Pandemic brings chess boom

The Jamaica Chess Federation (JCF) says, unlike other sports, chess has seen a boost locally during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they plan to lift the sport to another level.

President of the federation, Peter Myers, said one of the main reasons for this is being able to participate in online chess, which carries basically the same rules of the in-person game.

“While the pandemic forced most sports around the world to shut down, chess has not only found a way to carry on, it thrived in many ways (and), with people having more home time on their hands, many turned to online chess by the millions,” he said.

He said Jamaica also benefited from this influx of players online and the JCF has plans to capitalise on this boost.

“It is simple, (we will) host as many online tournaments as possible and, in the process, build the expertise in hosting these events and become known for organising first-class online events,” he said. “With the new people we reach online, we can then promote our over-the-board events to a wider captive audience, who we know have a direct interest in the sport. We will also seek to establish these events as a revenue stream that we have significant control over.”

Myers said online events allow for significant cost savings, particularly venue costs, and therefore, they increase the likelihood of surplus.

Tournament committee chairman Warren Elliott said the JCF was even able to host Jamaica’s largest youth chess tournament, as the National Age Group Chess Championships was held online in 2021 and 2022.

“It was hugely successful, especially because of the support of corporate entities such as GraceKennedy Limited and their Vienna sausages brand,” he said. “Internal arbiters trained and adjusted to the new norm of online playing, to make it all work seamlessly.”

Elliott said that the JCF was also able to host and participate in major competitions via online platforms.

“The federation hosted all its major open tournaments online, and was able to get international participants from more than 20 countries, from as far as India to as close as the Cayman Islands,” he said. “We also could participate in international events such as the World Youth Chess Championships and Pan American Championships, for example, which were held online during the pandemic. Qualifiers from the National Age Group Chess Championships were the participants.”

Myers said, although the pandemic had many benefits to the sport, it also came with some negative effects such as the postponement of major tournaments such as the Chess Olympiad.

“The biennial Chess Olympiad – a major team event which was scheduled for 2020 and then postponed to 2021, had to be further postponed to 2022,” he said. “So we were affected significantly by the cancellation of over-the-board play for two years. There is no substitute for over-the-board play.”

He said this has affected the preparation of the national team for the event, and so they are targeting player development rather than winning at the Games.

“It would be too much to ask of the players to just go out there and win matches against professional and semi-professional line-ups, (as) that type of result requires a more significant preparation period, inclusive of actual over-the-board games, which we did not have for two years,” he said.

Myers says, despite this boost during the pandemic, the sport still has a lot of development to do in Jamaica.

“We have five goals that we have determined will greatly impact the development of the sport in Jamaica,” he said. “These include increasing the interest of women and girls in chess; (have) chess associations established for all parishes; (have a) Jamaica chess statistics/information compiled and maintained; a national development programme implemented for key areas: players, arbiters and coaches; and an effective administrative system in place, inclusive of a physical head office.”

Myers said these goals were established in 2019 but the federation was unable to properly achieve these strategies because of the pandemic. But, with the reopening of the sporting sector they are seeking the aid of the necessary partners to achieve these goals and lead the Caribbean in the sport.