I agree with Mr. Nolan’s most recent post on this matter.
FWIW, I spoke with Mr. Ashley by phone about 30 minutes ago. He says the prize fund is already set aside and available.
Wow! I withdraw my comments then.
Was there anything about the HB Global prize fund being in escrow starting months before the event? It was almost a decade ago so I’m not sure if I am remembering correctly, but I thought the Chess Life cover photo showing all that money was designed to show that it really was a guaranteed fund with the money already set aside.
I thought that was not a requirement, but rather an advertising point.
I remember that cover too. I think it was the October 2004 Chess Life, but I’m not sure.
This link shows a letter from Merrill Lynch confirming that they have $500,000 on deposit from HB for their chess tournament.
The revised site of the Millionaire Open has vastly evolved since my last visit. Good luck and skill to those who choose to participate in this epic event. More money usually leads to more problems. I also wish the tournament staff the best of skill in intercepting cheaters before they ruin too many players once in a lifetime experiences. Hopefully, the Chess Life audience will get to review some of the class section games in the penultimate rounds, I predict masterpieces of economy and precision. The open section games should be interesting as well.
Here is the announcement posted on this site - five months ago.
The second sentence of the first paragraph may be of interest.
This is the first post in this thread. Note that the event and prizes were not absolutely guaranteed to happen from the beginning. The website evolved as I stated.
The event website (which is cached in the Wayback Machine) has always said the prize fund was guaranteed. Moreover, every official announcement I have seen on this subject said the same thing. Mr. Nolan made the same observation earlier.
Any claim that the prize fund was ever anything other than guaranteed is patently wrong, and only serves to unfairly impugn an organizer who has done nothing to deserve that. Mr. Ashley’s track record as an organizer is not long, but it is quite good.
This event has a massive guaranteed prize fund, a quality site, a dynamic organizer, a well-financed partnership, excellent policies to avoid sandbagging issues, significant anti-cheating measures, and a highly experienced chief director - one of the very best the US has to offer. All of this is on the event website, and has been for months. None of this has “evolved”.
As the first post (and the event website used to ) read." The organizers reserve the right to cancel if…" Sure you can guarantee payment but if an event is not held who gets paid? This has changed. I responded to a post that seemingly impugned leaders in the USCF. When the term "Unlike leaders…"is used this is my interpretation.
What year do we not hear of cheating attempts at the World Open by sundry means? Inappropriately rated players, suspected computer use, etc. The Millionaire Open is offering a much larger prize than any other open tournament. There has been a strong correlation between large prizes offered and attempts to cheat. This has nothing to do with the organizer and everything to do with the cheaters.
I hope this clears up any confusion about my posts and the evolution of them. I stand by every single word I wrote in my posts on this thread. I never maligned anyone nor do I intend my words to be interpreted to do so.
It seems brutally obvious to even the most casual of observers that a cancelled tournament won’t pay out any prizes. The organizers were very clear from day 1 that a decision would be made by March 31 of this year as to whether the event would be held at all. That doesn’t violate any USCF or FIDE rules, and if it had been cancelled, the 76 registrants as of March 31 would have been refunded their entry fees in full.
The MC partners have elected to proceed with an event where they likely need around 1,300 entrants just to break even. IMHO, it takes “guts” (Mr. Braunlich’s word) to plunge forward with a financial commitment like that.
Mr. Braunlich stated an opinion. Of course, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. For the record, I don’t personally agree with the entirety of Mr. Braunlich’s opinion, which does not in any way restrict his right to it. What everyone does not get, however, is their own set of facts - and the facts are that the Millionaire Chess Open has consistently stated the prize fund would be guaranteed.
Since I frequently work at the World Open, I’m passably familiar with what people try to do there. I know that the TDs catch and deter a lot of cheating that doesn’t get publicized. I also know that the World Open has neither the partnership money, nor casino security, nor size of TD staff, available to it that this event will have.
The facts of the matter, and the posts related therein, speak for themselves. I’ll end my discussion of the “evolved” prize fund with that.
Sorry for being slow in responding, but I was waiting for the official announcement before responding:
Thank you for the response, Mr. Bauer.
Just to clarify further, this promotional agreement does not involve any financial or resource-intensive commitment from USCF, correct?
The short answer to your question is “no.” We will use several of our channels to promote MC. You will see the USCF recognized for doing so.
Boyd, you should update your signature 
As Gary has already noted, there is no financial backing or commitment to the tournament. That said, we are excited about the tournament’s promise and believe it is worthy of promotional support. I was on the Executive Board when the HB tournament was held in Minneapolis, and we also assisted a bit there - for example, we provided quotes for the press release announcing the event, and I represented the USCF at the kick-off where, among other things, GM Ashley took on all comers in terms of a scholastic simultaneous exhibition. I expect that the USCF’s promotional involvement this time will be more substantial.
I think we are already seeing the support in various formats. We are seeing the ads in Chess Life and the press releases cleared many players mind who were confused. USCF approved / supported, is a significant requirement for any chess big chess tournament to succeed.
- Ashik Uzzaman
An early registrant of Millionaire Chess Open
My Blog: http://dragonbishop.blogspot.com/
There was also an email blast (the first of several, I believe) that went out to around 10,000 members.
… and I see one added by USCF yesterday -