Chess Clubs
The game of chess became so popular that the play could go on for days with challengers playing winners in order to determine an eventual chess champion. It wasn’t until 1851 that the first international chess tournament was held in London. This exhibition tournament was held during the first world fair. One important change to tournament play was made because of this tournament and that was the need for timed play. By the end of the 20th century over 1,000 international chess tournaments were being held all over the world every year.
Along with the hundreds of chess tournaments held annually, chess aficionados have created thousands of local and international chess clubs. The United States Chess Federation is a club numbering tens of thousands of members. This is also the club that governs official chess play in the US and the club that included Bobby Fisher, the only American to become world champion. This club has been making a resurgence in membership and has spawned other clubs, most notably the Scholastic Chess in the United States Club, which promotes tournament play for school aged children from kindergarten through high school.
The past few decades have brought a new dimension to the chess world and that is the addition of computers. Many tournaments incorporate computers as opponents. There have even been chess tournaments that pit computers against other computers until there is one final CPU champion. Because of the personal computer, the average person can learn to play this honored game by playing against a computer at the level that suits the novice player. There are also virtual clubs and online tournaments that a player can join to “pick up” a game of chess with another player anytime from anywhere around the globe.
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