ChessPoints- by Tony Robson
1. How ChessPoints started How did it begin? Please be patient, I shall need to take you back 4 years and tell you about Tricky Dick ' s and Sosta Cafe!
Tricky Dick’ s
I recall how I used to visit a London coffee bar in the late 1970s where they played chess every night. Happy memories! This venue, 515 Finchley Road, nestling in a small parade of shops in northwest London, has long been a café or restaurant under a succession of different proprietors. In those days it was the Tricky Dick’ s restaurant and coffee bar, and remained open each night until the early hours, while the rest of London shut at 10.30 p. m.
I would frequently drop in at Tricky Dick’ s for a coffee around 1 a. m. on my way home from working late in London before hitting the motorway north. The customers would be sitting at 3 or 4 tables engrossed in chess while sipping at their cappuccinos. I would not join them at the chessboards – I simply relaxed and watched them play. A magical atmosphere! Maybe some of you " locals " will remember the place? Of course, people tell me of similar venues in many countries across the globe. But Tricky Dick’ s was the one that did it for me.
And so to the first“ ChessPoint”… Fast forward 30 years, I am strolling through Northampton town centre. I pass this café Sosta in Abington Street and immediately have a " Finchley Road " moment! That was my inspiration for the“ ChessPoint”, a community venue where members of the public could simply turn up and play chess free of charge, with sets provided by the management.
So we started at Sosta Cafe( now renamed Cafe del Sol, by the way). We provided the management with 4 chess sets; 2 chess clocks; the ChessPack, a lever arch file with 30 double sided A4 matt laminated pages, covering the history of chess, famous players, and a coaching section. This is of interest to the
15 non-chess playing public as well as seasoned chess players, or beginners.
We arranged a 2-hour group session there every Monday morning from 10:00 till 12:00, when 3 or 4 of us would turn up, sip coffee, and play. We built a small group of other interested individuals who would join us from time to time.
After a few months at Cafe del Sol, we wanted to look further afield and learn the kind of public venue that might make a ChessPoint. So we tried to get going in a variety of different venues. A library, a sports centre, an old people ' s home, a museum, a concert hall foyer, the town hall, the local university, the local hospital, a Working Men ' s Club, a hotel, various community rooms, & c.
In every case, there were problems:( i) We might be asked to pay to use the venue- in this case, we simply stopped going there.( ii) The venue might object to us using the venue at certain times.( iii) They might object to us talking while we were playing.( iv) They might argue that they could not spare tables or seats for our use.( v) They would not want to look after the chess sets & c for us!
We concluded that each of these places was potentially a successful ChessPoint, but needed support from the management.
2. Who is playing chess out there? Let us examine the take-up of chess in ChessPoint ' s home county of Northamptonshire.
The county has a population of nearly 700,000. Established chess clubs( affiliated to Northamptonshire Chess Association, recently readmitted to the ECF) have in total about 110 members. So about one in every 6,000 of the population plays chess to club standard at one of the 7 clubs across the county.
Northamptonshire Schools Chess Association, with its group of dedicated helpers, manages to organise chess for a further 150 schoolchildren in a dozen schools across the county.
This places Northamptonshire well down the list of all counties in the UK in its take-up of chess. However, there are many hundreds in the community