Since the beginning of the year, the German Chess Federation (DSB) has registered 5,000 new registrations in the clubs organized under the DSB. This means that the number of members is breaking through in a positive sense, as the number is now 93,000 members, 3,000 higher than the average of the last 10 years. Around 9% of the members are female, and almost 30% are young. The German Chess Federation released the following information to the public in a press release onwww.schachbund.de :
Since the beginning of this year, the number of registrations in many chess clubs in Germany has developed impressively: In total, this gives the German Chess Federation a new total membership of around 93,000 chess players as of mid-September 2023.
Many clubs have contributed to this with their activities. In addition to good public relations work, this includes attracting children and young people to the club, for example through chess clubs at local schools - but also running beginner courses for adults, because chess is known to appeal to all age groups. Most clubs also have an online presence, so that interested parties can find out about the nearest chess clubs at any time, or even more easily via the schach.in portal .
If you are quick, you can also take part in the campaign of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), where anyone interested in a new club membership (including a chess club) receives a voucher as a subsidy for the first annual membership fee.
Gerhard Prill
Representative for member recruitment in the DSB
The representative for member recruitment cites an important reason for the current, very positive development. Clubs and initiatives that do great work and are therefore a great place for people of all ages who are interested in chess. But many clubs have also been doing this great work for the past few decades and have thus fought against the general negative trend in chess. So there must be other reasons why chess is now finding its way into the mainstream.
Here are the following three points: 1) Corona pandemic 2) Netflix series: Queen's Gambit 3) chess.com
The corona pandemic has forced chess players and non-chess players around the world into their own four walls. Football and basketball are difficult to play in the living room. A physical sport is not the same on the PC. The difference is much smaller in chess. Millions of people discovered chess as a fun pastime. An analog tournament is a great experience. But chess is chess, even on the Internet.
The Netflix miniseries has made millions more people interested in chess thanks to an exciting story and great actors. Are chess players really all geniuses? What is the role of female players in chess? Chess is an exciting and nerve-wracking sport! These were the impressions that stayed with the viewers.
Chess.com, on the other hand, has managed to pick up on this "hype" and confirm it. Stars now regularly have themselves photographed playing chess. The most famous faces in the digital world play chess tournaments on the US chess platform, opening up the royal game to a whole new target group.
Photo/Logo: German Chess Federation
