How important is "atmosphere" to you at a tournament?

Running Chess Tournaments
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After a long hiatus, I recently renewed my USCF membership, and my affiliate membership. As soon as I submit the test I can start running tournaments again.

I find that I am running into an issue. Venues. Of course, it’s not a new issue, but it seems to be even worse these days. What I want in a tournament venue is one room where people play Chess, and when their game is over, they go somewhere else. Ideally, that would be a place that also had tables and could serve as a skittles room or a place where people could set up analysis boards to see what they should have done in their last game, but that part isn’t critical. All that is critical is that they can sit down somewhere that isn’t in the playing room.

I’m also a notorious cheapskate. Well, I might dispute that, but it certainly might seem that way. Cost is definitely a factor. Since the last time I was playing in or running tournaments, my own financial circumstances have changed enough that I can shrug off a 15 or 20 dollar entry fee, but it was not always so, and it is not so today for everyone. Yes, fifteen dollars might be an economic decision for a lot of people. So, I want to keep costs as low as possible.

Finding a venue that has two rooms, that I can keep the entry fee to fifteen dollars, and that will allow me to have the place for six hours is a challenge. The “two rooms” or the six hour requirement is really what makes it difficult. Most low cost venues assume that users are throwing a birthday party for their kid. (Remember when we were…oh…never mind…Hey, get off my lawn!)

So, anyway, my desire for that sort of setup is the source of some difficulty, and the question I want to ask to people here is, how important is that really? As I described to one person I was talking to about using a particular space, “Ideally, the room where people play would be silent as a tomb.” I know that if I am playing a rated chess tournament, I expect that there will be very close to zero conversation in the playing room, and background noise will be minimal. There won’t be music playing over the venue’s sound system.

How important is all that? I’ve assumed very important. If I play in a library or community center, there are always lobbies, other rooms, hallways, but with chairs, or some place to go when not playing, and I tend to think that’s important.

Right now, I’m hosting a Chess night at a local game store and bar. (Yeah…you read that right. Shameless plug for Southeast Michigan. Monday nights. Gatekeeper Games on 12 mile in Berkley.) The venue is actually great. Nice tables. Cider on tap. Huge playing space divided into two rooms. It’s wonderful. However, the two rooms have a large, open, doorway between them, and there might be a D and D group playing in the other room while Chess is being played in one space. That conversation is audible, though not loud, in the next room. People walk back and forth between rooms. That sort of thing. Because of that, I’ve said that I won’t host a USCF rated event there, except for Blitz.

Do you think I’m being too picky? How important is that to you. For context, I would be talking about low cost, local, tournaments, with a very small cash prize, or no prize, or maybe winner gets store credit or a free drink at the bar, but nothing where anyone would be competing for big bucks.

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considering the low entry fee and locale, man, i would pay EXTRA to play at such a venue! lol good luck!

…scot…

Scot L Henderson

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Finding a venue that will give you two rooms for six hours and allow you to charge a $15 EF is going to be a challenge. I can easily enough find a venue giving me two of those parameters, but all three is another matter. (It reminds me of the sign in the shop of a former customer of mine, “We do three kinds of jobs here: good, fast, and cheap. You may pick any two. Good and fast won’t be cheap. Good and cheap won’t be fast. Fast and cheap won’t be good.”) Libraries typically don’t have two rooms. Community centers tend to charge too much for your budget. If you can get an “in” at a local college or university that might work for you. If there is a chess club at that school they may be able to reserve space for free. For the school’s purpose they will sponsor the event. You might have to give free entry to their club members (or maybe not. Different schools have differing policies.), but that would at least get you the venue that you need. And if the local college or university doesn’t have a chess club, see if you can get one started. Good luck!

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The difficulty in finding affordable and functional space was one of the reasons I stopped organizing some 20 years ago.

What kind of event can you run with a 6 hour window, especially if that includes setup, registration and cleanup time? Blitz events, I guess.

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I’ll probably try it out.

The low entry fee can’t be beat, because it will be free. I’m going to start with blitz. For that, no one will be concerned about the background noise.

But G25/d5, with background noise? When I do blitz, I’ll talk to the players. Maybe the sort of players that will play rated chess for no prizes also won’t mind a radio on in the background and the occasional discussion about Mind Flayers creeping into the room.

Did I mention the bar?

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G25/d5.

Which, for some people, may as well be Blitz, but for those of us with short attention spans, it’s fine.

Actually, a G45 quad easily fits in that window.

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I will pay more for entry if the site is quiet.

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For me, I tend to think of quiet as an absolute requirement for anything except blitz. If I’m going to the effort of keeping a scoresheet, I don’t want music playing.

But…if there is a zero dollar entry fee, and a zero dollar prize, would I play a rated game? I’m not really sure.

I think in that circumstance, if I had a choice between rated and unrated, I would choose unrated. Other people seem to only want to play rated games.

To be honest, I don’t always understand the motivations that drive Chess players, which is why I ask. For me, I just want to play Chess. However, I definitely prefer tournaments to club-style, casual, Chess. In a tournament, everyone agrees on a time control. Everyone agrees on who plays whom. There is a mechanism to pair people of similar skill levels. I like all that definition.

The actual fact that the games will change my rating, for good or ill, is not something I care about. I also dislike cash prizes. This makes me a bit of an oddball.

So, I’m going to offer a USCF rated play with no cash prize, no entry fee, and a room that isn’t as quiet as people generally expect. It isn’t noisy by any means, but there is a radio playing, rather quietly, and there will be nearby conversation, although rarely loud. (But…if someone rolls a natural 20, slaying the ogres just before losing his last hit point, you can bet that there might be a sudden outburst.) And it is on a weeknight in a store with a bar, so we won’t see a significant number of nine year old players. Will people show up to play? One way to find out.

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Another try:

If you are in an area with business hotels, and if they have a meeting room of sufficient size, then they might be interested in your weekend business because they don’t typically have weddings (a major hotel weekend business.) Free parking will be necessary, depending upon the area that may or may not be available. But if they have a meeting room and a separate open breakfast area, that might be able to be your skittles.

You can have better access to libraries and community centers/park centers in our area if you have a 501(c)(3).

Check high schools also - if you fund-raise for their high school club, you might get a site free or at low cost. Coordinate first with the high school teacher/coordinator, not with the administration. The teacher will be more flexible in working with you.

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I have had great success in locating hotels that fit our need by creating a Request for Proposal (RFP) and sending that to Visitor and Convention Bureaus in cities around Wisconsin. Sometimes I include how much I want to pay per day and sometimes not. Of course, I get replies from top tier properties requesting $1500 a day. I toss those aside summarily. I’ve always been able to find something within our budget ($200 - $400 per day usually). This process alleviates a lot of leg work in contacting the properties cold.

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I like the approach.

It’s odd, in a way. Really, it’s the same thing as calling them up and asking, and yet, I can see why it could make for better results. When talking to venues, I get immediate questions of “What do you want?” A lot of times, “what I want” depends very much on how much it costs. By doing it the way you do it, it seems like you can provide some general parameters, but make it obvious that cost is an option, and see what they can come up with.

I like it.

Does it work with non-commercial venues? I doubt that it would. Do you ever send an RFP to “Springfield Community Center”?

In the meantime, though, I’m going to start with Blitz Chess at the Bar, because the price is definitely right. If we have enough of a potential market, we might be able to get around the problematic “atmosphere” issues, or maybe the players just wouldn’t mind very much. I used to go to a quad night in a coffeehouse. The atmosphere wasn’t perfect, but no one seemed to mind. On the other hand, I only went during summer, and the place had a patio, so you could go outside between games.

I think the “someplace to go when not plyaing” aspect is probably the most important. The game store/bar venue is marginal in that respect.

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