1. We acquired a wide range of coaching equipment
and materials to facilitate one-on-one and group
coaching activities.
2. We established a large team of chess coaches.
3. We adopted a large venue in central Northampton as
a coaching base. With catering facilities and free parking, the ChessPoint Academy, as it is known, offers
structured coaching and community chess tournaments every Saturday, and can offer further chess
activities including boot camps at other times.
Over a period of time we see the Academy as being
able to assist the development of ChessPoints across
the whole area.
with asterisks (*) against those well suited to casual
recruitment of participants and volunteers for
ChessPoint 1. Coffee bar *
2. Tea room *
3. Restaurant
4. Public house *
5. Library
6. University or college foyer
7. Bookshop
8. Retirement home
9. Hotel lounge or reception *
10. Hospital lounge or waiting room
11. Sports centre *
12. Community centre
13. Church rooms
14. Village hall *
15. Theatre, museum or concert hall *
16. Motorway service station *
Note that many of these places are open 7 days a week,
some are open both day-time and evening, and a few
are even open 24 hours a day!
6. ChessPoints and the wider chess community
When we examine ChessPoint in the context of the
wider community, several issues come forward. We
believe that these issues should be addressed fairly but
honestly.
ChessPoint - bringing chess to the community
The ChessPoint network exists to bring chess to a
community that has not been engaged by the traditional chess infrastructure across the county.
ChessPoint has explored many of these places as possible venues. There is no question that the deciding
factor is the support offered by venue staff. You have
to find someone there who will help promote the
ChessPoint ethos to visitors. That individual might be
a chess player, or maybe someone who simply believes
that what we are trying to do is laudable and deserves
support. In some venues we have wonderful support
from key staff. Then again we have several excellent
venues waiting for management's backing. Without
that help, little is possible, so we simply move on to
develop the places where support is available.
ChessPoint and the NCA
Many of the ChessPoint community have long been
involved with NCA (Northamptonshire Chess
Association) and its affiliated clubs. For many years
NCA itself has undertaken few planned activities to
increase the number of affiliated clubs. Here is an
opportunity for NCA to establish new clubs in towns
alongside ChessPoints supporting community chess
activities.
Clubs affiliated to the NCA
With a few notable exceptions, the clubs themselves
have been unable to grow their membership to any
appreciable extent. Numbers have fallen away steadily
over the past twenty years. Maybe this is not the format in which the bulk of the population wants its
chess delivered. Perhaps we should accept that in
future, if membership were left to the clubs themselves, we would have to make do with a total club
membership of around 150 or less across the county.
5. The need for coaching - the ChessPoint
Academy
As mentioned earlier, four-fifths of those coming into
our community want coaching. In practice, a
ChessPoint is normally an unsuitable venue for coaching activities. Indeed, some venues object to coaching
activities taking place on their premises. In addition,
coaching is often assisted by the availability of additional facilities, e.g. computers, large screen projectors
for group presentations, and so forth, and of course
we need a suitable venue for this.
Two years ago, we recognised that without a properly
established coaching resource, we could not fully
encourage the take-up of chess across the community.
We adopted a three-pronged approach to addressing
this need:
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The NSCA
Try though it might, NSCA (Northamptonshire
Schools Chess Association) has been unable to grow
its membership beyond about 10% of the schools
across the county. Again, numbers have fallen away
steadily over the past several years. One can raise a big
question mark over the support offered by the schools
themselves. Chess does not appear to fit easily into
their agendas.