Chess in the Park!
Watford Juniors lead the way
From the excellent Watford Junior Chess Club newsletter, by Roger Lancaster;
“For anyone who hasn't been following the news lately, as from 29 March there have been relaxations to HMG's Covid restrictions. Particularly relevant to junior chess is paragraph 103 of HMG's "Covid-19 Response - Spring 2021" publication stating that, effective 29 March, "All children will be able to access any outdoor childcare and supervised activities. Parent and child groups can also take place outdoors with a limit of 15 attendees (children under five years of age do not count towards the attendee limit.)"
That was cue enough for Watford to organise "Chess in the Park" where the first session took place at the first opportunity - yesterday. There may be some doubt whether organised chess events count as "supervised activities" so, to be on the safe side, attendance was limited to 15. Incidentally, another paragraph in the HMG publication exempts "outside sports" but, there's an even bigger question mark over whether chess can constitute an "outside sport". Good luck resulted in Monday being the warmest day of the year so far so it worked out well and repeats are intended, weather permitting, over the remainder of the Easter school holidays. Playing conditions were good enough for rated games to take place and the results have now been uploaded onto the ECF's over-the-board rating database.
Once news of this spread, there was some discussion on the main uk chess forum as to whether outdoor games had ever before been included for rating/grading purposes. As of this morning, the last time this happened seems to have been in 2013 - surprising, really, as they aren't that difficult to organise - but the Watford events are restricted to club members.”
Photo by Ruth George
This is inspirational! It must be OK for 2 people to sit opposite each other in the open air with cups of coffee, so surely a chess set is OK as well, regardless of whether it is a sport or a game, or organised or not. Lots of cities in Europe have permanent games tables set up in parks, where people can turn up and play socially. In NYC there are Washington Square, where you bring your own equipment, and Central Park, where it is provided in a "Games Pavilion". Also Bryant Square. I've recently noticed single games tables being set up in Barnet parks. Obviously it would best to have 6 or a dozen all together in one place, perhaps using a band-stand. Adam, you could be a chess hustler like the boys in Washington Square - a couple of quid for a 5 + 5 minute game! All the best, John Worroll