Friday, March 16, 2007

A Rare Literary Gem

In Mr David Cordover's latest newsletter, we read this:

In a rare personal appearance, David Cordover will be sharing the Strategies of Chess he has used to turn Chess Kids into the multi-million dollar business it is toay (sic). In addition to improving your chess skills you will be entertained, inspired and learn how to transfer these skills to your children, students or friends.

Ooohh..aahh. Multi-million dollar business, did he say? And here I am, a web guy, thinking one day I'm going to be rich with my own web 2.0 windfall. I am so in the wrong business. Maybe I'll just attend one of these seminars. You know, maybe some of that champion talent will, sort of, like, unconsciously transfer to me.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, no, you are already famous on the "web". Just launch 10 chess blogs full of promises and run for ACF prez ;)

Anonymous said...

Cordover has more than likely made over a million dollars THROUGHOUT his chess business career,but he certainly doesnt have a company that is worth millions of dollars.

You would need a turover of over half a million dollars a year to make any realistic claims of being a multi million dollar company.

No company in australia has reached that level of critical mass yet.

DeNovoMeme said...

Ummm, fellows. Errr, I know that most of the public think chess players are Asperger types: facts, figures and rules driven, to the complete exclussion of the bigger picture. However, do we have to give the public a demonstration (again) of that myopic trait?

"I have one word for you Kim - grow the market."

Anonymous said...

The previous time we went around this circle, a few years back, the GURU's claims of national titles came under attack by those in the official chess fraternity who wished to preserve the integrity of such claims. Of the GURU's claims one was proved to be unassailable, one was shown to be an inadvertent award by an organising committee, and one was shown to be national, but not by the official body. In other words, some hyperbole involved. Those who pay their dues to the ACF had a defensible poition that they were the protectors of the integrity of the words 'Australian titles'; it is hard to fault their motivation, although their accuracy of criticism was itself flawed. Not so those who do not pay their dues to the official chess federation; their motivations may have included envy or commercial interest.
Thus we come to a second episode of GURU hyperbole. Measure the input of contributors to the debate by the same framework and it is clear that the first motivation is absent as a justification. Thus, what are we left with?

Anonymous said...

Dear TCG,

Your comments are both ill informed and naive in the extreme. They reflect a typical view, semmingly held north of the Victorian border, that chess is not commercially viable. In fact, realistically speaking, the opposite is the case.
David Cordover is indeed a multi million dollar chess businessmen and for once his marketing puff is reasonably accurate.

Unfortunately, your view belongs to the past. A past where the ACF was an amateur organistaion and chess was a game for old boys. Unfortunately, most dinosaurs in Australian chess still hold this view.

Get with the times TCG. Victorians have been informing everybody about the ethical problems that will face Australian chess in the future. David Cordover is indeed a millionaire and inevitably showed us all in Victoria that he will go to any length to build his empire. When he volunteered for the Chessvictoria committee he ran the junior competition poorly, whilst his own competitiuon thrived.

So long as there is a buck to be made, Cordover will be there. Meanwhile, fools continue to believe that chess is not economically viable in Australia.

cheers Fg7
(P.S this is my first ever post here)

Anonymous said...

never mind cordover's rare literary gem; i'm still waiting for sweeney's lump of coal site to be transformed into a bedazzling diamond as promisEd! :P

Anonymous said...

The only thing true about Cordovers claims is that he left school at 15 and it shows!
There are a lot of rich people in chess but nobody seems to go out of their way to try and prove it more than Cordover.
David Cordover rich? Who cares! Now get an education!

Anonymous said...

Cordover did offer to buy a million dollar building in Box Hill, to be used as a chess centre, if the BHCC would agree to become a long-term tenant (when they were considering re-location options). The deal was not consumated.
Perhaps in this sense he is the million dollar man.

Anonymous said...

Do you believe that offer was truly serious,Moz?

If he really wanted to buy a big building he would simply run his own chess club there. Why would he need Box Hill? He could have a club that had over 500 members if he ran it like a business. This mega club would more than likely draw members AWAY from Box Hill if it was based in the eastern suburbs.

His claims of wanting to buy a big building are getting more hollow with each passing year.

Anonymous said...

The previous and current premises used by the BHCC fit into this category of valuation. In fact we were offered about 10 premises in the Whitehorse Council area that had this valuation. Happy to supply the 35 page Council list of venues.
From our research it seems that 20k per year is the max. required by many venue owners.
The offer of the absolutely super venue in Murrumbeena (the vIC Bridge Association) was in the region of 12k pa.
Some of these premises are a bit derelict or need sprucing up. It comes a bit of a surprise just how much real-estate sits fallow, or under-utilised. So, I think that clarifies your first point.
Your second point is why doesn't the GURU run a Club himself. Let us note first that he has been involved in quite a few Clubs...Waverley, Whitehorse, Caulfield, Ormond. None are in existence today. You see, a Club thrives or dies by its volunteers. If the GURU is extracting profits for coaching etc, do you think administrators are going to volunteer to run the Club activities for him?
The model you hint at is not achievable.

Anonymous said...

Moz,Cordover is a BUSINESS MAN.

He sees chess purely in business terms.

Culture and community,the things that volunteers provide, are of no real value to him.

If there is no profit,there is no interest.

He would only run a chess club along business lines...like he did with his chess kids "club".

Their full membership costed about $600 dollars a year. With those kind of prices it isnt that hard to PAY people to run your "club".

Anonymous said...

Response to anon ...

You can have all the theories you like about what he could do with the proceeds of $600 membership of a Club.
However, the data to date is that
> Waverley folded
>> Whitehorse folded
>>> Caulfield died before folding,
all the while where the GURU had a hand in management.
I don't see any evidence he can get a Club up without volunteer input. Hence his offer to BHCC. Seems as though even the GURU does not agree with you.

Anonymous said...

Wavereley and Whitehorse was Jamiesons baby...Cordover was a mere interloper at both those clubs.

When both of those clubs went under Cordover wasnt a major business man..in fact he was barely an adult.

Anonymous said...

Waverley was successful while in Jamieson's hands, but later 'caretakers' did not take enough care of ambience. If fell short on volunteers.
Whitehorse was certainly Jamieson's baby at birth but the nascent GURU was a key resource.
These facts aside, anon fails to comment on why his theory that the GURU could run his own successful Club, but made an (building) offer to BHCC instead.

Anonymous said...

Well his offer to Boxhill was fairly obvious wasnt it Moz?...to squeeze out the influence of Chess Ideas at Boxhill.

Cant have two companies competing for the same clients at the one chess club.

Anonymous said...

You should have come to the Open Day at Box Hill (yesterday, Sunday 25/3/7). You would have observed not just two but 5 commercial operators with close connection to the Clubs. Chess Ideas, ZedChess, Dark Horse, LS's company, and CV Interschools. And that does not count the individual coaches who have select students at the Clubs (I count 3 more of these).
Another of your GURU theories down the tube? When the GURU offered space to BHCC for a long term rental there was no caveat on how we used the space. So, sub-contracting many of our activities, as we currently do, would have still been the m.o.

Still waiting ANON. for your comment on why the GURU has not got a Club with multiple members at $600 per pop.

Anonymous said...

Trevor,I did answer you but it seems that the post I put was deemed ineligible by Amiel.

Oh well. My opinion still stands that Mr Cordover is motivated solely by money in regards to chess.
Community goodwill isnt a factor he rates very highly.