Saturday, May 13, 2006

Feelings with Attitude

Chess Association of Queensland PR man, Bill Powell wonders why chess is not a sport. He cites 3 reasons. One of those is:

2. Players who only think of what is in it for me rather than think what can I do for chess.

It is as old as the hills, It was first said to me 31 years ago and also this year: “If the tournament makes a profit are you going to increase the prize money?" Well now, the same people never say "Oh your tournament had a loss so we will take less prize money".

The same people never take into account all the expenses involved in running an open tournament and display a negative and/or selfish attitude to chess.

All the local football codes pay over $100 joining fees and only play for medals. This makes our lot look ridiculous compared to other sports and that is why we are so small.

All open tournaments should be run on business lines and should all make a profit for the organisers, thus giving them capital for running the next event.

And how do we correct this? Mr Powell finishes with an inspired beauty: "To make an omelette one must crack eggs".

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

No offence to Mr Powell but it is hardly inspired. The saying 'You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs' is as old as the hills.

The Closet Grandmaster said...

You tell me. What is the point of posting anything gray?

Anonymous said...

What Powell says about football is incorrect - a large proportion of those fees go on medical insurance coverage and groundskeeping.