How many locals don’t show up for your weekly Monday night tournament?
This is something CCA knows and uses to schedule their tournaments.
It probably had more to do with CCA’s steep entry fees. Thank goodness I’m rated under 1000, or I’d be too broke to even retrieve the postcard from my mailbox.
The entry fees amaze me too. What does he know local clubs don’t.
In the same way that the Four Seasons isn’t competing against McDonalds, Bill Goichberg isn’t really competing against the local clubs, though some of the clubs might not see it that way (or appreciate my analogy, I suppose.)
Other than fresh faces,what can CCA offer?
Bill might not like the analogy either, if he had walked the two blocks to the Four Seasons diner in Indianapolis…
$$$$$
Are local chess clubs more risk-averse than the CCA? Players get about the same rate of return on investment in a CCA event as they do in a local tournament about 50%. What is the real reason CCA events better attended?
Mostly, the thrill of gambling for high stakes. It doesn’t matter that the expected payoff is the same, local tournaments don’t offer the lottery prize of five or ten large for going on a hot streak at the right time. I never cared for that, but a lot of people do.
Secondarily, opposition of an unusually consistent strength. In an open section, there are often a lot of weaker players playing up for experience–but in class sections of a big-money Frankenswiss, not so many. That’s what appealed to me twenty years ago when I was trying to push my rating over 2200–the Under 2200 section of the World Open or New York Open was pretty much a guarantee of 9 games against players rated over 2000.
The ratios are the same but the $$$$, and EFs, are a lot bigger in CCA events. That all preys on the “I’m under rated and can win big $$$” ego of many players (the re-entry is a brilliant business use that ego factor) . The CCA also provides the kind of tournaments that draw more than just the same old local players and also allow for some interaction with top notch GMs (who are probably also there for the $$$). Money talks!
Yes, I do work for CCA upon occasion and think that those kinds of events do have a place on the American chess scene. Many of Bill’s innovations at his CCA events have filtered down to the mid-sized and smaller tournaments, to their benefit. Not all of CCA’s tournament formulas can be applied to other events. But neither can their formulas work at CCA tournaments.
Larger tournaments around here tend to have a longer time control than the smaller, local tournaments. For some folks (cough) there’s a big difference between a 30/90 SD/60 game and a G/60 game.
The entry fees part bothers me . You take a random group of people in a casino and give them $20 They will get a roll of quarters and head for the slot machines. Only a few will go to the craps table where they can get better odds.
I believe the players are looking for fresh fish to spring their best line on. If you keep using your pet line on your brother every week at the club, he will figure out how to bust it.
The CCA has improved the health of a lot of long time tournaments that were poorly run in the past.
How do they handle two brothers that don’t want to be paired?
Have one of them withdraw and re-enter?
For a small, local tournament , let them draw straws for who plays tonight and who gets to be the house player and helper. Next time reverse it. The customer or club player is always right.
Is there anything wrong with pairing them in the first round, and then if they do not wish to play, give them each a half point? That way, neither can benefit from a full point unless they actually play the game, and it gets things over with right away.
For what it’s worth, the prizes are rather small, and I do not believe they are motivated in any way by the money.
The TDs are not as scared of Rule 14-H.
Huh?
Did you guys not get this out of your systems in Indy? It is saved for posterity, via video.
The next step is for all TDs to pass a test on how to set each brand of digital clock, else forfeit their certification. Or be required to have a clock-certified TD, aka CCTD, on hand.
Variations such as Chronos-only-certified TD, or CoCTD, would be allowed. An extreme variation would be to allow an analog-only-certified TD to direct an event of up to 42 players, as long as he/she has access to a clock-certified TD—perhaps via CCTD-TV.
We could have contests to crown the fastest digital-clock-setter in the land.
Ties must be broken head-to-head.
Loser gets to chair the next Rules Workshop, where any point repeated more than three times forces immediate adjournment—to the bar, where we hear the real work gets done.
That’s great. What the heck does any of this have to do with two brothers who do not want to be paired? Perhaps you could find your own thread?