Miami Open

Running Chess Tournaments
1

So I had a good time at the Miami Open. I didn’t do great in my games, but given that I was one of the lowest rated in my section, my 2.5/7 should be enough for a rating gain of around 20 points, according the ratings estimator here. Seeing all those top players in action was fun. They had the positions from the top 6 boards projected on a wall the whole time, so I spent some time watching those after my own games ended.

Does anyone know if any of the players scored norms there? I know there was an 8 way tie for first, including an IM, so I’d think that would be good enough for a GM norm, but I don’t know what schedule he played in. If he was on the 3 day schedule, then the early games were too short to be FIDE rated, so he won’t get the norm, obviously.

How many points would be needed for norms, anyway? I’m not sure what the rules are.

2

Only the 5 day schedule had norm possibilities, since there can be no more than two rounds per day in a norm event and you have to play 9 games, no more than 22% of which can be against players without FIDE ratings. (My calculator says that means you can face only one player without a FIDE rating in a 9 round event, since 9 x .22 is 1.98.)

A GM norm takes a FIDE performance rating of 2601, an IM norm takes a FIDE performance rating of 2451.

See fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=B0101

3

How can you get an eight way tie for first place in a nine round event?

4

Lots of draws.

5

Eight players ended with 6.5/9. For instance, I think Nakamura scored 4 wins and 5 draws, and Shabalov scored 5 wins, 3 draws, and a loss. There were 6 GM’s with 6 points going into the final round, so the top 3 boards all had quick draws to get to 6.5 points each. Then, two players with 5.5 entering the last round scored wins to catch up.

6

Did you play for a draw in the last round?

7

No. Why would I?

8

“We would have more decisive games in the last round if we followed Poker’s lead and allowed players to chop the prize fund.”

Discuss the pros and cons:

9

Would you please elaborate, elucidate and define the statement, “chop the prize fund”?

10

The six grandmasters that drew the final round deserve eighth place money. It was wrong to give GM Hikaru Nakamura $12.000.00 to dawdle for twenty-two moves in the last round. That was the long draw.

11

I think he means “agree to split the all the prize money for which they are eligible.” This is common in poker tournaments. (“Instead of playing on until one of us wins six million, let’s agree that the six of us will take a million each.”) There are a number of problems with applying this to chess, some practical and some principled.

12

How would that work if there are other players who aren’t tied with them at the start of the round? Using this Miami Open as an example, there were 6 players with 6 points each at the start of the final round. They all drew each other to get 6.5 points each. On two other boards, players with 5.5 points going into the final round scored wins, thus catching up.

Personally, I don’t think the places in the case of a tie should be decided by tie breaks. Just take the 1st through 8th place money and split it evenly 8 ways in this case. Why does Nakamura get that much more than everyone else for the same score? I’m not saying he didn’t earn a share of first place, but it does seem unfair to give him more than the guys he drew against who earned the same 6.5 points as him overall.

–Fromper

13

Where do you see any indication that Nakamura got $12,000?

14

I don’t know what the prizes ended up being, but he is listed as having “won” the tournament on their web site. I’m not sure what the tie breaks used were, since it was an 8 way tie.

15

So it looks like according to their numbers they have 368 people show up to the tournament. Nice showing for first time. 281 in the full-fare paying sections and 87 in the discounted paying section.

Can’t tell from what they have listed who was re-entry. Assuming no one re-entered 57% of the based on total showed up.

So that would mean that of the $12k 1st place prize, Naka would have gotten just under $7k plus whatever bonus that was mentioned in the tournament advertising.

So they covered their prize fund (would have had to pay out $57,000). My rough estimates brings the EF totals to around $67,000. I can be off. I used $230 for the EF to average out those that pre-registered and those that registered on-site.

16

Weren’t the first n ( n <= 8 ) prizes pooled and split evenly among the 8 players tied for 1-8?

And, you neglect to consider the possibility that the Organizer did the right thing and paid the entire prize fund (or at least some amount more than what is strictly required).

17

Ken - I was working off of the numbers given before for what Naka may have taken with the $12k.

I thought it was USCF rules that those that tie would have those prizes pooled together and distributed evenly, unless announced otherwise in pre-tournament publicity.

I don’t neglect that possibility, I just discounted it.

Would be good if someone from the tournament could post that information like CCA does for their tournaments.

18

The TLA and other pre-event publicity calls for a playoff between the top 2 on tie-breaks:

As I read this the playoff is for the ‘clear first’ bonus of $200. Otherwise, I assume standard USCF rules were followed regarding the distribution of prize monies to those tied for first place.

Here are the standings as posted on their website:

1 GM DARMEN SADVAKASOV 2599 2 GM Hikaru Nakamura 2749 3 GM Alexander Shabalov 2670 4 GM VARUZHAN AKOBIAN 2652 5 GM ZVIAD IZORIA 2719 6 GM VICTOR MIKHALEVSKI 2675 7 GM Magesh Panchanathan 2545 8 IM JUSTIN SARKAR 2437

Your homework assignment is to compute the distribution of place money to these individuals based on two sets of assumptions:

  1. 100% of the prize money will be paid out
  2. Less than 100% of the prize money will be paid out, using the turnout numbers given in an earlier post in this thread.
19

If 100% of the prize fund was paid out then I come up with $3037.50 per player (taking the top 8 prizes for the Open Section and dividing by :sunglasses:.

If only 57% was paid out then $1731.38 per player.

Am I right?

20

No.
Don’t forget that “8 IM JUSTIN SARKAR 2437” is eligible for the $2000 for the Top 2300-2499. So replace that 8th place $500 with the $2000 and you get $3225 for 100% payout.