Monday, April 01, 2013

Important Rules Update

Ladies and gentlemen of the Boylston Chess Club,

It has come to my attention in recent weeks that, despite the best efforts of the board of directors and the club ethics committee, our organization still lacks the civility and decorum we desire in a family-friendly chess club in one key area: on the board.
Yes, as much as we may perceive it as "fun" or "romantic," the fact of the matter is that violent, attacking chess is not safe and is not approprate for young children. As such, it is my responsibility as president to  work to alleviate this, and that is what I have done. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, the willing sacrifice of any pawn or material within the first ten moves of a Boylston Chess Club-sanctioned game is strictly prohibited.

 Now, some people may not be comfortable with this change. I understand that. They may say that it takes the fun out of chess. They may worry about a club interfering with their style of play. Quite frankly, these are the same people who would want to play football without pads, or hockey without helmets, or baseball without gloves. The barbarism and savagery of gambit chess is simply not something we as a society can allow in good conscience, and I am proud to be a part of this important step to prevent it!


2 comments:

dfan said...

Thanks, Nathan. This has been a real problem at the BCC for a while, and Marc's book on the Morra has certainly done nothing to help matters. I was hoping that maybe the issue would subside on its own, but when I saw Eric Godin playing the Blackmar-Diemer recently it was clear that things had gone too far. Thank you for taking these harsh but necessary steps.

mrneale said...

I've played baseball without a glove...