Basslure...

I understand your question. I will try to answer it from my perspective and hope it helps. Really though, this should be another thread, but I will answer here.

I love fishing. I love the sound of the early morning, the coyotes howling, seeing the eagles soaring, the deer on shore, etc... but I also love competition. I grew up playing organized sports. I played football and later basketball. I was being recruited by Penn State for linebacker when I tore my knee up for the third year in a row. Now it turns out that while I was young, I apparently broke my back also.

So what does that have to do with it? Well as I have aged, my body had continued to deteriorate. I could not continue playing football for fear of not being able to walk, due to knee damage. I eventually had to give up tennis and basketball because of my back. Then bowling... I used to carry a 239 average when I bowled in a league. Now about the only sport I still can compete in is fishing. I can't even fish like I used to now. I can only fish hard, as in tournament hard, for about 4 maybe 5 hours. Not many tournaments that are that short. At the get together, we had a 5 hour tournament. When it was over, I was barely even able to walk, by the time we left the cook out.

I can only surmise that there are many others like me who like to compete. I think that is what drives tournaments, the competition.

Now when I was in school, I also used to compete on a Math team that traveled from school to school and we had competitions.... and I loved chess. Very few people want to play chess, or so it seems to me.

I'd love to see a chess club form. I'd love to see chess competitions begin. I think I could still compete some in those. I don't enjoy it to the point where I'm willing to sit for hours while a guy contemplates a single move though. I also haven't played in so long, I imagine now I would be an easy victim, but that wouldn't last long I feel.

I hope this helps you some.

Danny