30 Mar '23 19:51

@mchill said
My favorite you tube site features an in-depth discussion regarding the reasons for this. So, is this a real chess boom, or just a new group of folks only interested in 2- and 5-min games while waiting for a bus, or some other short down time situation? Thoughts?

I have no deep thoughts, but since I run my club competition and we have gained quite a few, and quite varied, new members the last year and a half, I do have some observations.

There are a few new players, young ones, who are mainly - and in my club one of them, I'm sorry to say, apparently only - interested in quickies. There are also some new players who are not of the Tik Tok generation, but who are very bad indeed, not interested or not capable of post-game analysis, who will play a full-length game merely out of... well, I can't tell if it is ignorance, pig-headedness, or just old-age I-don't-care. Either way, they'll never look back at their game, and they'll learn nothing from it, or from anything else.

There are new members, and this is the largest section. who don't know yet how to play a long game. I can't blame them - they don't have the experience. Hell, I don't usually play a long game properly! But they're interested, and they're trying, but they're playing against similar players and they let themselves get tempted into playing fast. And I can't put them up against the 2100 crowd, because neither of them would enjoy it or learn anything from it. But these guys will learn. It may take a while, but they'll learn how to spend their time. Maybe not as well as the top players, but, they'll learn not to move-and-think rather than think-and-move.
I see these guys going up against another of them, or against the lower ranks of the old members, or one of the previous group, and they play a tactic that does or does not work; and I watch them going "Oh, wait... that's what happened here! Then, should I have done this instead?" And they learn. As of yet, they're no good. They're even worse than I am. But at least they're learning! Some of my older members have downright given up on learning and just play 1.d4 2.Nf3 3.e3. and slink into the grave from there. At least this group won't do that. They're don't know yet how to think before they move, but they're learning.

And then there are those few who... just have it. We do have some new members who just come to the board, take it seriously, sit down, and yes, take down some of the old top scorers. Sure, they're green, and sometimes, they'll get the position wrong... but these guys, they'll at least think about it and make a plan. And maybe against an ex-champion, that plan doesn't work. But against the rest of us, yeah, they're giving us hope for the new generation.

When I add it all up, I do believe that yes, this is a real chess boom. Maybe not for all of them. Certainly, not all of them will be good players. But then, are we? I'm not! I'm a player, a serious player, and a bad one. Most of the new players will be like me. Well, fair enough. The really good ones will go on to better clubs. The really bad ones will either lose interest - if they're young - or drop to the bottom of the table and just be here to play a random game and then drink some beers. Most will stay, and play, and never run out their clock but play a half-decent club game anyway. And enjoy it, as will their equally amateur opponent. And I wish them - us! - a lot of fun playing chess.

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Is this a real chess boom?