Playing up

I lost the first game of my appropriate section this month, so decided to re-enter and play in the open section. I'm about 1650 now and the Open is 1850 and above, with many over 2000. I already lost in the second round to a perennial 2000+ player.

Smart? Dumb? I dunno. maybe I'll get a scalp and gain rating points, probably not. I did play better last week, I lost a piece again, but this time it was an intentional sacrifice. An unfortunate queen check in-between move in the midst of the combination squealched any compensation I had for the piece. Oh well, at least it was interesting!

C'mon people!!

My wife ran across this monstrosity out there in the Ether. C'mon people!! This is exactly the kind of horrific junk we don't need the nerd-fearing American public to see. We must become cooler. We need more of this.

Picking up?

There seems to be a lot more chess news in the "regular" U.S. media these days. Most of it's of the "Area Schools Check out Chess" kind of local story (e.g. http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/13387079.htm or http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/11282005/news/75336.htm). I suppose this is good PR. Let's hope it turns into some kind of sponsorship money soon, any amount will do! Email me (globularb79@yahoo.com) and I'll give you the address to send the check :)

Also, there was that made-for-TV Ted Danson movie (is that a career killer, or what?) too. I saw about 15 seconds of it before shutting it off; the kids' acting was so bad. "This seems silly. Let's call it a draw!" Yeeesh...

WTF?

I just dropped a piece in the opening, again, last night! Three out of the last four weeks I have played really, really bad blunders in the opening. Why does this happen? The TDing I'm doing doesn't help. Our club President has written this article about the hazards of being a playing TD. However, I've been TDing for a few years now and never had a series of brain spasms like this.

Declining Tournament Attendance

Anecdotal evidence in the New England area show regular weekend tournament attendance down quite a bit lately. Why? Is this trend universal? Our club, the MetroWest Chess Club has been doing fine with attendance, but we're a one-night-a-week club. I have the following questions:

1. What's the best format for a weekend tournament? (One day, four games G/60, or two/three days 5/4 rounds at 40/120, G60?)
2. What's the upper limit for an entry fee?
3. What's important about the playing site? (Parking, public transportation, available food, etc.)
4. Is Internet chess really responsible for a decline in OTB play?
   

Discuss...