I just got my flyer for the International Chess Festival, and I am excited and impressed with the professional look, and the excitement the Festival will bring to the National chess scene.
Where and when? (We didn’t get any flyers.)
I got mine in the mail today. I’m sad that Fred is retiring, but it looks like he is leaving it in good hands.
Since there’s a thread now, I’ll ask for once and for all. When I started going to Las Vegas in the early 2000s, the tournament used to be held in mid June, around the third weekend of the month. Two years ago, they switched to the second weekend and now the tournament is on the first weekend.
Why the change? Do the organizers realize that this change makes it impossible for teenagers to attend? Out here in California, most schools have final exams during the first or second week of June. Three years ago, I had about 12 students go on what was the first weekend of summer vacation. This year, I doubt that I’ll have more than 2 or 3 attend because the tournament is the weekend right before finals (and also is a SAT date).
Considering that tournaments in both halves of California tend to have heavy youth entries, it seems surprising that the National Open organizers choose a date that makes it impossible for many to attend. I am sure that having 50 or 75 more kids (and I’m being conservative here) would change the economics just a tad. Perhaps there are other factors at play, such as availability of hotel conference centers, but a significantly larger attendance should be desirable too.
Shrug, not my decision. I’ll gladly spend my chess vacation elsewhere this year. Philly?
Michael Aigner
Well, don’t you sort of need to take the dates that are available at the hotel if you are the organizer?
They might have gotten better dates if they used a Meeting Service.
What Fred and Al told me last year was that they thought they were lucky to get any dates at all, much less one in June.