The turnover of players

While plenty of people know how to play chess, and some of those also play organised/tournament chess, it is only a small percentage that keep playing chess. There is always a large turnover of players, even at the club level, where over a two year period there may be 50% new players, replacing the 50% who are 'having a break'.
This thought re-occurred to me with the return of local Canberra player Ian Hosking, who has been abroad for the last 2 years. As with lots of players of  a certain age, his break was longer than that, due to time constraints of marriage and family. But even so, at my local club, there would have been only about 4 or 5 players (out of 25), who new who he was. This indicates that 80% of players really only started playing seriously in the last 5 or so years. Now this isn't a bad thing, as without new players we would have less players overall. But it does indicate that player retention is an issue that could do with some work.
(NB The point of this post is only partly about player numbers. It is also gives me an opportunity to welcome Ian back by showing this game).


Hosking,Ian - Press,Shaun [C57]
Belconnen, 1986