Alex Holowczak wrote:The alternative schedule would then be run on Friday evening, with two rounds each on Saturday and Sunday,
This is the schedule for the e2e4 events which works for e2e4 being hotel based. It may fail for the London Chess Classic being Conference based as the Olympia building may well have a closing time It might also be an issue that if you get an Arkell length game, all the public transport will have finished for the night.
That said, playing on late Friday
afternoon might well be feasible - even if it means an extra half day off for some people.
Alex Holowczak wrote:Perhaps the fear with making rounds 1-5 of the quicker schedule FIDE-rated was that actually some of the GMs would prefer the quicker schedule, because they save on accommodation costs (if they're not covered by the organiser). Presumably, they deemed it was more desirable for them to play in the slower schedule. If that was the fear, then surely just holding the FIDE-rated Open at the quicker schedule in the first place was more prudent.
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Some IMs/GMs are wary of putting their rating on the line in events with fast time controls. When it was considered FIDE rating the London League, it proved a disincentive for IM/GM participation.