Uxbridge International : 13 - 17 February 2010

[Sean Hewitt]

We are thinking about transmitting live games from both sections of the Masters in Uxbridge. However, this is going to cost us about £200 in terms of expenses for Dave Clayton to travel down and set up etc.

We therefore need to cover this cost somehow - it seems unfair to expect the players to foot the bill as they get nothing from it.

I was thinking about putting a donation button onto the website so that people wathching the live games could contribute to the cost. I'm guessing a suggested rate of about £3, although people could donate more or less (or nothing) if they wish.

Any money over and above the expenses incurred would be donated to the ECF as I'm told they need to spend money upgrading the circuit boards on a number of the boards. This is presumably why they are often unreliable. If there is a shortfall then that would say that there isn't much interest and we simply wouldn't do it in future.

Anyone got any thoughts / suggestions?

[Carl Hibbard]

I was thinking about putting a donation button onto the website so that people wathching the live games could contribute to the cost. I'm guessing a suggested rate of about £3, although people could donate more or less (or nothing) if they wish.

Sorry Sean but this sort of paying model goes nowhere and will die as fast at the Staunton event...

I for one would not pay sorry

[Sean Hewitt]

I was thinking about putting a donation button onto the website so that people wathching the live games could contribute to the cost. I'm guessing a suggested rate of about £3, although people could donate more or less (or nothing) if they wish.

Sorry Sean but this sort of paying model goes nowhere and will die as fast at the Staunton event...

I for one would not pay sorry

That's certainly an opinion Carl, thanks. If that's the prevalent view then we won't transmit live games.

[John Upham]

Could you find a sponsor for the lives games Sean?

[Carl Hibbard]

That's certainly an opinion Carl, thanks. If that's the prevalent view then we won't transmit live games.

As always I am willing to host the live games with all the bandwidth you can take for FREE if that helps

[Sean Hewitt]

Carl - Many thanks for the offer but hosting and bandwith isn't the issue as we can do that in house. Dave Clayton has to travel from the North West and back and that's the major expense - even though we will run the boards ourselves after they have been successfully set up so he doesn't have to stay four nights. We also then have to repatriate the boards to Hinckley for the following weekends 4NCL.

John - I'm not convinced that we could get sponsorship. Some kind soul might gift the money (many people in chess seem to think this is sponsorship) but I can't envisage a commercial proposition where someone thinks an advert on the live games site is worth a few hundred quid.

[Carl Hibbard]

I do actually lay the blame at the feet of DGT as their software should be easier to setup, far more reliable and of course use a more simple .pgn viewer online so that you only need to upload the one file to get the broadcast going - that would be easier on site and far less load on the hosting

ChessBase showed the way to go with the viewer they used at the London Classic in my opinion

[Sean Hewitt]

There's also the capital cost of the equipment to consider. One board costs circa £400 and of course the ECF's boards are getting on a bit in terms of age and need updating / fixing.

The ECF very kindly lends the boards to events such as us free of charge but in my opinion that's not sustainable if they have ongoing repair costs. The ECF should charge £100-£200 per event to cover the cost of fixing the things when they go wrong and that's why we would donate any additional revenue to them for this purpose.

At the end of the day the sole beneficiaries of tournaments transmitting live games are the people sat at home / work watching. If people don't value that, and don't think it's worth a couple of quid, then why should organisers transmit games at all?

Of course, it's all relative. Someone may thing Uxbridge is worth 50p, and the London Chess Classic £5. That's fair enough - then it's just a question of volume. But if viewers think it's worth nothing then I can't see the point of doing it at all ; and therefore we wouldn't do it again!

[Ben Purton]

regarding sponsorship. You could try a server like ICC to broadcast and in return ask for the sponsorship to be mentioned every 20-30 minutes under the games...

This would insure considerably more viewers worldwide and ICC if they dont have a major even on might go for the top 2-3 boards at least.

Ben

[Sean Hewitt]

Live Games from Uxbridge International Masters can be viewed at

www.e2e4.org.uk/live

You will also be able to make a donation to send Keith Arkell to the European Individual in Croatia. Give enough, and he might even be able to afford to come back!

[LozCooper]

Live Games from Uxbridge International Masters can be viewed at

http://www.e2e4.org.uk/live

You will also be able to make a donation to send Keith Arkell to the European Individual in Croatia. Give enough, and he might even be able to afford to come back!

Live coverage seems to have worked without problem all afternoon. Plenty of entertainment provided by Danny Gormally

[Leonard Barden]

Poor Yang-Fan got demolished by Slavin with the King's Indian bad bishop in a style which reminded me a little of Petrosian's famous win against Schweber.

[Mike Truran]

Sean, I sympathise! The 4NCL approach as you know is to treat live game transmission costs as an operating cost like any other to be recovered through entry fees, bedroom commission etc. So effectively the chessplayers are indeed footing the bill for the "bonum commune communitatis" as it were, but spread across so many participants it tends to get lost in the wash I suppose.

Yes, the ECF also very kindly lends the 4NCL the boards free of charge (so when the ECF have their meetings at 4NCL venues it's only fair that we don't charge them). As you say, it's not really a sustainable model though, and the 4NCL suffers from numerous downtimes, breakages etc as a result. I suspect the 4NCL wouldn't have a problem with contributing towards board hire if that meant a more reliable and comprehensive service overall. For example, the German league transmits 64 games each weekend (admittedly spread over four sites), and it would be nice if we could aspire to something similar in this country.

[Sean Hewitt]

Nice queen sac by Samy Shoker in Round 2

[Mike Truran]

What's Mr Gormally up to then with these quick draws?!