Chess Community and Association

The best thing about chess is playing. It's a game. So much emphasis is placed on improvement that a lot of people forget that this is their hobby, and above all else they should be having a good time. Becoming part of a chess community is great for your chess enjoyment, and could help with improvement. If you become part of a chess community there are people to play with, people to discuss chess with, and people to follow when you can't play. For many players, their chess community is online, but meeting people face to face is great. I have been lucky to be part of a number of chess clubs over the years where I've competed, analysed, helped organise, and socialised. And I've made a number of friends and acquaintances who I want to see succeed as much as I do.

At the moment, there are a bunch of tournaments happening around the World. You only have to look at the Broadcasts Page to see how many are being displayed here at lichess. It's great to follow the top players, our heroes and idols. But what if none of them are playing? What makes us follow an event if Carlsen, Nakamura etc aren't playing? I mean, they can't be playing all the time, or are we just going to watch them mess around playing bullet online? Personally, I find tournaments more interesting if I actually know some of the players involved. Maybe I've played against someone, been at the same club as them, played in the same team, or had a laugh with them. As with much else in life, having some personal association can make things more important to us, and can make us take more interest. Therefore, when we follow an event, we feel more invested in it for the sake of our friend/acquaintance/etc. And if we become more invested, we will probably try a little harder to analyse the games that we are following.

Right, now on to some specific examples. At the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York, there are two Australians playing.IM Rishi Sardana is the current Champion of Australia although I've never met him, while FM Kai Jie Soo is a member of the Melbourne community that I used to belong to. In fact, I once played a young Kai before he was an FM and won a game against him that he probably wasn't taking too seriously. After a fairly brutal start in New York, playing three GM's and an IM, Kai found himself on 0/4, but managed to finish the tournament on a creditable 5.5/13 gaining some rating points for his efforts. In the final two rounds he won against two 2400+ IM's. He found a really nice tactical manoeuvre in his twelfth round game against Zimbabwe IM Rodwell Makoto. He went on to win the game after mutual errors, taking a great scalp!

I wish Kai all the best in the Blitz tomorrow and hope he adds some more scalps. I'll be able to have bragging rights about how I beat that guy that beat that guy, who beat that guy, that beat that guy who beat Magnus!!!! And I'll then follow Kai's progress in the Australian Open which he has also entered, so I guess he will be playing the World Blitz on 31st December and then flying back to Australia to play in the Australian Open which starts on the 2nd January. He might be using the Jetlag Gambit for a round or two!

So you see how this works? I get some extra interest in following a tournament that I'm not playing in if I know someone in it! It makes me look at some extra games that I might not think about otherwise. I mean, I took a look at the Hong Kong International Championships, because I had visited there back in about 2013, and found that I knew one of the participants. Another young Melbourne up and coming player is FM Cheng Dai who I won a nice game against a couple of years back, followed by him winning a nice game against me. He's had a bit of a tough time of it so far and sits on half points but hopefully he will show his full strength in the second half of the event. Cheng isn't rushing back to Australia to play in the Australian Open, but he will be at the Zonal in Melbourne at the end of January.

I'll be talking a bit more about Hastings in a future post, but as I was looking through the field I noticed someone who I'd played earlier this year. FM Hugo de Melo Lux who represents Brazil, though is based in France, visited Australia as a student in 2024 and while here played a tournament in the Tasmanian capital, Hobart. I was lucky enough to play him, and even gave a good account of myself before he ground me down. Even more than that, we shared accommodation and some time together and he came across as a gentle and relaxed young man. I enjoyed the brief time we talked together.

Now it might seem that I'm just name dropping here, and maybe I am a bit, but I genuinely am interested in how these players are doing in the events they are participating in. It gives those events extra interest for me, and makes me try harder to examine the games. Will that make me better? I don't know, and to be honest, I'm not so bothered any more. But does it add to the pleasure I get from this wonderful pastime, this beautiful game? Absolutely!

And while I'm not playing I can also enjoy the beautiful Australian summer....