Photographing a chess tournament: what to shoot and how to use it

The minimum set, without which there is no report:

• A wide shot of the hall. Rows of tables with people in them shows the scale. Shoot from height: a chair, a staircase, a balcony.
• Table one, close. The leaders, the clock, the tension.
• Hands and pieces. A close-up of a move or a clock being pressed - the most recognizable chess image there is.
• Faces thinking. Concentration is the best thing this format gives you.
• Children. Where there are any, these are the best pictures of the day.
• The handshake. At the start or the end of a game.
• The prize-giving. Each winner separately and all of them together.
• The group photograph. The one shot worth gathering everybody for.

The underrated shot: two people going over a finished game. It conveys what a chess evening actually is far better than anything posed.

• Before the start. The empty prepared hall, the boards laid out, the table numbers - good images, and useful content for announcing the next event.
• The first five minutes of a round. Everybody is playing, nobody is tired, the faces are fresh.
• Mid-round. Time trouble, emotion, close-ups.
• Between rounds. Conversation, post-mortems, coffee - the live shots.
• The prize-giving. A compulsory block.

What not to do: do not walk between the boards during time trouble, and never use flash. It disturbs the games, and it is the one thing players genuinely resent a photographer for.

The central problem of chess photography is light. Bars and restaurants have almost none; halls have even light that is nonetheless dim.

• No flash. It blinds the players and ruins the game.
• A fast lens. If you are not shooting on a phone, aperture is what decides.
• Add light where the photographs happen. One lamp by the prize area solves the shots that matter.
• A phone will do. Modern cameras cope, provided you avoid the zoom and brace the phone.
• Shoot a lot. Ten good frames out of a hundred is normal.

Preparing the photo area - seating and setup.

• A results post. The three winners, the special categories, the number of players, two or three photographs. On the day or the next morning - later and the interest is gone.
• The full album. A link to the folder: players sort through it themselves and spread it across their own feeds, which is free reach.
• The final table. People look for their own name; it is the most-viewed part.
• A short video. Fifteen to thirty seconds: the wide shot, hands, the prize-giving. It outperforms photographs in feeds.
• The next event. In the same post, while the subject is warm.

For a company event, prepare a separate piece for the internal channel: photographs, results, the team standing and a couple of quotes. That is usually what HR counts as the outcome of the event - tournaments at work.

Where the event had a partner, a short report afterwards decides whether there is a next time. What it needs:

• the number of players and a brief description of the audience;
• photographs where the partner's logo or mention is visible;
• links to coverage and reach figures, where they exist;
• the final table;
• a line or two about what is planned next.

It takes half an hour and works as the proposal for the next event - prize funds and sponsors, working with the press.

Tell the players in advance that the event will be photographed - a line in the announcement and on the entry form. It prevents awkwardness and questions after publication.

Junior events need particular care: there the consent comes from a parent, and it is better in writing. Rules on this differ by country, so check what applies where you are.

The practical rule: if somebody asks not to be photographed, that is respected without discussion - and passed on to the photographer.