much better player. But I came SO close to to saying C-ya and never going there again.

The library club hasn’t grown because my early experiences seem to be the norm for everyone who stops by. Because of work, I can only attend for the last hour. Most of the newcomers show up before I can make it. His M.O. seems to be to clobber his opponent while really not showing anything personable or sociable. When the newcomer is leaving, normally when I am just arriving, he shouts out a warm “come again”. Of course, they usually don’t. So, just as Dan Heisman mentions in his article, I (barely) succeeded in overcoming a barrier to becoming a better player. I would bet money that the club you are considering attending is full of old guys and school-aged kids. You can probably count on being the only woman too. But don’t let it stop you. The one common element of all the good chess players I’ve met at tournaments is that they all play at a club.

Good luck!
Charles

5

Unfortunately, I’ve run into that same problem in the past, though with a go club, not a chess club. I was just starting out – had some Internet play under my belt – and the guys at the club were substantially stronger than I was. They didn’t really want to waste their time (as they saw it) on less experienced players; they wanted to play someone closer to their own strength. They also weren’t good at explaining things in a way that was clear to a novice. So, strangely and sadly, it fell to me, the novice, to be the ambassador to all the passers-by who expressed interest in the game we were playing and wanted to learn, because I had the patience for it and the ability to explain the rules clearly and simply. Unfortunately, the ability to play a game well and the ability to teach it well, or simply to be an evangelist for it, don’t always go hand in hand.

As for chess, in my case tournament play came first, and club attendance came later. This certainly had something to do with my living in Boston at the time, where club membership was expensive (the Boylston Chess Club has its own space, and members’ dues help pay the rent) but introductory events were cheap (a $10 open every couple of months). Although a single win in one of those events counted as a stellar performance for me, and 0 for 4 was par for the course, I never felt like I didn’t belong there; I attribute this to the BCC’s tournament director, Bernardo Iglesias, one of my favorite people in the world, who didn’t mind at all that I preferred to look over his shoulder between rounds rather than slam out blitz games like most of the other competitors, and who was happy to explain to me the details of how to run a tournament when I showed an interest.

A wisely run chess club maintains a welcoming atmosphere out of rational self-interest: recruiting new players means having a greater variety of opponents, and variety adds to the fun. It’s easy to say, “As long as you’re there to play, you’re a welcome guest,” but it’s also naive, because you could wind up with a group like my go players. You can’t know until you’re there. So far, however, I’ve been lucky: In addition to the BCC, I’ve been a guest of three other chess clubs and started one of my own, and I haven’t had a negative experience at any of them.

Afterthought: One thing you may run into, even with the friendliest of players, is that experienced chess players often fail to realize that we weaker players can’t always keep up with them. They’ll be “explaining” to you why something is good or bad, and they’ll run out a five- or six-move variation, then back up four moves and pick up where they left off, show you a different sequence, and they’ll be moving pieces all over the place, and you’ll be losing track of where they were or forgetting why you’re supposed to make one move and not another and it all just becomes a big giant BLUR, and of course it all makes perfect sense to them. Do not be afraid to assert yourself and say, “OK, I can’t follow what you’re doing. Do you mind starting over, going more slowly and showing me just one line at a time, and can you please explain each move so that I really know what’s going on?” Only you know how you learn, and sometimes your teachers need to be taught. :smiley:

6

Most chess players feel that chess is dying. A new player to a chess club gives everyone a sense of relief. Every times someone joins the chess club I am in I feel that there is still hope for chess. :smiley:
Anyone who doesn’t welcome you is a jerk. Those people are the reason that chess is not that popular.

7

To everyone who replied to my post, many sincere thanks. Your kind words of encouragement, as well as the personal experiences and knowledge that you shared, are very needed and much appreciated.

Yesterday I visited the club and got quite a positive first impression. I did not play, but was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak with one of the assistant managers and also a member of decades-long duration. They were both extremely generous with their time and advice and assured me that, even as a beginner, I would not feel out of place at the club. So I went ahead and joined up. Although I definitely feel “at the bottom of the food chain,” I am determined to make the maximum effort to develop whatever potential I possess and learn as much as possible. Becoming a member of one of the oldest, largest and strongest chess clubs in the U.S. is an enormous honor for me and I hope that one day, I will be able to give back to this organization in some meaningful way.

Laurie

8

Well Laurie, that was an excellent question you asked, and I really enjoyed the responses, obviously there are some very good people here, some of the best friends I ever made were through playing chess, I even married one player, :smiley:

I wished you could have played a game, just to break the ice. There is a chess site I found on line that you could play for free, and against lower rated players and see how many mistakes others make, kinda of a confidence booster. You can play against live people or a very good computor and different levels of play! You have fifteen mins when playing the computer per move so you can take you time!

I started playing chess at 12yrs and the person that gave me the chess set thought I would use the pieces to play solders with. Instead I bought a book called “How to play the White Pieces”, by Fred Reinfeld. Just for starters. Anyways I always say one of the best books is getting to know the openings, and early moves to avoid, like NOT bringing out your most important peice the “Queen”, early in the opening. You do not have to master all the opening and what is nice you can pick the opening play that you feel comfortable with and soon you will improve faster then expected, trust me on that one!! Have fun and welcome to a game that is more then just a game!!! Bob

9

Bob, thanks so much for your thoughtful response.

Laurie