hi all:
I’m glad to see that USCF set up this message forum. I’ll take a moment to describe what I’m doing with my little club here in Allen, Texas.
Allen is twenty five miles north of Dallas, in Collin County, the “high tech” region of the DFW metroplex. The Dallas Chess Club is a great chess club, and numerous chess teachers and tournament sponsors around the metroplex run some nice events. Clubs in Fort Worth and its “nearly a suburb” Watauga which sponsor tourneys also add to the mix, and we all feel a bit of pride in the great collegiate chess program at UT-Dallas, even if most of us, like me, have absolutely nothing to do with it or its success.
Although we have a fair number of regional chess tournaments, and some kind souls running them, I felt something missing. I get postcards for really cool looking tournaments in the mail, with large prizes and large entry fees. I have played in a very few such tournaments, but they are not really what chess is all about for me. I like to play rated games in modest events, where the concern is less about winning money or “killing the opponent” than having good fun and improving my chess. I’ve never been into that “gotta win a 1000 dollar B prize” or “trash-talkin’ fish-callin’ raucous club” kinda thing.
I decided to set up a chess club, so I went to my weblog readers and polled them on what to name it. They came up with the pretentious but fun name the North Texas Blitz Hegemony. The goal of my club is to
set up a “no frills, maximum fun” chess club. I believe that there are a lot of people who, like me, want simple events on relatively quick time controls, with low entry fees.
I don’t see the club as a matter of “paying dues” or having “infrastructure”, but as a place where people link up for casual play or for modest tournaments. I’d like to eventually run rated tournaments
out of houses or church fellowship halls.
To get the ball rolling, though, I’ve set up a tournament at Plano Centre on January 24. This tournament will feature double round robin game in 10 play. The entry fee is 15 dollars, but the prizes are only kazoos. Hence, I call it the Plano Kazoo Quad. My intention is not to make money off this tournament. The entry fee is mainly intended to pay for the nice little room at Plano Centre, over at Spring Creek and Jupiter. I won’t make a profit, because any proceeds net of my expenses willl be donated to charity. I’m planning now to run a more traditiional tournament in March on a Game/30 model, with some cash prizes, to see if this appeals more to folks. So far, by the way, my biggest challenge has been to find affordable meeting space. I’ve found some nice places, but eventually I’d like to run things out of homes or perhaps free spaces.
My goal is to find local players who would, like me, love to have little action, g/60, quick and blitz tournaments without having to drive down to Dallas Chess Club. Don’t get me wrong–I think they do good things at Dallas Chess Club. But I want to see more chess in my area. Also, I’d love to help chess in rural towns nearby get going by directing tournaments in them. I’d be delighted to travel in my region to run (and play in) a little tournament for folks in a neighboring town.
I post this to put out a call for north Texas players to contact me if they are interested in casual play or small tournaments. I’ve set up a yahoo message group that can be used as a “sounding board” for arranging casual play in local coffee shops or keeping in the loop of upcoming tournaments. To subscribe, write NorthTexasBlitz-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. I also have a weblog for the club at
gurdonark@aol.com
I love to play USCF chess, and the thousand of ICC and FICS games I’ve played, while enjoyable, just don’t live up to live chess. I’m a B player with no delusions of grandeur, but just a dream of a fun small-scale club.
I frankly plan to have no dues, because it’s easier for me to just pay the
affiliate membership fee than it is to worry with having to keep up with infrastructure. I want to place where people can play without feeling that they have to “give up” whatever other chess and non-chess obligations they have in their lives. I want chess without discourtesy, chess without undue expense, chess without sexism or racism, chess without hassle or worry.
Will you join me?
