I am not sure where to post this topic whether it would be here in Running Chess Tournaments or All Things Chess, so I will invite the Moderators to decide the best course of action. GM Timur Gareyev is of course competing in the US Championship in St. Louis and about 15 - 20 minutes away in Clayton, Missouri, GM Gareyev is also competing in the Mid America Open this weekend. I guess my question would be if there are rules against this sort of thing or if there are special accommodations being made. I seem to recall a similar scenario in New York City where you had the Marshall Chess Club and for those that remember the Bar Point possibly back in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s, a few players running between those two venues to make the moves on time. Thoughts??
The bolding in the preceding quote was added by me.
If the implication is that the U.S. Open spot should be eliminated, let’s not be hasty. I can’t think of any other player who would disrespect the U.S. Championship in this way. Just because we have one GM in this country who likes to dress and act like a clown, doesn’t mean we should make rules for all which anticipate any possible contingency involving that one player.
I said this on the main page article, and I’ll repeat it here:
Any principled weekend Swiss organizer with knowledge that a registrant was participating in the US Championship across town would have declined to enter said registrant to guard against the fiasco that happened.
It is not conceivable that CCA lacked knowledge that GM Gareev was participating in the US Championship across town.
I don’t totally blame the CCA on this one. The Mid America Open has always been held in March while the US Championships were always held in April. Typically the CCA signs hotel contracts well in advance and of course, before the dates of the US Championships were known, the Mid America Open was locked into these dates, and thus, could not be changed.
Could the CCA refused GM Gareyev’s entry into the Mid America Open? That answer is debatable, as I could see some saying yes and some saying no for the reasons already mentioned. It does leave a black mark as far as unplayed games/forfeits which occurred last night in Round 3 of the Mid America Open.
I think given the tight schedule of FIDE events that are occurring this year, this schedule conflict was unfortunately unavoidable.
It’s not the scheduling of the Mid-American event that I object to. It’s the decision to register a known participant in a national championship being held with a conflicting schedule across town.
The amount of due process owed to a registrant is inversely proportional to the craziness of what the registrant seeks to do. Here, the third round forfeit was easily forseeable. The opponent is out a game. The opponent’s competitors are down a point to him that they may not have been otherwise.
It’s not the big names who veer toward eccentricity that sustain weekend events. It’s the quiet majority in the well-adjusted field.
When I was at the FIDE Congress in Turin, several FIDE officials told me that one of the things they check on events is whether players in them were in multiple FIDE-ratable events at the same time.
FIDE can check to see if a player was in two separate events with games on the same date, but I’m not sure exactly what they do about that.
Someone could conceivably play in one event with rounds in the daytime and a separate event with rounds at night. (In fact, the 1990 US Open and US Championship, which were both in Jacksonville, had schedules which permitted this, and several participants took advantage of that.)
Absolutely NOT the implication. My point is that after disrespecting the US Championship like this I would think that the organizer would not be likely to voluntarily invite him as a wild card. Nothing more.
From the standpoint of common sense I agree, but what rule would you cite to justify excluding him? I could see requiring a forfeit deposit which would be paid to the opponent cheated out of a game if he no-showed.
I can deny an entry after providing due process. The amount of process due on these facts is minimal.
Further, amount of games played and time spent playing in a day are factors in the ratability of FIDE events. This stunt could render both events unratable.
No. And I would defend that decision vigorously on any appeal.
I once did something like this as a player. I played in a Goichberg class event where I played the Friday night first round, took a bye for the 1pm second round and then played the 7pm third round and both Sunday rounds. I took the bye to play in a 5 round g/30 event Saturday morning & afternoon. I have to wonder why GM Garev did not try for a round 3 bye rather than forfeit the game.
The Mid-America Open TD, Dave Hater, was in touch with USCF/US Championship officials before our tournament to inform them of Gareyev’s plans and decide what to do. Both Hater and the US Championship people attempted to talk him out of playing in the Mid-America, without success. Finally, Hater was advised that Gareyev had the right to play in the Mid-America, so his entry was accepted.
Continental Chess does not allow the playing of two games at once, but Gareyev did not do that.
All players in the US Championships must sign contracts. Beginning next year, it is highly likely the contracts will include a provision prohibiting play in concurrent tournaments.