Please help me plan a July 3rd tournament!

Running Chess Tournaments
1

Nothing is set in stone except the location, starting time, and that it’s going to be just 1 day. I’d just like it to be the best possible. I’d appreciate any criticism or advice. Here’s the tournament info that I’ve worked out so far:

When:

July 3rd. 10am 'till whenever we decide. It’s limited to a 1 day only event. No multiple day scenarios please.

Where:
Game Nightz, Metro Center Mall in Phoenix Arizona. Just west of I-17 in between Dunlap and Peoria ave.

USCF rated?:

yes

Prizes:

Minimum Gaurantee: $100.00 for 1st, $75.00 for 2nd, $50.00 for 3rd, $25.00 for 4th.
Participation medals. The Medals cost 1.59 each. 69 cents for an additional display case. crownawards.com/StoreFront/ … edals.prod Do you think people will really like the display case?
Participation Certificates with place finished printed on them.
$20.00 Red Lobster gift card
20.00 Schlotzsky’s gift card
$10.00 Chilis gift card
participation coupons for a free week at a local Bally’s gym
Participation coupons for Curves, a local women only gym.
Participation coupons for Gracie Barras, a local Brazilian Jujitsu (that’s ultimate fighting style) gym.
I’d like to offer a percentage of the total profits in prizes as well and even though it’ll just be 1 open section I’d like to offer prizes for best player under 2000, under 1800, under 1600, and under 1400, and best new player. But I only want to do that if there’s enough profit to afford it and I want most the money to go to the open section winners. Maybe I could give out the gift cards to the

Expected number of players:

I have no idea what to expect. I’m hoping to get at least 30 players. With what I’m spending on medals, trophies, and minimum guaranteed prizes I just need 18 people at 25.00 each to break even. I’m going to try to get 100 players since we can easily and comfortably seat that many.

Tournament style and round format:

This is the main thing I’d like help deciding. I’d like to do a 6 round swiss, half hour time control with a lunch break of a half hour after the 3rd round. The round start times would look like this if we did that:

round 1. 10:00am - 11am
round 2. 11:05am - 12:05pm
round 3. 12:10pm - 1:10pm
round 4. 1:35pm - 2:35pm
round 5. 2:40pm - 3:40pm
round 6. 3:45pm - 4:45pm

. That would make it about a 7 hours altogether. but i’d like to know what everyone reading this’s favorite round settings would be. Anything is possible, from 5 min blitz to 2 hours each. It could be just 4 hours or up to 8 hours. I’d really like to know what everyone’s favorite is.

Tournament Director:

FIDE chess master and owner of Unity Chess, Pedram Atoufi has volunteered to be the tournament director. He’s also going to play in the tournament too. If you guys were going to think about coming to a tournament would you be worried about a TD also playing? Does anyone think it might be better to ask a more veteran TD to do it who isn’t playing? I think the most well respected TD here is Myron Lieberman, should I ask him to do it? I’d like to let Pedram do it though since he offered, I know he’d do a great job, and he’s a good friend, but if it’s going to be a big deal I think he’d understand if I’d ask Myron. I haven’t asked Myron about it yet. First I wanted to know what you guys thought.

Advertising

I’m planning on just advertising in the TLA section of chess life and chess for kids. Other than that I’m just going to hope and pray that I can do mutual promotion deals with a lot of the local chess TD’s and clubs.

Hotel Situation:

There are a lot of local hotels nearby. the quality and prcing of the hotels are from cheap and comfy motel 8 to high priced and fancy Sheridon. I’m wondering what the customary and most beneficial way for me to try to work out deals with them is for this and in the future.

2

Definitely: Leave more time between rounds! 15 minutes is fine. Things happen, like finding a result that isn’t posted, etc. Players particularly like a schedule they can count on.

How many chess players are in your area? How many entries do events get in your area? 100 entries might be stretching it.

Interesting assortment of prizes! Medals aren’t necessary for adults.

All the best, Joe Lux, NTD

3

You need to leave more time between games. I would suggest at least 15 minutes to give time to do the pairings, post them, get players to their boards, pieces set up, etc. (I supply pieces which are left set-up which can save you some time. If you have a td experienced with a computer pairing program that can also save time.)

Also, there is a 5-second delay for the digital chess clocks. The preferred method is to keep the full 30 minutes plus that delay. You should allow 10 minutes for that also. (Another option is to subtract 5 minutes from the base time, but that is not preferred.).

So, probably you should drop to 5 rounds, which will handle 32 players comfortably - which is likely to be much more that you will get for your first event. For example, my 5SS, G/30 event uses the schedule: Reg ends Noon. Rds 12:30pm - 1:45pm - 3pm - 4:15pm - 5:45pm. (and that is pretty tight schedule.)

Between Game/45 and Game/75, I switch to 4SS and add a section.

4

Shouldn’t let the TD play, especially your first time out.

Joe

5

I’m not sure what type of players this is intended to reach.

There are over 700 active players in the Phoenix area, around 200 of those are adult members.

6

I feel very strongly that a playing director in a prize tournament is a BAD idea. In addition to the possible conflict of interest, the players will tend to try to avoid getting the TD which means that thy may make their own rulings which is very undesirable. An important part of being a TD is watching what is going on and being prepared to make a ruling. Especially in a prize tournament, the TD has a responsibility to give his full attention to running the event and being an observant TD.

Best idea is to have Mr. Atoufi play and Myron (tell him I say hi, he is a friend) play. Seriously, as you can’t get Myron to play, have him direct if Mr. Atoufi insists on playing. One additional problem might be that you get significantly more than 65 players. Although you don’t have expectations of how many players you will get, it would be best if a club level TD not direct a 100 player event. Mr. Atoufi should take the test and upgrade to local regardless of what you do. Please pass this recommendation to him. Best is to grow another TD in the area and have them take turns directing and playing so they both get experience as a TD and still getting enough play to keep them happy.

Good luck with your event. I also agree with reducing to 5 rounds and a bit more time between rounds.

I have an Excel spread sheet which I use both to plan and track finances for chess tournaments. E-mail me if you would like a copy.

Regards, Ernie

7

Six rounds is too many to cram into one day. A reasonable single-day quick-chess tournament is 5/SS. And as the others have already said, you definitely need to leave more time in between rounds. Also, lose the participation medals.

I don’t get the point of the gift cards and coupons. It’s not clear that any one is a “better” prize than any other, and the USCF rules strongly counsel against allowing players to choose which prizes they receive. Either make them door prizes, awarded by raffle, or lose them too.

Either guarantee fixed prizes, or advertise prizes based on entries. Don’t try to do both.

A small club can get away with having its TD play if a tournament is members-only or if fewer than, say, 12 players show up. In a public event like this, I agree with ESchlich that letting the TD play is inappropriate.

Why don’t you check out the websites of various medium- and big-city clubs and see what parameters they use for their tournaments?