A mate of mine was telling me this story this avro. He went to Rooty Hill the other night to play a grade match game against the local chess club. He sits down, starts off the game and, after just 6 moves, wins a whole rook. The opponent promptly resigned!
My guy says to his opponent something like: "Listen, don't resign; I didn't drive for one hour to get here and finish quickly".
So you see - this is one problem of the whole grade match competition. Games are played at night in places far and wide. Sometimes, you win or lose so quick that there's almost no point! Or else you play a long game and end up heading home almost to midnight. It's a joke! Why do these people even bother?
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5 comments:
Yes, inter-club matches should be played at weekends, preferably Saturday afternoons!
Brian
It's called team spirit! You do it for the club, so that your team can win the competition, or to build relationships with your club mates by competing together.
But of course if you only care about yourself, then none of these things matter to you.
"Yes, inter-club matches should be played at weekends, preferably Saturday afternoons!
Brian"
Do you know that more people would play if it was on a Saturday afternoon, or are you just assuming that because it would suit you better?
That might suit some, but not others. Although I would still try and play in the grade matches if they were on a Saturday afternoon, I would have a much harder time doing it. Weekends are busy times for many, especially people with young families.
Amiel, why are you always bagging the NSWCA and its competitions? It is good to be part of a team and experience team spirit and the Grade Matches is NSW's premier teams competition. Each week you get to play against someone of your own rating which is better than the yo-yo effect of a weekend Swiss tournament. So what if you have to play away every second week? Actually I like experiencing all the different licenced clubs around Sydney. Your mate is a sook and you should explain to him that it is just part of life that occasionally in chess you will get a game that lasts only a few moves.
I agree with the comments of 2 of the above anons regarding team spirit and playing chess players of ones own rating. these are the main reasons why I play in the Grade Matches. Yet this year I am not enjoying the experience as much as I used to. I think this is largely due to having a record low of 30 teams this year, which in turn creates a somewhat run down and depressing atmosphere.
Of course if the NSWCA got off its butt and organised teams for 'surplus players' there could have been an extra 10 or so teams this year. At my club and others a continual gripe is that 'I/he/they wanted to play in the Grade Matches but my/his/their club did not have enough players to make a team in the division of my/his/their rating'. But I don't think the NSWCA care about club chess, as they are doing nothing about the dire situation that some Sydney clubs are in as regards their long term viability. I reckon that come this time next year there will be 3 less chess clubs in Sydney unless the NSWCA takes some much needed and overdue action to address the parlous state of Sydney club chess.
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