On Apr 18, 5:48 am, David Richerby
wrote:

What advantage does membership of an organization like the CFC confer?
I can play chess for free and get a rating on the internet. I can
read chess websites for articles and information. I can play against
people face-to-face by joining a local club and/or being lucky enough
to have friends who are interested in the game. Here in the UK, I can
play in OTB tournaments and get a rating from the ECF for a small fee
per game that's included in the tournament entry fee. (ECF members
typically get a discount on tournament entry that I believe slightly
more than covers the rating fee.)

Ok, so what it looks like then is Chess in North America needs to
change things a bit, and have it so that you can play in an
association chess tournament, but if you become an association member,
you need a discount.

Do any other sports require amateurs to join some kind of national or
regional association as a condition for taking part in competitions?

Sports that operate on a professional level normally have a governing
body for them. There is an exception of poker, but that is an
exception. Poker has owners of main events that work in that manner.
What happens with the CFC if it folds, is that Canada would have a
governing body for chess. This means it will have no voice in Canada
to attempt to market it. To have a champion in a country over a given
game, don't you need some sort of governing body to make the champion
valid?

The falling membership of national associations doesn't particularly
concern me. The associations just don't seem to be relevant to even
the regular tournament player, let alone the average guy who likes to
play the occasional game of chess against his friends or online.

So, you are saying that Chess is fine in Canada? Perhaps Canada will
be the first of multiple nations that will happen to cause FIDE to no
longer be relevant as more and more get themselves delisted?

- Rich