I was just able to post this great news to Facebook:
We are happy to announce that US Chess has just awarded Caveman Chess LLC the 2021 U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Junior Open. We are posting these and our camp details over the next few days.
The dates are July 30 - August 1, 2021 at Elmhurst University, in Elmhurst, IL. This is only 15 minutes from O’Hare, and a half-hour from midway.
Many of the details will be the same as our 2019 event. However, due to COVID, Illinois rules, and resulting space concerns, the event will use more space, more TDs, and so have a higher entry fee.
We hope to have much of the same TD staff with some additions.
Give us a few days to get things online and a TLA set-up. We are going as fast as we can!
We are very excited to work with US Chess on resurrecting these events!!!
(Because there was a date correction, I thought it important to highlight the dates.)
Some additional questions came up about the dates that were resolved Tuesday. I’m waiting for final pricing on the dorm rooms from the University so I can include it in the TLA. I’ve told them I have to have it no later than tomorrow.
I notice that the King Registration listing for this event says it is G/120 d/5 near the top, but further down under Schedule it says G/90 inc/30.
EDIT: As noted by kbachler below, the above remark applies to a different event, the 2021 Illinois Senior State Championship in late May. My apologies.
I don’t know what you are looking at - I haven’t put these events online yet.
I see now - you’re looking at a different tournament: 2021 Illinois Senior State Championship, May 22 - 23, 2021. It looks to have an error in the listing.
Oddly, it’s not on the ICA site although it seems to be an ICA event.
Quick update. Details finalized, working on TLAs and kingregistration setups tonight, along with website information. Aiming to complete in the next two days.
We are in the process of adding information to the Caveman Chess website and setting up the TLA. We also need to set up dorm room purchases in the online shop. We hope to be done within a couple of days.
Due to the extra space needed for COVID, and the extra TDs needed for the extra space, the EF is higher than when we ran the event in 2019. Prizes are still $8K total. Also, we are looking at some potential discounts. Stay tuned.
It would be nice if it did but that would seem to depend on the hotel offering to adjust the agreement and reallocate the extra space that was contracted for based on initially needing that space (a wedding reception may allow for reallocating the space, but it does have a noise cost involved). Even if the space is freed up there is still the additional contracted TD cost.
A few years ago an organizer I’d been consistently doing an annual event for (not US Chess rated) had to cancel a tournament at the last minute and he paid the minimum TD fee (base plus a per player amount) even though we didn’t have a written contract (he wanted to make sure I’d be willing to do the next year).
Since the event is at the college campus where Kevin has an established relationship with his chess camps, that might be more reasonable. Similarly, the contracts with the TDs might have such contingencies in them, given there is a known changeable variable. But I certainly understand if that’s not plausible here. Still a reasonable question to ask.
While we had planned on using this University starting last year, this is actually the first year. So it’s a new relationship. I think both the University and we are trying to communicate and be flexible - but we also want to have a good relationship. In a nutshell, everything you and Jeff mentioned in the last few posts comes into play.
That said - the same thought has occurred to me - and it’s an even larger issue for the camp itself than the tournaments at the end of camp. For the tournaments, only the EF was significantly impacted, but for the camps, that carries through in a few additional ways (like student/teacher ratio) and for more days. Additionally, there is a later organizational date, so we couldn’t lock in some costs early as we normally do. In the end we went from being perhaps the least expensive premier camp, to - for this year - being toward the high side.
With all that as background - there is a chance that sufficient re-opening could decrease costs. I don’t know if that’s quite possible this year. But if it does, and if it’s meaningful, we would consider giving that back to the players in some fashion. Meaningful depends - if we save $100 I’m not going to refund the players $1 each, but maybe we add a prize, buy pizzas, or some such. Right now there’s too much to do and too many factors to spend too much time on that issue. But we want good, long-term player, TD, and site relationships. I know the camp instructors all know I will be straight with them and do our best. One year when we started a new camp we had huge losses - several instructors offered to work for less. But we paid in full. They took their time for this, and their time has value. It’s what we do.
I want people to understand though, that at this early phase, we can’t promise anything. There are simply too many variables at this point.
I certainly wouldn’t expect anything more, Kevin, and I’m grateful you’ve made the effort so the tournament can be held. If I don’t need to be in Cherry Hill, I am planning to play.
To assist with travel and room sharing for the Junior Open, the Senior Open, the Caveman Chess Camp and any other Caveman events, we have set up a forum at cavemanchess.com/forum?p=sh … vel-866416
