The virtues of Allegro Chess

Over at Chesschat there has been a small debate about Allegro chess (G/15m) being held at the Melbourne Chess Club, while their Anzac Weekender was running. The President of the MCC, Grant Szuveges, gave a pretty spirited defence of the MCC Allegro events, and it is a defence I agree with.
In Canberra, Street Chess has been run as a weekly Allegro event for around 20 years and has not only been successful as a chess event, but also a success in getting new players involved in chess. This is because the format is probably the right one for social players to make the step up into organised chess. The time limit of 15 minutes a game is around the time a home player is probably already used to, and the tournament length of 4 hours is not to demanding of someone's leisure time. The other advantage of a 7 round allegro event is that there is often time between rounds for players to socialise, something that doesn't happen so much at either long time control events (where everyone is super serious) or blitz events, where the next round is often under way within a minute of last game being finished. And of course Allegro chess is a little like 20/20 cricket, in that it is fun to play and watch, but no one remembers the results an hour after its finished. So by not attaching a seriousness to the event, you reduce the likelihood that new players are driven away by a result focussed activity.

(*Disclaimer: I operate Street Chess as a commercial venture *)