Last saturday it was my second visit to Austin chess club. and I must say there are a lot of things San Antonio chess club (SACC) can learn from them - at least I was impressed.
To start with:
1. Drew S does a fantastic job of inducing that welcome feeling in the club and is very very approachable. Full marks for him.
I tried to do this on Friday casual chess nights in Borders when I was in San Antonio, but I must say somehow you dont feel it in SACC-though to be fair, I would not say that
SACC people are not friendly. Maybe they just need to show it more and in a better manner.
2. Lorry managed the Austin city blitz tournament very well. In an embarrassing incident (involving me of course :-) ), I completely forgot I move I just made- I though I played my rook
from b3 to b2 to f2, but in effect I made it move directly from b3 to f2. And not only that, I was thoroughly convinced that I moved it from b3 to b2 to f2. thankfully, there was
a spectator who saw my illegal move and I realized that I might be wrong.
3. Though personally I still fell that the rule of charging $10 extra to non austin chess club members is complicated, I can understand that since they provide the sets and clocks,
it is logical.
4. If you have any question about any rule-you can get a pretty good explanation and answer from Drew. I can just compare it to our SACC TD Martin Gordon whose only reply to
any query is - "Its tournament director's discretion". Anyways, there are many stories about how imbalanced and illogical some of the decisions in San Antonio tournaments have been
in the past, it would suffice to say that the tournament director behaved far from ideal (and fair). In some cases I doubt that he even thought about the decisions,
it was more of a case of speaking first without thinking, and then justifying whatever has been said. In any case, the tournament organization have room for improvement.
5. i was pleasantly surprised to see the thank you statement from drew for san antonio players who participated in the tourney. again +1 for him and austin chess club.
i am sure that some of my views could possibly be biased coz of my bad experiences in san antonio tournaments, but unfortunately there are many other players both in san antonio, and other cities who would concur to my observations.
anyways, for the time being, i am taking time off from chess and concentrating on my new job. maybe by nov end i would be in shape to play a tournament. till then....
