I think we need to see a change in the way people qualify for the U.S Championship. I think we should have a massive U.S Knockout tournament to decide a couple of the spots for the U.S Championship. I think it would be awesome to see a 200 player Elimination tournament to decide 4 U.S Championship Spots. I want to hear some ideas and see what you guys think.
Have fun finding the funding for that.
Could be fun. What you would need to do is price it out and then see if it’s worth pursuing at all.
Let’s make it 128 players, so a single-knockout format will work without byes. Also, let’s offer no appearance fees or honorariums (whether that’s realistic is another question entirely).
Now, all you have to do is find money for…
- Prize fund
- Travel
- ~2 weeks of venue
- ~2 weeks of lodging
- Food
- Arbiters
- Other staff
- Analysts
Oh, and you’ll likely have to get the CCSCSL to sign off on this change, since they’re sponsoring the US Championships. (Alternately, they could just be presented with an ultimatum by USCF, though how constructive such an approach would be is ahem a rather debatable proposition.)
Good luck!
Perhaps CCSCSL could reserve two slots in their tournament for the top male and female knockout player.
To give all players a chance for the US Championship spot and still have a good candidate for the US Womens Championship spot, I guess you’d have the women go through double-elimination with the second just amongst themselves until there is just one woman left (or, if a woman was the last person standing from the single elimination, and thus qualified for the US Championship, then the last woman standing from the double elimination would be the US Womans championship qualifier).
Assuming 16 of the 128 players are women, that is 141 or 142 matches.
The last woman standing in a single tournament might I suppose, in theory, produce a stronger player for that slot. Arguing against that, the best women might be eliminated early.
As an aside, I do think it would be interesting to occasionally have knockout tournaments…such as for state titles. I understand that the Swiss is generally preferred to give everyone the same number of games, but I would at least find a knockout to be an interesting alternative once in awhile. I suppose it might be hard to get people to commit to playing somewhere between 1 and 5 or 6 games, especially if travel is involved.
And among the practical difficulties of say, a national 128-player Knockout tournament format:
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Hotel would have to offer block room rates for up to two weeks, with the understanding that eliminated players will be cancelling their room nights. Players that often room together to reduce expenses may lose their other half.
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Airfare will be expensive for the players, because they will need to purchase an unrestricted ticket as they don’t know what day they’ll be flying back. And some cities have a limited number of non-stop flights available.
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Because there are few chess professionals in the U.S., most will need to schedule time off in advance. Some jobs require time off weeks or even months in advance (such as one of my former jobs). Not everyone has the flexibility to schedule “I may be back in three days, or I may not be back for another two weeks!”. And if the tournament is not held during the summer, many students would likely decline (by contrast, a 9-round FIDE-norms tournament can require only five days).
The second bullet point can be addressed if players use Southwest Airlines, which does not charge change fees (or baggage fees, for that matter).
All good points. But, if they truly love the game, these are minor inconveniences at best. 
LOL.
A local club has a knockout for its club championship. When players are knocked out, they are placed in a swiss, I believe with an appropriate number of byes.
Alex Relyea
One year the US Championship had a knock-out format at the same time/venue as the US Open. The players knocked out were put into the US Open with some byes (better than all half-point byes but not as high as all full-point byes). The players had the option of playing in both (daytime for the closed and evening for the open) without having to limit themselves to only byes after the knock-out. One such player complained about have black twice in a row but then realized it was that the two games were one in each of the different events.
I am surprised the US Open Champion doesn’t automatically qualify.
Actually, I think that’s how Conrad Holt qualified this year.
For the US Championship, the reigning US Open Champion (Conrad Holt, this year) and US Junior Closed Champion (Kayden Troff, this year) both qualify.
Speaking of qualification…did Sam Sevian just qualify for the World Cup? If so, wonderful!
And did Sam Shankland miss the cut? Ouch: he had an unlucky tournament, and based on recent results, really deserves to be there, too.
I believe Sam Shankland already qualified for the 2015 World Cup from the Continental Championship in Brazil last October.
Sam Sevian indeed qualified as well. Whether he can go might depend on international politics, given the unresolved military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Michael Aigner
It’s a sad commentary on the world when a 14-year-old’s ethnicity becomes potentially relevant. Gens una sumus.