Transporting chess equipment to an event

Twenty players means ten simultaneous games. The minimum that has to arrive at the venue:

• 10 boards and 10 sets of pieces. Rollable boards rather than rigid ones - they take a fraction of the space.
• 10 clocks, or at least 5 if some pairs will wait between rounds.
• Spare batteries. The single most common failure of the evening.
• Table numbers. Printed on card, on stands - not tape.
• Documents. Scoresheets if you use them, a registration list, pens.
• An extension lead. For a laptop or a projector; venues never have a socket where you need one.

Packed sensibly this comes to two crates and a bag - one person can manage it in two trips, two people in one.

One more habit worth building: number the sets. Write a number on each piece bag and on the matching board. Then a missing piece is traced to a set rather than to the whole collection.

Run it before leaving home, not at the venue:

1. 1Boards - counted, matching the number of games
2. 2Piece sets - counted, and each bag felt for weight rather than assumed
3. 3Clocks - counted, and switched on to check they still hold charge
4. 4Batteries, pens, tape
5. 5Table numbers
6. 6Registration list and scoresheets
7. 7Extension lead and any chargers
8. 8Prizes, if the event has any

The full preparation checklist covering everything else - the organizer's checklist.

The moment equipment actually gets lost is not on the way there but on the way back, when everybody is tired and helping.

• Count everything against the same list. Twice, and by the same person who loaded it.
• Check under the tables. Pieces end up on the floor, and a black bishop on a dark floor is invisible.
• Check the clocks are off. A clock left running arrives with a dead battery.
• Ask the venue to keep anything found. Agree in advance where lost items will be put.
• Do not let the last person leave alone. Loading is the one job worth two people, because the second person notices what the first forgot.

• Best of all: at the venue. If a bar or library will keep two crates in a cupboard, that solves the problem entirely. It is worth asking - many will.
• Dry and not cold. A garage or a balcony warps wooden boards and kills batteries.
• Batteries out of clocks for long breaks. Over a summer they leak and destroy the contacts.
• One inventory, one person. Equipment shared between three people's flats is equipment that will be incomplete at the next event.

Carrying crates every week is a real cost, and there are ways around it.

• Store at the venue. The cleanest answer, and usually free if the venue benefits from your evenings - the partnership model.
• Ask players to bring boards. Works at a small club where everyone owns a set; unreliable above about a dozen people.
• Borrow from a school or federation. Especially for one-off events, and often free.
• Use the venue's own equipment. Some bars and community centres already have boards - check before buying anything.
• Let players use their phones as clocks. Not ideal, but it removes the heaviest and most fragile item from the crate.

And one thing that no longer needs carrying at all: the paperwork. Pairings, standings and tie-breaks live in an app rather than in a folder - running an event from a phone.