Is Canadian Chess Dying?

[Bob Armstrong]

I think David's point is important. Clubs encouraging casual play is a start to attracting people to CFC-rated tournaments ( and is promoting chess generally as a " social " activity ).

Scarborough CC has no casual chess, unfortunately. But we have problems re this. We have no space. Our CFC-rated Thursday night tournaments take up all available tables now. And we are only open the one evening a week.

Also, there is a difficulty getting casual play going at a tournament club. Casual players are hesitant to come out for fear there will be no other players there for casual chess, or at least only a couple of players.

But the day may be coming when SCC will have to move to larger premises, if we keep growing the way we are. Then it will be good to make casual chess a new priority.

Bob

[Valer Eugen Demian]

An important reason why it is so hard to keep an adult chess club going is closely related to the finances involved. If the same space I am renting for 4 years now would be designated for adult chess, my rental rates would be 3 times higher!

Juniors are more likely to commit to a chess program (good for cash flow), while adults come whenever they feel like it. Nobody can survive like that unless it can find other sources of funds! However chess is not a sport, so here we go again back in the same loop identical with this one:
"A new immigrant cannot get a job because it has no Canadian experience, but cannot get any Canadian experience without a job"
Who loses in both cases? Us all...