I was given the good news that the renovation of Thomson CC would end in 2025. The reopening could be either 1st Quarter or early 2nd Quarter of 2025.
Thomson Chess Club was my base of regular chess activities when I ran it from 2004 - 2018, organising several tournaments (please see my Thomson CC Chess Club blog) plus lectures, friendly matches. For those who are new to the game, our tournaments are usually attended by a pool of 150-180 players each event. Hopefully when the CC is reopened, we may try to plan for a Rapid tournament in 2025. The Club Room has not been designated, so I cannot say how many players the Club can accomodate. Hopefully it will be larger than the previous room that seats about 26 players.
The fate of Tanglin CC Chess Club now hangs in the balance as I know there are several players interested in playing at Tanglin CC based on the attendance over the last few years. I am trying not to close it when Thomson CC reopens, but there comes the dilemma as I could not run the 2 places on Fridays. Here is where it is important to find committed volunteers that can step in to take over from me. As the Club can only accomodate 16 players max, I think it would be feasible to continue the current format of longer time controls instead of rapid chess. The optimal time control would be to fix it at 30 mins + 30 secs increment. That will allow time for some post mortem analysis for both players to pick each other's brains as to the choice of moves and concerns during the game. The post-mortem is hardly done today and this is a missed opportunity to learn from one another in all aspects of the game.
Tournaments are generally competitive in nature, while our Friday night playing sessions take away the tension and allow players to experiment their ideas and of course improve on it. Having a steady regular group that can devote to at least 2-3 sessions a month will undoubtedly spur the volunteers to stay on and keep the activity going. Currently both clubs do not charge anything for membership (that may change) so a close to full attendance is always justifiable to the organisers and the CC.
Our oldest chess club in the West, Queenstown CC is ending their tournament run in 2024 from the first one organised in 1971. Reason? Manpower. It takes effort to execute the tasks required to set up the hall, arbiters to man the rounds and present the prizes. The Chairman Mr Lim has lamented that he has asked in vain for volunteers to come take over from him but had found no takers. Though the SCF has churned out several young arbiters to the scene over the last 5 years, organisers are not growing but shrinking with age. Many of them started out as chess parents, the most notable being our late Mr George Wong ( founder of Buona Vista CC Chess Club), Dr Wong Yip Chong (past SCF President). Others took up the mantle as they saw a calling, as did Mr Richard Seah (first Queenstown CC Chess Club Chairman), IM Giam Choo Kwee ( who ran several CC Chess Clubs most notably River Valley CC) and Mr Arthur Lim and Michael Siong (both Chairman of Cairnhill CC Chess Club). With the untiring efforts of these men, we would not have a chess scene from the 70's till today.
So the next Generation of CC chess organisers will need to be found, and soon.
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