I care more about cheating in human tournaments

[jplchess]

To the chess community:
Our chess club has been losing members. Is it economics or dominating computers or both?

You can see most of the cheating on chessbase.com.

I could care less about cloning but that's my humble opinion.

The under 2200 ELO club will be decimated by chess software very soon if there is a way to handle the cheating.

Even the children's tournaments are taking a beating in terms of attendance.

Tell me what is happening in your local chess club's membership?

The only good turnouts are the ones with large prize money tournaments.

Jonathan Lee

[Graham Banks]

To the chess community:
Our chess club has been losing members. Is it economics or dominating computers or both?

You can see most of the cheating on chessbase.com.

I could care less about cloning but that's my humble opinion.

The under 2200 ELO club will be decimated by chess software very soon if there is a way to handle the cheating.

Even the children's tournaments are taking a beating in terms of attendance.

Tell me what is happening in your local chess club's membership?

The only good turnouts are the ones with large prize money tournaments.

Jonathan Lee

My take is that the age of computer technology and gaming attracts most youngsters much more than sitting down at a chessboard and having to keep quiet for hours.

[Steve B]

To the chess community:
Our chess club has been losing members. Is it economics or dominating computers or both?

You can see most of the cheating on chessbase.com.

I could care less about cloning but that's my humble opinion.

The issue of course is that this is a computer chess forum
so of course the dominating topic of the day will be the Cloning issue
has been for several years now

my own interest in CC lies in dedicated chess computers and not PC chess Engines..their playing strength..cloning ..anything about them really.. but there are very few posts about dedicated chess computers here..be they the old pioneers or newly released ones
the good news is that there are a few dedicated computers that do incorporate the strong engines of today such as Hiarcs,Shredder,Deep Sjeng etc..etc..so the hobby of collecting dedicated chess computers lives on.. although not very much of that actually winds up as a topic of discussion here

Way It Is Regards
Steve

[Marek Soszynski]

To the chess community:
Our chess club has been losing members. Is it economics or dominating computers or both?

I assume you mean your local club.

"Dominating computers" has nothing to do with it. Lots more people play online than join local clubs. The fact that engines beat humans is as irrelevant as the fact that bicyclists beat sprinters.When the on-liners leave the comfort of their own homes to investigate their local clubs, they're in for a disappointment in many respects. For example, there isn't an endless supply of weakish blitz players available for immediate play, which is what they get at home where in addition their losses are semi-anonymous.

Incidentally, most of the on-liners who wander into my club have never heard of Rybka and don't realise that engines beat GMs. So I don't tell them.

The membership issue generally is one that applies to political parties, amateur dramatics, etc., not just chess.

[Dr.Wael Deeb]

To the chess community:
Our chess club has been losing members. Is it economics or dominating computers or both?

I assume you mean your local club.

"Dominating computers" has nothing to do with it. Lots more people play online than join local clubs. The fact that engines beat humans is as irrelevant as the fact that bicyclists beat sprinters.When the on-liners leave the comfort of their own homes to investigate their local clubs, they're in for a disappointment in many respects. For example, there isn't an endless supply of weakish blitz players available for immediate play, which is what they get at home where in addition their losses are semi-anonymous.

Incidentally, most of the on-liners who wander into my club have never heard of Rybka and don't realise that engines beat GMs. So I don't tell them.

The membership issue generally is one that applies to political parties, amateur dramatics, etc., not just chess.

Beautifully presented....
Fully agreed regards,
Dr.D

[muxecoid]

To the chess community:
Our chess club has been losing members. Is it economics or dominating computers or both?

You can see most of the cheating on chessbase.com.

I could care less about cloning but that's my humble opinion.

The under 2200 ELO club will be decimated by chess software very soon if there is a way to handle the cheating.

Even the children's tournaments are taking a beating in terms of attendance.

Tell me what is happening in your local chess club's membership?

The only good turnouts are the ones with large prize money tournaments.

Jonathan Lee

They play online against other human players on ICC and FICS. Tangible board is a thing of the past.

[stevemulligan]

My take is that the age of computer technology and gaming attracts most youngsters much more than sitting down at a chessboard and having to keep quiet for hours.

I gave my nephew Mario Chess because anything without Mario is a waste of time in his opinion.

[CRoberson]

Somebody else mentioned you are competing with the chess servers. This is a big deal, partly because you can sit down and play immediately. In a human only chess club, the odd man is left out. Add to that that some clubs only want to play G/60. Then the odd man is really screwed. So, keep a computer at the club - be it a laptop, cell phone or dedicated machine! This allows the odd man something to do - it is a big deal.

Once, I sat in a club for 3 hours watching other games waiting to get one and it didn't happen. The club only allowed playing without clocks. They claim using clocks hurts your play. I went back to that club 5 more times, but never got in more than one game a night and a few times not even a whole game - once the other guy was down a minor piece he'd make a move every 20 minutes and stall until the club closed.

I founded a club in Oregon once. We grew rather quickly to 60 people and it stayed popular. The reason was that the play was in a rather public place. People were always walking by and stopping to watch - automatic advertising. Most clubs like to have their play in peace and quiet where nobody will see them. Well, that is surely the opposite of advertising.

Here in the US, the sports that are the most popular are the ones that are the best advertised. So, be seen, make it look fun and be nice to the spectators. We'd did some simuls and that was a big hit with the spectators. Once, we had a blind fold simul and that drew a big crowd when we explained what was going on.