Facts and figures.
We as a chess playing nation do manage to retain a bit less than 1% of our players after they finish Grade 12.
That is probably enough to fill in for those who en passant through the year.
Each State has about 30 to 40 adults who regularly play in weekend or championship events through the year.
3 to 400 adults nation-wide is a VERY optimistic head count. Check out tournament standings files for confirmation of this. Those “huge” numbers at weekender events are full of Juniors who drop off after Grade 12.
Adult numbers may be up for weeknight club attendance.
Looking at this year’s Qld. Juniors the drop off in female participation once they go from U/12 to U/14-18 is alarming. From a percentage POV it looks like we drop a bit under 50%. This is of course is a Nation-Wide problem, and in no way reflects on the very professional running of the current Junior Champs.
This is a very small sample of course. I haven’t kept stats. for each age group female participation in previous years.
I may also miss a few girls due to my unfamiliarity with their first names.
There are 2 problems facing Australian Chess.
- 99% drop off rate after Grade 12
- Almost no Adult Female players. *
*To give you an idea, there are 250 Adult Females registered to participate in State sanctioned Boxing matches in NSW alone. That is 250 in NSW, not Australia, just NSW.
Solve these two problems and we will be as big as Basketball.
So far in 2022 Qld. has 10.3% Female participation rate not counting the current Qld. Juniors.
| Total | Female | F% | ||
| entries | ||||
| Qld Juniors | 2018 | 143 | 17 | 11.9% |
| 2019 | 158 | 19 | 12.0% | |
| 2020 | Covid | |||
| 2021 | 280 | 46 | 16.4% | |
| 2022 | 311 | 43 | 13.8% | |
| Qld Juniors | U/14-18 | 48 | 4 | 8.3% |
| 2022 | U/12 | 91 | 14 | 15.4% |
| U/10 | 97 | 12 | 12.4% | |
| U/08 | 75 | 10 | 13.3% |
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