Dear Fellow Members of the Marshall Chess Club:
What started as a spontaneous suggestion to the Board (back in March) that we consider closing the club in advance of the possible pandemic seems, in hindsight, to have been fortuitously, if unexpectedly, prescient. We are now, as I write this, concluding our 130th consecutive day of closure. More than one third of a calendar year has passed, and it seems so much longer even than that.
Today is also International Chess Day, and as social media and online platforms (including our own) continue fighting to keep chess at the forefront of our minds, we still all struggle daily with the loss of playing in person, over the board, and, as some now call it “offline!” It’s difficult to imagine life as we have known it returning any time soon, and this holds true at all scales, from geopolitical maneuvering to the smaller, kinder conflicts within the confines of our modest Club. Chess may be a mighty test of wits, skill, and determination, but it is no match for a global pandemic.
Let me be straightforward—I can foresee no imminent reopening of the Club. Even with social distancing, protective shields, and gallons of hand sanitizer, the intimate nature of chess presents risks that at the present time are too significant to regard frivolously. I’m sure some of you know of the St. Louis Chess Club’s reopening on 22 June, and its closure three weeks later due to a diagnosis of COVID-19 for one of its employees. They have since reopened, but they hold no tournaments and have full, hour-long sanitizations of the club four times per day. Chances are that there will be another case, and another. In NYC the daily exposure to others is a way of life (as opposed to the far less dense city of STL). While I cannot speak for every member of the Board—nor, certainly, for every member of the Club—I personally cannot countenance the responsibility of running a venue in which contagion is highly likely.
Meanwhile, our online programming continues apace. We have many tournaments for all levels and at varying time controls. Classes and workshops abound, and of course there is always casual play to be found in every corner of the Internet. We all hope that this period of tremendous hardship will be behind us soon; until then, we hope that you will all be kind to the Marshall, renew your membership (if possible), and join us online whenever (and wherever) you can.
With gratitude, and with best wishes for a safe and healthy remainder of the summer,
Noah Chasin
President, Board of Governors of the Marshall Chess Club
