The USCF has awarded to the North American Chess Association the US G/60 and US G/30 championships. The TLA’s are below. The tournament websites will be up this coming week.
June 28, 2008. US Game 60 Championship. 4R-SS G/60 - $5000 b/150 fully paid entries. Holiday Inn Chicago - North Shore. 5300 W. Touhy Ave, Skokie, IL 60077 (see tournament website for directions). Free Parking. Awards: M/X: $500-300-200-100 Top U24,23,2200 each $150, Class A: $350-250-150-75, Class B: $350-250-150-75, Class C: $300-200-100-50, Class D: $300-200-100-50, Class E/F/U, $200-100-50-25. Unrated Prize - Book Prize only. Unrated must play in M/X or Class E/F/U sections. Trophies for Scholastic entries 1st - 3rd place each class section. Play Up 1 class for $10 more. Entry Fee: $80 Adult, $60 Youth, $40 scholastic (Scholastic cannot win cash prizes - trophies only) all postmarked or paid online by 06/14; After 6/14: $100 Adult, $80 Youth, $60 scholastic at door (Youth entries count as 2/3 entry, Scholastic as 1/3 entry). $5 discount refund to ICA or NACA members - you must supply proof of membership - only one membership discount. SPECIAL COMBINED ENTRIES FEES: Combined EEF (by 6/14) G/60+ G/30 - $130 Adult, $90 Youth, $55 Scholastic; Combined EF (after 6/14) G/60+G/30: $170 Adult, $130 Youth, $95 Scholastic. Mail payments (made payable to) and registration to: North American Chess Association, 2516 N. Waukegan Rd. Suite 342, Glenview, IL 60025. Byes: One 1/2pt bye allowed, Rd. 4 bye must commit by start of Rd. 2. June Rating Supplement. Schedule: Reg.: 8:15-9:15am, Rds.: 10, 12:30, 3:30, 6. Re-entry: $30 only 1/2pt in Rd 1 - no re-entries after Rd 2. Food available onsite thru restaurant or food booth throughout entire day. Hotel rates: $99+tax, 847-679-8900. Mention Chess Tournament. Reserve by 6/20 or rate is available on room availability. Car rental: Hertz, 800-654-3131, Hertz CDP#1789693, or reserve car online on tournament website. BRING BOARDS, SETS, AND CLOCKS - NONE PROVIDED. USCF Membership Required. NS,NC,W. Information: Sevan A. Muradian 888.80.CHESS or nachess.org/g60. Checkmate Chess Supply Co will be bookseller onsite. Support local Illinois Organizers! SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP OFFER - JOIN THE ILLINOIS CHESS ASSOCIATION FOR $15 (REGULAR ADULT MEMBERSHIP) AND YOU CAN JOIN THE NORTH AMERICAN CHESS ASSOCIATION FOR A SILVER LEVEL MEMBERSHIP FOR $15. THAT’S A SAVINGS OF $15!! THIS OFFER IS VALID ONSITE OR ONLINE UNTIL THE LAST DAY OF THE TOURNAMENT. SEE TOURNAMENT WEBSITE FOR DETAILS.
June 29, 2008. US Game 30 Championship. 5R-SS G/30 - $2500 b/150 fully paid entries. Holiday Inn Chicago - North Shore. 5300 W. Touhy Ave, Skokie, IL 60077 (see tournament website for directions). Free Parking. Awards: M/X: $250-150-100-50 Top U24,23,2200 each $75, Class A: $175-125-75-40, Class B: $175-125-75-40, Class C: $150-100-50-25, Class D: $150-100-50-25, Class E/F/U, $100-50-25-25. Unrated Prize - Book Prize only. Unrated must play in M/X or Class E/F/U sections. Trophies for Scholastic entries 1st - 5th place each class section. Play Up 1 class for $10 more. Entry Fee: $60 Adult, $40 Youth, $25 scholastic (Scholastic cannot win cash prizes - trophies only) all postmarked or paid online by 06/14; After 6/14: $80 Adult, $60 Youth, $45 scholastic at door (Youth entries count as 2/3 entry, Scholastic as 1/3 entry). $5 discount refund to ICA or NACA members - you must supply proof of membership - only one membership discount. SPECIAL COMBINED ENTRIES FEES: Combined EEF (by 6/14) G/60+ G/30 - $130 Adult, $90 Youth, $55 Scholastic; Combined EF (after 6/14) G/60+G/30: $170 Adult, $130 Youth, $95 Scholastic. Mail payments (made payable to) and registration to: North American Chess Association, 2516 N. Waukegan Rd. Suite 342, Glenview, IL 60025. Byes: Two 1/2pt bye allowed, Rd. 5 bye must commit by start of Rd. 2. June Rating Supplement. Schedule: Reg.: 8:15-9:15am, Rds.: 10, 11:30, 1, 3, 4:30. Re-entry: $30 only 1/2pt in Rd 1 - no re-entries after Rd 2. Food available onsite thru restaurant or food booth throughout entire day. Hotel rates: $99+tax, 847-679-8900. Mention Chess Tournament. Reserve by 6/20 or rate is available on room availability. Car rental: Hertz, 800-654-3131, Hertz CDP#1789693, or reserve car online on tournament website. BRING BOARDS, SETS, AND CLOCKS - NONE PROVIDED. USCF Membership Required. NS,NC,W. Information: Sevan A. Muradian 888.80.CHESS or nachess.org/g30. Checkmate Chess Supply Co will be bookseller onsite. Support local Illinois Organizers! SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP OFFER - JOIN THE ILLINOIS CHESS ASSOCIATION FOR $15 (REGULAR ADULT MEMBERSHIP) AND YOU CAN JOIN THE NORTH AMERICAN CHESS ASSOCIATION FOR A SILVER LEVEL MEMBERSHIP FOR $15. THAT’S A SAVINGS OF $15!! THIS OFFER IS VALID ONSITE OR ONLINE UNTIL THE LAST DAY OF THE TOURNAMENT. SEE TOURNAMENT WEBSITE FOR DETAILS.
A 4 round and 5 round tournament each expected to get 150 entries (based on figure)? From the USCF “How to Bid on a USCF National Event” document (uschess.org/tds/HowToBidOnUSCFEvent.pdf)
Chris - I drew 120 in bad weather for a 4R G/60 with a lower prize fund and I couldn’t get any high school kids to play because it was the same day as their highschool team championship.
So being summer time drought for tournaments in the midwest, people wanting 1-day events so they don’t kill the whole weekend, higher prize fund -
Add on top of that Chicago in June and a great location. I’m comfortable with the number.
I was actually trying to point out the number of perfect scores you could potentially end up with for a 4 round tournament that gets 150 entries, rather than questioning the based on figure.
However, from carefully reading the TLA it appears that entries are broken down into sections, which only became apparent to me when I got to the “Unrated must play in M/X or Class E/F/U sections…” sentence. The other “sections” are listed in the paragraph that begins “Awards:” Am I reading that correctly?
Anyway, should be a nice warm up tournament to the World Open events that start the next day.
As usual, I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors.
Yeh, I think a slight rewording of the announcement may be in order. Something like this (my suggested changes in blue, along with bolding the section names, and using periods instead of commas between the sections):
June 28, 2008. US Game 60 Championship. 4R-SS G/60 - $5000 b/150 fully paid entries. Holiday Inn Chicago - North Shore. 5300 W. Touhy Ave, Skokie, IL 60077 (see tournament website for directions). Free Parking. In 6 sections: M/X: $500-300-200-100 Top U2400, U2300, U2200 each $150. Class A: $350-250-150-75. Class B: $350-250-150-75. Class C: $300-200-100-50. Class D: $300-200-100-50. Class E/F/U: $200-100-50-25. Unrated Prize - Book Prize only. [ etc ] …
In any case, good luck with your tournament! I’m happy to see something so ambitious being planned for Chicago.
If each tournament maxes out at 150 players, the prizes will be only around 40% of the total entry fees. That’s a pretty low payout. Where does the other 60% go?
To play in these two tournaments, an entrant would have expenses between $350-500. Hotel: $220 for 2 days (including tax), Entry fee: $130+, Travel $100+, plus meals. Even with some split of costs, class players who don’t live in the Chicago metro area would find the expenses prohibitive. This is really a local event, not a national tournament.
Of course, everyone knows there are other expenses. How much are they? It would be nice to know so that other people would consider organizing events. I like transparency. And guaranteed prize funds. And tournaments that don’t exploit U-2000 class players and kids.
I am not sure if this is a question for everyone, or specific to this tournament. I can only speak to local events.
For my little local tournaments, my space cost, if I can get it is about $85 to $100 a day. That is using a staff discount at a local University in a room too small for a large tournament. Rating fees are usually around $30. I have my yearly cost for my affiliate of $40. TLAs cost around $20, unless you can get them under the Activity Means Members. I have no idea how much you have to pay a ANTD or NTD. I just run them myself, and pull in my other friends to help if necessary. Then you have misc supplies – printer ink, paper, scorepads, etc. Of course you probably will want to purchase pairing software if you are doing anything bigger than quads or octos – about $100.
Guaranteed prize funds are all well and good, if you are independently wealthy and can bankroll it if there is a huge snowstorm, or it just turns out to be a bad weekend. I just watched a local organizer loose $700 on a guaranteed tournament. There is no way I can afford to do that. In order to do any kind of meaningful guaranteed prize fund, I would have to hike the EF, and I have people complaining if I run tournaments that are over $15 in advance, $20 at the door. So, I just try to do a realistic based-on where I don’t loose my shirt. Most of the time I break about even. I think I have made $100 once, and I have lost up to $40 once. For me, it is a matter of getting more chess in my area. If anyone at one of my tournaments wants to know what I am paying in, I am happy to tell them.
It is true that the organizer should be doing quite well at 150 players in each tournament, or even 75 in each. What happens if they get 50 in each? Unless you want to offer a guarantee against loss, I don’t think you can reasonably complain about a possible profit. Those estimates in the USCF bidding guidelines are pure guesswork, since these events have not been held often enough to provide a decent baseline.
I do not mind someone making a reasonable profit. If only 75 people show up to each tournament, the organizer will very likely reduce the prize fund 50%. Which means that the Class B, C, or D player who just spent several hundred dollars for the weekend, is only playing for a prize of $150 at best. The organizer still walks away with a tidy sum.
USCF title tournaments should have guaranteed prizes. It makes the Federation look bad when prizes are not guaranteed.
On the local level, organizers have a reasonable idea how many people they are going to get. When “based on” prize funds lead to reduced prizes, players feel cheated. When an organizer cuts his prizes several times, it is no surprise when his entries drop. If at least some prizes are guaranteed, then there is a better chance that entries will stay stable. And when his entries exceed expectations, the organizer should increase or have more prizes. That courtesy brings players back to your event.
The prize fund is the only variable cost here - all other costs are fixed.
Getting 75 players at $85 EEF each (lets look at this scenario) is only $6375.
My advertising costs are around $600, my TD costs are around $750, the prize fund at 50% is $2500, the USCF guarantee is still in the mix here, as is the site cost which is the biggest and that can’t be changed no matter what. Getting a good location that is player friendly and has the right conditions in a market like Chicago is not cheap. I’m paying $2500/day for location.
So my costs are $6350 here. Now I know I’ll get some slack from at door entries but I also have the USCF guarantee to pay. I"m lucky to walk out with $500 for my efforts.
That’s true (to a limited extent) only when when you have some history on which to base your estimate – i.e., several years of holding a tournament with a similar format at about the same location at roughly the same time. That’s not the case here. It looks to me like the organizers are taking a significant risk, in return for which they are entitled to the chance of a significant profit at the high end.
And in October I’ll be organizing a Progressive Prize Fund tournament where there will be a $15,000 guarantee and as the # of players increase beyond thresholds, the prize fund will go up to a maximum of double the guarantee (so $30,000).
As an update for the event the following TD’s have accepted positions at the US G/30 and US G/60:
Glenn Panner - Chief TD
Tim Just - Backroom Chief
Wayne Clark - Floor Chief
David Sacks - Floor TD
Betsy Dynako - Tournament Photographer / MonRoi Technical Operations (MonRoi only for G/60 event)
There are still offers out to 2 more Floor TD’s.
I’m one who prefers to overstaff than understaff. I’m one who prefer to overstaff with great staff too!