Most college chess clubs in the US are in poor shape. I will use my own university chess club to illustrate this point. For the last several years, our club at the University of Washington was just a place to come and play chess. A competition ladder did not exist, there were no tournaments, or intercollegiate competitions, and instruction was not offered. It is not surprising that there were only 2-4 active players in the UW club last year. In the last decade, the club failed 3 times within a decade, only to be restarted by a chess fan at a later time. This amazed me since I was the captain for my High School team. In Washington State, every other High School had a team and we all competed in State tournaments. Even my middle school had a club that was much more active than our club last year! The reasons for the discrepancy between the High School club and University clubs became apparent after taking responsibility to lead the club.

Organization and leadership
A successful club must maintain consistency from year to year. High School clubs generally have a motivated teacher or staff member that guides the club year after year helping in consistency. For some odd reason, most university chess clubs are left to run on their own and rarely have a dedicated staff member guiding the club. University clubs may have a strong student leader for a few years, and then the student graduates and often no-one else picks up the slack. I have found that many former clubs have been abandoned in this manner. Unfortunately, when the club is abandoned, all of the knowledge and expertise in running the former club is lost. Also, the unique club camaraderie and culture is lost as well. It is hard to start back up from scratch. Most students are not used to taking leadership roles, which further complicates this matter; when a new student looks for a club and does not find one, they can get frustrated and abandon the effort. If they do start a club, they often lack the time and expertise to establish processes, run a competition ladder, and offer instruction to attract new players, etc.

Competitive Participation
High Schools, middle schools, and in some states, even Elementary schools have regional chess leagues. However, there is no dedicated intercollegiate chess league in the US. There have been attempts to start various leagues, but all of the national leagues so far have failed. To attract solid chess players, the colleges must offer some sort of regional competition. Without serious competition, the stronger players will look elsewhere for competitive play. Intercollegiate competition also strengthens the bonds of the club; the club now is also a ‘team’. Furthermore, without inter-collegiate competition, the Universities do not recognize chess as a sport and will not help the university clubs with financial funding. There needs to be some type of intercollegiate competitions in the future to increase the participation in the college clubs.

Lack of support and community involvement
While the elementary schools have active regional organizations to assist the local schools, the local community is not actively involved in the university chess scene. This is due to quite a few factors. Due to their close proximity to their schools, parents are much more active and likely to assist organizations that support the elementary schools. There are also more chess hobbyists that want to participate and work with children in the school. Funding is available as well. In High School, when their child comes to them to ask for finances to pay for a USCS membership, or other needed finances, the parents are more likely come up with the needed money as they see the benefits of chess. However, when their children leave for college, the parents, already inundated with financial issues, are rarely asked, or will volunteer the needed funding. Unfortunately, this puts a hamper on the student’s chess ambitions. In the rare occasions that the students have extra money in their pockets, they are not likely to purchase a $40 USCF account, instead they will be much more likely to use the money to purchase something to eat other than stale Top-Ramen sitting on the top of their shelf.