10/07/2026
I want to hear from you! 🫵
I've been thinking lately about chess club, and how we want to be as inclusive as possible, both for seasoned tournament players who want some practice, and someone who has never played chess before, and wants to learn.
I started Checkmate Waco because I know for a fact that there are people locally who have a chess.com or lichess account, play a lot online, maybe play with their friends, and would love to play more "OTB" (over the board), but lack the opportunities. My goal is to accommodate all ages and skill levels.
While that sounds great in theory, it's practically challenging to please both ends of the spectrum.
Let's call a spade a spade. Tournament-level player vs newbie. Most "tournament-level" players don't want to feel like they have to "teach" their opponent (I know a lot are willing to, but I understand most competitors just want to compete), and most newcomers don't want to get destroyed over and over. Even though we can spin it as a learning experience (you either win or you learn... if I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I think my bills for this month would be covered 🤣), losing, and losing badly, even in a casual environment is not fun.
One thing I realize I don't always do a great job of is receiving and applying feedback. I'd love to hear from you, whether you are a chess club regular, you go sometimes, or you're on the outside looking in, what excites you about chess club, and what might be that extra "umph" to get you here on a more regular basis. Maybe more defined "beginner" and "intermediate" meetups? Maybe a small but fun tournament for the competitors? Maybe simply an email list for more consistent reminders?
I want to hear from you! While I (Daniel) run this chess club, and only have so much capacity to do things, the chess club is about you, not me. Feel free to leave a comment, but if you're more comfortable, a DM works too.
Y'all, I've been very pleased with the outcome of chess club. I know attendance and the overall energy ebs and flows, but the fact that we've added our fingerprint to the local ecosystem is amazing to me!
Looking forward to hearing from the community! 💪
