who would like to play chess but fall into neither of the
above groups:
ful information on chess.
2. The ChessPack tells the history of the game in the
area, has a self-coaching section, and contains biographies and well-known games of famous players, plus
other interesting information.
1. Adults and children who want to learn from scratch.
2. Those who cannot afford transport to reach established clubs on the weekday evening club nights, or to
travel to away matches across the county.
3. Those whose work or family commitments prevent
them from becoming involved in weekday evening
chess.
4. Those who care not to visit licensed premises for
their chess.
3. The ChessPoint is essentially a self-service facility.
People will turn up at
any time (usually on
weekday daytimes and
at weekends) and play
chess without the rest
of the community
even being aware that
they are there. We find
that if a chess set is
already laid out or otherwise readily available,
you will get people
coming along to play at
various times virtually
every day of the week.
Over a period of time
these visitors will meet one another and form a loose
community.
ChessPoint seeks to bring chess to just these people.
Our philosophy is simply that many out there will
never make strong players - they just want to play and
learn social chess. In fact we find that about 4 out of
every 5 fall into this category.
Should any who join us achieve a decent club playing
standard, that is an all-round bonus but certainly not
our raison-d''être.
To emphasise, we do not see ourselves as a recruiting
agency for the adult clubs and school clubs. That is
their area of expertise, not ours. We exist for the 80%
who are simply not going to get chess without us. To
summarise, we bring chess to the community at large,
not to chess players per se.
4. Unfortunately, many venues are reluctant to lay out
a chess set. In these cases, the casual use described
above will simply not happen to the same extent,
although from time to time visitors will turn up and
ask to borrow a chess set.
5. When we meet newcomers to the community at a
ChessPoint, we invite them to register their details with
us. This places them on the circulation for our email
newsletter ChessRound, now distributed to about 500
people, young and old, beginners and seasoned players.
6. As the ChessPoint community grows, we meet adult
members of the community who offer to become
community volunteers, moderating regular group sessions at their local ChessPoints. In this way we can
grow a Club identity for each ChessPoint.
3. What happens at a ChessPoint?
A ChessPoint is a venue where the public can come
and play chess at any time.
7. The group sessions will uncover people - from total
beginners to those returning to the game after many
years away - who would like serious coaching. We run
a Saturday ChessPoint Academy in Northampton town
centre, with a large team of coaches, specifically to
serve this need.
1. Chess sets are held at the counter or enquiry desk,
along with chess clocks and score sheets, and the
ChessPack, a matt laminated lever arch file full of use-
4. Where can you have a ChessPoint?
There are so many places out there. Here is a selection
of possible venues (by no means an exhaustive list),
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