I vaguely recall that my father said the German fighter approached and fired from the left and slightly above and ahead of their aircraft. My dad said he was just behind the c o c k p i t and was almost hit himself. On a number of occasions I tried to get him to tell me more, but have to think it must have been rather awful to have to move either of the dead pilots to gain control of the aircraft. The only other thing he told me was that while signaling in a damaged P-38 Lightning it crashed into his runway signaling vehicle. He had photos of the totalled vehicle. He had an elbow injury from that which bothered him for the rest of his life. He really loved the P-38s.
I was not necessarily talking about a cheap travel day, rather I was thinking in terms of round times & time controls. I recall that the 2000 US Open in Minneapolis/St. Paul was almost a problem, as there were very few flights after 10 pm on a Sunday night at the time. You can often find late night flights to many places on a Friday night, it is the return flight(s) after the tournament is over that can be a problem. I see no reason to have to take an extra day off of work just because there may be no way to catch a convenient flight the day/night that the tournament finishes.
If someone thinks going to Canada, cross country, or across the Atlantic ocean is cheap; then they have not looked into the costs of travel today. For example, can anyone find a set of round trip flights to London for under $300 total??
Larry S. Cohen
The dollar does go a long way in Canada these days. 
Back in my “Hey Day”, I was a contractor in St. Louis, back in 1998 - 1999 and my “Travel Weekend” was spent traveling to and from chess tournaments every 3 weekends, typically, and I would fly in on either that Thursday night or Friday after work, and spend the Sunday night after the tournament, and fly out first thing that Monday morning. After landing in St. Louis on a Monday morning, I would then go to the office and work the whole day, so no time was lost. The best thing was that this employer paid for my travel to these tournaments as I elected not to fly back and forth to and from NJ as that would have cost my employer at the time, more money. Since I was in the Central part of the country, it would take me no more than 3 hours to arrive at my destination, and it really was the best time of my life. This idea saved my employer money in airfare if I had gone back and forth to NJ every 3 weekends, and it was looked upon quite favorably.
Respectfully Submitted,
David A. Cole, USCF Life Member, Franklin, NJ
We use to have unused trophies replated as the “Marco Polo Award”. Players loved it!
That would probably work better for scholastics than for adults. Adults don’t seem to care much about picking up another piece of hardware. Cold hard cash is more likely to do the trick for them.
Depends on the type of tournament. Big money tournaments attract a lot of adults that are looking for cold hard cash but even there a lot of the players are in it for the experience. I’ve seen A players in the open sections that are just hoping to have a result that gives a FIDE rating even through they know they are not going to get any prize money back.
The most obvious counter-example is njscf.org/feb-18-20-world-amateu … team-east/
I didn’t see any cold hard cash but it is, to put it mildly, a large tournament. The other USAT-xs and the USA-xs are examples as well, but USAT-E is the largest (at least for non-scholastic events).
Yes, but a US Chess National tournament is a whole different animal than the type of tournament that a regular Joe like me can run. I can well imagine that a significant number of people come to a USAT tournament just for the experience. Not many are going to come to one of mine for that reason.
This area has trophy tournaments that attract adult participants. You said “Adults don’t seem to care much about picking up another piece of hardware” but there are also adults that don’t seem to care much about winning another cash prize. Whether or not a Marco Polo trophy is desirable depends on the area and the participants likely to go to the tournament. There is an adult chess league in this area that gives trophies at the end of the season (the $10 gift card option seems to be a minority selection)
“This area has trophy tournaments that attract adult participants. You said “Adults don’t seem to care much about picking up another piece of hardware” but there are also adults that don’t seem to care much about winning another cash prize. Whether or not a Marco Polo trophy is desirable depends on the area and the participants likely to go to the tournament. There is an adult chess league in this area that gives trophies at the end of the season (the $10 gift card option seems to be a minority selection)”
i remember when i was but a mere lad at a mr bill mcelyea tournament at Cleveland State University. i was going up for a class prize in my last round but ended up losing. the gentleman i played gave me the prize money. don’t remember the guy’s name, unfortunately, but will always remember the deed.
…scot…
My original post on this thread was in answer to Ms. Hardesty’s question of how best to attract players to a tournament held in her out-of-the-way location. I just don’t believe very many adults are going to make a long drive just to try to win a trophy.
OK, perhaps this is evolving into running a tournament, but here’s an idea.
Rather than a prize for most distant - which doesn’t seem to me to really target the prize to the goal of increasing the number of people willing to travel to an event -
How about a door prize for X number of people who travel a distance of AT LEAST YYY miles from the event who also play in all the tournament rounds?
For example, the prize might be to refund 5 entry fees for people who travel at least 125 miles.
Pragmatically, the following process might help to run this:
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Post during registration and for the first X rounds a sign-up sheet where any player who believes they are eligible must provide their address.
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During the next few rounds, use Google Maps or some such to verify distance.
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Prior to the last round, draw the names from those eligible, prizes paid after the last round.
Refunding five entries might be a bit much for someone running what figures (probably) to be a relatively small tournament. Maybe two or three would be better. That said, I like your idea.
Reading some of these posts caused me to reflect on some of the trips made ‘back in the day,’ and laugh. Why did we do it? For the love of the game! The monetary incentive was not there, even for top players, much less us lesser lites. Still, Mr. Parker is absolutely correct when he says adults travel in hopes of winning cash in lieu of “hardware.” There is not much money in Chess and what little left is dwindling. See, for example Yasser Seriwan’s comments at the Chessbase website, where he writes about “the rapidly shrinking prize money” for the World Championship match. (en.chessbase.com/post/seirawan-a … ampionship)
Like it or not, the fact is that the Royal game has lost prestige and interest among the general population. See the article (bloomberg.com/features/2016 … mpionship/)
With what is to come I fear organizers may not be able to afford to give even a trophy as a prize.
I left Chess for Backgammon where there was money…until the craze died. Many of the younger generation left Chess for Poker. It is called the Willie Sutton principle. Asked why he robbed banks he said, “That’s where the money is.”
I had hoped to travel what I consider a short distance (What is the definiton of "a long way? That is one of those nebulous terms, akin to “I’ll be there in a little while.” One of the funniest discussions, which I vividly recall, at the House of Pain was led by the High Plains Drifter when the discussion turned to “nebulous terms.”), to the upcoming Land of the Sky tournament in Asheville, NC. I have not played in years, but contemplated making the trip to play in the 30th anniversary tournament. I played in the first and hoped to see, for what may be the last time, others that played three decades ago. As I cogitated, thinking of how nice it would be to see many of my friends in the glorious WNC mountains, I decided to check the particulars of the tournament. The prizes in the section in which I would be competing are $350 and $200. What are the odds of my winning, I thought, reflecting back to a time in my 30’s when I traveled with the Legendary one to a Chess tournament in south Florida after not having played in a long time (how long is that? I simply do not recall). The Legendary one was astounded when I “brought home the Bacon” so to speak. He was not the only one! Realistically speaking, it is ridiculous of me to even consider finishing near the top, so the trip would be more for emotional than practicle reasons.
With what is no doubt coming for this country, should we spend the money so frivolously?
Reading on I discovered this, “Byes: one ½ pt bye available rounds 1-4, declare by round 2.” I am a Senior citizen now and go to bed between nine and ten, which excludes a night game. The only way to participate would be to play the first round “hurry-up” game Saturday morning, a game with only 90 minutes, plus a 5 second delay, something I will never do. I also took note that the truncated first round “Saturday morning round is not FIDE-rated.” It’s like it is not even part of the tournament! That leaves me playing the second round Saturday afternoon, and the two games on Sunday. This means that, with the half-point bye, the best I could score would be 3 1/2, and that if I happen to win all three of my games. What are the odds? Probably much less than the odds of rolling the only number to win a Backgammon roll-off, double sixes. The odds are, for those who do not know, 35-1 against.
Although I will regret not seeing Wilder, Neal and Bruce, among others, there will be no trip to the LOTS this year. It simply cannot be justified. Chess tournaments are not Senior friendly. Chess has co-opted the Willie Sutton principle. Chess tournaments are for much younger players. I am not knocking this, grant you. I had my day. If I were organizing I, too, would be forced to schedule rounds to accommodate the most players. The ironic thing is that I led a movement to change the format from a three games on Saturday and two Sunday many years ago. I proposed having the first round on Friday night with only two games Saturday, and two Sunday. This was, almost immediately corrupted by having an “optional” first round either Friday night or Saturday morning. When some complained, the truncated first round appeared. This meant there would be two night games, if one eschewed the “hurry-up” first round on Saturday morning. The ironic thing is that when Thad Rogers adopted a four-round schedule there was a clear winner. Because of many complaints, Thad never held another four rounder, instead going to a five round tournament with options. The next tournament after the four rounder saw a tie between several players…
It is simply no longer possible for me to attempt a game of Chess that will, most probably, go long past my usual sleep time. After all, Bobby Fischer once said the best thing for playing Chess was a “good night’s sleep.”
In tournaments that span Friday through Sunday, there are enough options to allow you to play without killing yourself. Playing on Friday evening at 7 pm, Saturday at 1 pm, and take a half point bye for round 3 in the evening. Then play Rounds 4 and 5 on Sunday when you have had a good night’s sleep while your competition was up to the wee hours playing and certain to be groggy in the morning, especially if Round 4 starts at 9 am. If you are a class level player, this is ideal as you are not shooting for first prize anyway and every half point grabbed is golden. Going with friends cuts down on hotel costs and fuel. For high rated players, this type of tournament management is risky as 4 or 4.5 might not get much of a prize or any prize at all.
In a one section tournament it’s true that even a half point given away can hurt your chances of winning a prize if you are one of the top seeds. However, most tournaments are multi-section class tournaments, and in one of these 4 out of 5 should certainly get you a prize, and 4.5 will probably at least tie for first.
That works well, unless you are a church-goer, in which case the half point bye has to be Sunday morning. I can handle playing until 11, so I am capable of doing a weekend tournament, although I’m not willing to spend the whole weekend very often.
However, if you are like Mr. Bacon and don’t want to be playing after 9:00 and don’t want to play a fast time control, you don’t really have an option for a standard weekend tournament. Both round 1 options and round 3 are all difficult.
It was only an example, and of course depends on the tournament size. It could also be: “50% of EF refunded to 5 entries who complete all 5 games.” or some such.
When I lived in Manhattan in the 80’s and 90’s, it was fun to watch backgammon being played at the Gramercy Park Hotel. I recall watching a few games where the stakes were >$10K per game.
My original idea was to have a game Friday night, then three Saturday and two Sunday. With that format a player could take a half point bye in any of the rounds before the last round and still play five games; or take two byes and still play four games. Some liked the idea because they did not want to play Friday night after working all week; some had to work Saturday and could take a bye, or byes, that day. The format would also work for those wishing to attend church services Sunday morning. Some could play all six rounds. Many did not like this fact and expressed their displeasure. Hence, the ‘optional’ first round. Organizers liked this idea as a player could lose Friday night and become a Zombie by buying back into the tournament sans loss. This was not possible with the six round format and organizers went with the optional first round, much to the detriment of Chess.