Czechia
participants
- make a fun, unique and visible event
- raise awereness of ESN MENDELU, z.s., have an HR stand to recruit new members
- collect money for a non-profit Světluška which helps blind people in the Czech republic
- commence cooperation with a recently founded body of MENDELU university CSR centre (corporate social responsiblity center) and ESN MENDELU, z.s.
- have 3 matches of human chess in the atrium (outdoor space inside the building of PEF faculty). The matches were supposed to be "mock" matches without participants knowing. Make all the participants (except chess players) wear blind folds.
- cooperate with a chess club and involve chess players from highschools
- stream the matches online and have a record of it on YouTube via university provider AVC
- reward the highschool participants with a free lunch and a certificate
At 9:00 we made a little stand with ESN MENDELU, z.s. flag and some games inside the Q building
At 9:30 we made a 8x8 field with tape on the ground demarking the outer borders of a chessboard (the inside was not necessary since the floor is made out of square tiles)
At 10:00 I picked up 4 highschool chess players who were supposed to play the mock matches
At 10:50 we had our first match followed by another one till 11:30. Last game started at 11:50. We were unable to get players at 12:50 even though we planned it would be the prime time due to lunch period.
We were not able to replace all the chess pieces with humans. When people were missing on the board we had real chess game pieces on the ground instead of people. When a person actually did replace a chess piece he was supposed to hold it in his/her hand to keep track of who's who.
To recognise teams we used yellow and black t-shirts provided by Světluška.
The matches happened in front of plenary rooms next to a Q building canteen where people usually sit and study/wait/meet which enabled us to ask random people to join us.
To make people understand what is the square on the ground the chess pieces were put in place as if a normal match was about to happen, then progressively people replaced the chess pieces on the ground.
The matches were learned beforehand to ensure they would last 10-15 minutes.
It was very confusing to keep track who's who with only the chess-piece in hand.
Amount of participants and games played exceeded our expectations. We were very scared we would not be able to play the matches, but every match had only a few of the chess-pieces not replaced by humans. We wanted 3 matches and had 3 matches.
The name of the event was too ambiguous and did not make people understand what is it about. Simple Human Chess game would suffice next time. Might have influenced the number of people interested.
The donations for Světluška did not happen since I underestimated the possibilities of our section on that specific week and did not have enough manpower. We did not even have a very nice stand due to a lack of man-power. We had merch from Světluška to sell against the donations but were unable to do anything with it. At least we used their logo on the promo material and wear the Světluška shirts during the games. On top of that Světluška did not send us the blindfolds which was the main reason why I contacted them. Even if we did have the blindfolds we would not force participants to use them as was initially expected - rather it would have been an optional thing to do.
The idea to use the wasted space of the atrium did not go well either - it was cold outside and it didn't make sense to do it outside if nobody would participate. Due to the fact that no shots from above were possible when inside, the live stream was called off as well since it was not possible from the technical point of view.
The 4 chess-players from highschool were very satisfied, had fun and had their very first experience playing human chess (and playing a mock match which is very unusual in chess). The certificates were not given on spot and will be made in the future days and sent to the high school. Their lunch was paid from section money.
When we were waiting and had a "break" from human chess, the chess players played a regular chess game with the pieces on the floor (with the unnecessarily huge chessboard) which was very visually appealing and fun to all bystanders/people passing by.
CSR centre promoted the event and filled the administrative documents for a faculty approval which confirmed the event may take place in the given time, place etc.
Due to its great location - the board, matches, stand, were very visible and got a lot of smiles and happy faces. Many of the people join mid-game or at the last moment.
The match was confusing for the players since it was hard to recognize who's who - for the next time costumes or signs attached to their body with a chess-piece symbol would be preferable to the "holding the chess piece in hand".
In short, the location had to change, live stream failed and the visuals overall were not very appealing due to the minimalistic approach. The event however despite the numerous setbacks was a success and created a very nice precedent for the future providing valuable know-how. There was an effort to promote a cause of blind people's support which could've been greater. A big plus was the involvement of young chess players from high school, basically creating a reverse Erasmus in School dynamic. Both international students and locals participated together in the same matches.
