Does anyone know about which clubs are open ?
Are we going to have any major over the board events in 2021 ?
What shape is USCHESS in and do we have to worry ?
Will Fide tournaments happen in the U.S in 2021 ?
What chess clubs have shut down completely because of the pandemic ?
Why hasn’t USCHESS posted any promotions for tournament directors who are running over the board events ?
These are just some questions that have not been 100% addressed yet.
Here in southeastern Pennsylvania, several clubs have resumed OTB operations. Chaturanga Chess Club (chaturangachessclub.org/) near Hatboro on the Bucks-Montgomery County line is the latest one, having reopened this week. (Full disclosure: I am the club’s president. 
) Next week we are starting our 2020 Club Championship, delayed from its usual September start.
Our “sister” club, North Penn Chess Club over in Lansdale (northpennchessclub.org/), got permission to reopen back at the end of August.
I believe there are a couple of other clubs in the area that have reopened, but I have no direct knowledge of them.
Glad to see that PA has opened up. Too bad NYS Covid situation is so bad that everyone is afraid to open up their clubs. It has to be hurting USCHESS a lot. I am just hoping we all make it out of this health and chess will be back to normal by 2022.
I agree! USCF (sorry, USChess) must be hurting. There’s a thread on this same forum (viewtopic.php?f=23&t=25609) where it says that membership in the English Chess Federation has dropped a lot this year. No doubt somebody here can offer informed insight on how USChess is doing in terms of membership renewals.
Yes, Probably not, Good online bad OTB, dunno - should they?, not sure because nobody has to report that and who has time to find out, because tournament directors can make or buy their own promotion several different ways and can still US Chess plus with the virus surging again in many, many locations one should ask is OTB chess is REALLY necessary at this phase and how many people you are comfortable with having die for the sake of having OTB chess, and maybe you should ask one question per thread instead of throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks but that’s IMVHO but is also why you are getting one long run on sentence with my take on all the questions and I’ll let you parse out which answers belong to which questions.
I applaud those Tournament Directors who are taking the risk to keep chess alive in the U.S. We can only hope that it is too late and that USCHESS can survive this pandemic
Risking one’s own life to try to help others (which is what front-line nurses, doctors, and hospital staff are doing) is laudable. Risking the lives of others by running super-spreader events is anything but.
Bill Smythe
+1
+2
I think you’ve stated two extremes, and there is a clear path in the middle.
I ran OTB events in July, August and October. None was heavily attended, the most being 16.
The events had more than sufficient space for social distancing.
If the positivity rate was increasing to a point with excessive risk, the events were canceled (September, November, both scheduled for multiple days.)
Masks were required at all times in the playing room
Questionaires were required
Temperture checks were required
Eating and drinking were not allowed in the playing room
Plastic barriers were placed between appoints to break any aerosol in addition to masks
HOCL fogging was performed between rounds
Pieces were wiped down between games
Hand sanitizer was applied before and after games
Events were one-day.
Given that such events were not held if positivity rates were high, the likely pre-event viral density was low. The precautions were sufficient to further decrease risk. No entrants at any event reported getting sick with COVID (or anything else.)
Let’s keep in mind that it will take time to administer vaccines. Once that happens, people will likely need to be revaccinated yearly for the foreseeable future. How that impacts risk is not yet clear, but its not difficult to imagine that we may need to wear masks most of the time in the near future, for the next several years.
Given the above, I think these were safe events, not superspreader events, and they helped us to learn tools that may well be needed for the next several years.
Assuming that planning for major events has to take place at least 6 to 9 months out, I think the earliest we will see substantial chess activity in summer 2021. We maybe burning witches in public squares first.
I think US Chess membership loss will be substantial. A whole cycle and a half of school tournaments is vaporized. Kids are typically members for one to three years. I wonder if Goichberg will retire.
Maybe The Queens Gambit will save us.
I think we need to be realistic and look at 2022. 2021 is going to be a mess because of politics and trying to get a vaccine out. I say uschess needs to get a loan to keep themselves afloat to ensure that the non for profit can stay around.
And you think the politics will be better in 2022? Not likely!
In 2022 we will be electing one third of the Senate and the entire House of Representatives, to say nothing of state and local races. And the political situation will be better because…?
Historically ,the party in control of the White House loses seats in the House in the mid-term election. The Republicans will be defending more Senate seats than the Democrats in 2022.
Not that either of those facts have anything to do with chess.
If chess does not return to normal in 2021 the U.S is in trouble. Maybe it’s time Fide intervenes.
How would FIDE intervene?
How? By trying to force organizers to run super-spreader OTB events despite the pandemic?
If and when the virus is conquered, I have no doubt whatever that OTB will thrive once more.
Bill Smythe
The U.S. or US Chess?
Alex Relyea
Both. Chess in the united states and in uschess is struggling.