Excellent event, well promoted. I hope next years organizers take note. Pomona isn’t as central, but plenty of seniors live within driving range. I expect to be there.
for the senior open - great event, kevin, glenn, and staff. thank you. hardest part was trying to figure out where to eat with the wealth of food establishments within easy walking distance! well, no, it was the chess games but you get the idea! thanks again.
oh, yeah, i understand the reason for not allowing spectators at the junior tournaments but maybe a provision could be made for the top boards?
cheers, …scot…
Congratulations on a successful event. When will there be a story on it on US Chess Online (so more people can learn about it)?
Larry S. Cohen
Joel Benjamin is providing the story. I am sending pictures over this evening.
[size=130]Senior Open Results[/size]
The Senior Open was won by GM Dmitry Gurevich, with a score of 5.5 out of 6. GM Joel Benjamin, GM Alex Yermolinsky, and FM Doug Eckart each finished with 5 out of 6. Expert Chip Kraft had a good tournament, defeating two masters and drawing a third before losing to GM Gurevich in the final round. GM Gurevich had drawn GM Benjamin in round 5. Full results are at uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201906305842.
While I consider this year’s Senior Open attendance a tie compared to 2017, (the difference seemed to be in “house-men” types of players) here for future reference is the historical list with counts:
2019 Naperville IL 107
2018 Kenner LA 66
2017 Northfield MN 105
2016 Schaumburg IL 74
2015 Kenner LA 59
2014 Ft. Lauderdale FL 34
2013 Tarrytown NY 57
2012 Houston TX 61
2011 Houston TX 74
2010 Boca Raton FL 49
2009 Tulsa OK 54
2008 Boca Raton FL 78
2007 Palm Springs FL 45
2006 Nashville TN 43
2005 Las Vegas NV 63
2004 Boca Raton FL 67
2003 Wilmington DE 31
2002 Ventura CA 89
2001 Cruise 44
2000 Des Plaines IL 20
1999 Ft. Lauderdale FL 41
1998 Denver CO 45
1997 Deerfield Beach FL 52
1996 Caribbean cruise 40
1995 Las Vegas NV 80
1994 Phoenix AZ 54
1993 Reno NV 31It is interesting to note that, excluding the two recent events held on college campuses, the average size of the event was 54, and the largest was 89. The lower costs of dorm accessibility (which includes saving on taxes and tips) appears to be very important to Seniors. Also of note, these two events were relatively centralized - still they were much larger than Schaumburg, IL 2016.
Because of the way dorm room pricing works, however, it may be a bit less effective for Juniors. Adding a person in a bed adds cost, but Juniors are typically traveling with parents anyway - so a hotel room for 2-4 may be as cost-effective (or more so) than a dorm room. Certainly, both Glenn Panner and I were surprised that both 2017 and 2019 didn’t draw better on the Junior Open side. I thought in Chicago we’d be at least 25 players larger than we were, and with a reasonable chance to be 75 players greater than we were. One factor may be that people didn’t realize the availability of very low EF’s until it was too late in the process.
Perhaps one thing to do is as we refine email contacts is to strengthen our ability to communicate in this fashion.