Today the main problem for the majority of chess professionals is to survive. Our great players should look constantly for different clubs, different tournaments or appearance fees, they have to win tournaments with prize fund to survive. A player who goes to a European Individual Chess Championship should have personal resources and a hope that he will win the tournament and will get back some part of the money he spends. Maybe he will go to World Cup to get more money.
This is a pity. Or the player should look for unlikely Federation support (unfortunately very few federations may afford it) to participate. As We R Europe Team we will change this destiny. By making our loved sport more popular, the greatest benefit will be earned by professionals. Look at for example what has happened in Turkey. Today to be a Turkish FM means minimum 2.000€ salary per month due to huge demand of private courses, clubs trainings, being a member of clubs.
We believe that one of the most important aims in chess must be Professional chess. Chess in schools is a vehicle, a lever to make chess more popular with a gigantic number of players. Professional chess is another of our key targets. Chess is clearly a business. There is no professional sport that you may approach as a non-business organisation today. We will create a new ECU, approaching chess with a business model which is very clear in all its steps. The idea is to create a chess pyramid with amateur and professional players.
We will benchmark with the other sports reviewing how they became successful and setting targets for our own achievements. Take a look at football, darts or snooker! When we look at these examples, we see that top sports personalities are known by the public and there is huge media coverage, which means millions of people following those sports.
In chess our chances today, are not so strong to get the same air time in television and in the media. However, we have concrete proposals which may attract millions to the sport and to practice or follow the sport. Then, sponsorship comes very fast.
The problem in European Chess is that the ECU does not have control over the chess pyramid. We know there is already a large number of amateur chess players in the system. However, these people are not controlled or structured in order to make a working business model. We think the best way to solve this is a bottom-up approach using the chess in schools project.
The group, mainly kids, will participate in events and join clubs, and in turn the clubs become stronger. The pyramid starts to have a wider base, the total number of players increases and the total number of professionals increases in parallel, even as the percentage of professional players decreases in relation to the whole.
The increased money generated by the system is thanks to the amateurs who also increase the demand for professionals for:
- Training
- Spectator needs (following tournaments)
- More sponsored events (better professionalism)
- Better clubs (better professionals)
- İndividual image sponsorships
- Higher prized fund events
- More chances to find elite players and role models (younger talents)
The benefits of professional chess players with our model
- New job positions for GMs, IMs and even for FMs, professional and semi professional chess players, due to high demand appearsing after the chess in schools and the chess in clubs projects
- Creates respect for chess profession
- Creates career as a coach, let us say after the retirement of a GM or IM as a player
- Makes chess profession a life time job without real retirement
- More sponsorship for chess means more prize funds, better conditions
- More recognition and awareness in media
With our model we make it step by step possible. We have a model we have experience and know-how to do it.
Our success in our federations is the guarantee of our promises.
Winning is a habit, Success is a choice
