At the monthly Quad tournament I run, the winner of each quad receives a discounted entry into a future quad. We got feedback from the parents of some of the scholastic players that the kids would like some sort of tangible prize. Thus, we started awarding tropies to scholastic players who win their quad with 3-0 and a medal if they win or tie for first in their quad without going 3-0. I would like to start giving an additional prize to the adult players. What would be a good prize for adult players? I would like do the same thing as we do for the scholastic players and give one prize if they win or tie for first but don’t go 3-0 and a slightly better prize if they win their quad at 3-0. I am considering gift cards.
When our club was at Borders Books before the chain went belly up, we used to run quad tournaments with an $8 entry fee for the rated sections and $6 for the non-rated quads. The prize was a $20 gift card that we purchased as soon as the event was over. If there were ties, it was easy to buy separate gift cards for each player. The event was pretty popular and a number of players graduated to playing rated chess. We even had store patrons who became spectators watching the games as they sipped their lattes and smoothies.
I would love to be able to give out short-term US Chess membership extensions, such as one or two months, as prizes to adult players. I’m not going to use the $20 two month membership since that is a ripoff. What do you think about creating some short term US Chess membership prizes? They would only be for prizes that can be given at an event and not as a substitute for a regular membership (similar to how the $10 ‘correction fee’ is not a substitute for a tournament membership).
Considering that at least one TD on here has bragged about his abuse of the “correction fee”, I think that ship has sailed. As far as your primary question is concerned, my answer is the same as always: if you’re in favor of it, please get yourself named a delegate and show up in Indianapolis.
Alex Relyea
Actually, that sounds more like a promotional membership than a membership rate that would be included in the bylaws. In that case, the Executive Board controls promotional membership rates, so it may be more effective to lobby the Executive Board.
There is no such thing as a scholastic player. Period. End of story. There are scholastic tournaments and there are regular tournaments. Players should never, ever, be given
different prizes according to age, unless the tournaments, or sections, whatever type the tournament may be are age restricted.
Using such terms is harmful to the growth of the younger chess players, for it gives legitimacy all to prevalent across our federation of the split between scholastic and regular chess, with scholastic being only for kids, which is of course proper, and regular chess being only for adults, which of course, is totally improper. Kids playing in regular events
should be treated exactly the same as everyone else, according perhaps to their ratings group.
Youths need to be “blended” into regular chess tournaments, almost immediately from the start perhaps in “booster” or “novice” sections, so that they get the feel of playing with usually stronger, more frequent tournament players, unlike the typical scholastic players who play at most 3-4 events per year. As these kids develop, they grow used to
playing adults accepting that the rules, and prizes are the same regardless of age.
Rob Jones
why not? it’s done for female chessplayers?
What would you think of tournaments with a K-3 section, a 4-5 section and an open section where each section has trophies for the top five players and there are also grade trophies for, respectively, each grade from kindergarten to third, grades four and five, and each grade from sixth through twelfth?
The open section is often (not always) won by an adult.
In your opinion, is the organizer absolutely wrong with the open section awards because some of the awards are grade-restricted? (if so then I disagree with you).
PS Dozens of such events have been held.
Doesn’t USCF offer gift certificates which would be redeemable for (partial payment) of memberships or entries in National tournaments? If so, wouldn’t that make more sense than some currently non-existent and probably never-existent short-term membership extension? (Restricting it to be available only as “prizes” isn’t a restriction at all, now, is it? One could offer a “prize” for showing up—for some players, the organizer might be better off offering a prize for them not showing up.)
A two-month extension that actually extends the membership for more than it would otherwise run could be quite valuable to a life member.
Hey-I kind of did this although as the section was last minute at my 3rd Red Apple Open, with three adults playing each other and various kids who had the bye. We had a not rated section, Parents & Friends with the same concept used at USCF nationals, in which the adult/kid teams were awarded trophies. Open, I think should be exactly that-open to all.
Now from what I understand in regards to the Open-for some reason, trophies are awarded to the best results as to school grade?? It seems to me that the kids who are interested in trophies should be playing in their respective grade
restrictive sections, unless perhaps they are like K-3 U400, for example, and they have no choice but to play open.
But I am hoping you are not stating that say, if a kid wins the open section, he cannot win say a cash prize because of his age?? Now that would be wrong.
In regard to the last phrase “dozens of such events have been held” is this not irrelevant?? Using incorrect structures
repeatedly does not make them right, does it??
And just an opinion-- for the growth of the players, I have always thought a far better local tournament structure is something like K-3U500, K-12 U700, K-12 U1000 and K-12 Open. There are SOOOOOOO many truly awesome youngsters that forcing them to play far beneath their talent level esp, in K-3 sections, and elementary-alone sections, really does not make a whole lot of sense, either for them, or for the other kids they are wiping off the chess board.
For two reasons I like the K-3 U sections-A. it is a great hook to get new players to USCF using JTP if we need to, and B.
The American Culture quite often cannot understand how it is fair for a first grader to be playing a twelfth grader. I mean, it does not make sense in most other sports, but in chess, often the first grader is the higher rated player.
National grades. and large state grade events are another story entirely, as there usually very adequate competition for
even the top players by grade.
Rob Jones
Grade restricted sections are only K-3 and 4-5 (players can play up, so 2nd graders can play in 4-5 or open albeit with no 2nd grade trophies in those sections).
Since there is no 6-12 section, the only place for grade trophies in them is to add them to the open section. The open section is essentially the 6-12 section with some adults added in to give the 6th-12th graders more competition.
What about $$$ as an alternative. (That’s tangible and doesn’t turn into a dust collector). Discounted EF into future event or 50% of the nominal value as cash. By the time my kids were 10, they probably would have argued to cash out the value of the discounted EF (from me) rather than getting yet another trophy.
Yes, but the Dracula-extension would only be available to those who play the Frankenstein-Dracula Variation.
Interesting concept-- but logically, if you have two pairings, say, with three fours, an adult master, and three 6-12th grade kids, all rated U1900, would not the 4 facing the
master be facing unfair odds??
Rob Jones
Rob, it may be the master who is in trouble! With up and coming kids competing, you have no idea what you are facing as far as strength and skill. The lowest rated in the group might be the strongest and is about to prove it. The volatility of kids’ rating is so high that I am not as surprised by upsets anymore.
As far as prizes go, there should be no age restrictions on winning place or rating class prizes. If you are paying an entry fee and are a USCF member, then all should be treated equally. If you, as an organizer, want to create some special Senior, Junior, Grade, or other prizes, you are free to do so. I once tossed a chess book as a prize to a player for the simple fact that she was the only one wearing a chess art T-shirt. One thing we have experimented with is giving a free tournament entry for the next event to the player coming in last place to encourage them to keep playing.
Ah, one who understands that the true measure of success for tournaments and clubs is getting folks to return.
Rob Jones
With a nod to Maret Thorpe, whose Evanston tournaments I really like, our “baseline” events are similar in that there are no prizes, but the entry fees go to help create a good chessplaying environment; there are also concessions that raise money for the local high school chess club.
We will continue to upgrade equipment, have in Masters and stronger to play or analyze and just have fun with chess.
Thank you, Maret, for showing that this “club-like” tournament environment can be successful in our area.