Tournament Nightmare...

[John Upham]

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5342 details the tournament scandal of the year (so far)

Has this kind of thing ever happened in the UK?

[Kevin Thurlow]

I'm not aware of anything on this scale - obviously it has been known for organisers to forget to pay prize-money or players to forget to pay hotel bills etc.

This case is pretty spectacular!

[James Pratt]

there was a problem with the Commonwealth Championships in India some years ago.

Miles explained this in a great column taking the rise in his usual way.

They ended up with money in travellers cheques for those that stayed the course.

[Sean Hewitt]

Obviously not good. However, its odd that the Hungarian Federation claim that "The Hungarian Chess Federation announces that it has never approved, supported, or promoted any so-called Barcza Memorial tournament" given that they registered the event with FIDE! h[url]ttp://ratings.fide.com/tournament_details.phtml?event=41635[/url]

I also can't believe that this was intended to be a scam. After all, if it was, you would hardly turn up at the venue, would you?!

[John Upham]

Obviously not good. However, its odd that the Hungarian Federation claim that "The Hungarian Chess Federation announces that it has never approved, supported, or promoted any so-called Barcza Memorial tournament" given that they registered the event with FIDE! h[url]ttp://ratings.fide.com/tournament_details.phtml?event=41635[/url]

I also can't believe that this was intended to be a scam. After all, if it was, you would hardly turn up at the venue, would you?!

I suspect that the "organiser" (possibly an oxymoron?) was simply not very good at organising rather than intending to defraud. Either that or just plain stupid.

[John Upham]

I also can't believe that this was intended to be a scam. After all, if it was, you would hardly turn up at the venue, would you?!

I note that you are listed as a Facebook friend of Gabor Pail. Has he explained what happened by any chance?

[Sean Hewitt]

I also can't believe that this was intended to be a scam. After all, if it was, you would hardly turn up at the venue, would you?!

I note that you are listed as a Facebook friend of Gabor Pail. Has he explained what happened by any chance?

No, he hasn't! I met him in Gibraltar this year. He seemed a nice guy, if a bit quiet. I did have a look on facebook yesterday to see if he had said anything, but he doesnt appear to have updated his page for some time!

[Stewart Reuben]

The Commonwealth Championship in India to which James Pratt alludes was really a clash of cultures. Tony expected to receive his start money at the beginning of the event (a perfectly normal practice). Ummer Koya paid it at the end and it would not have been possible for him before, but he did not want to admit that. I twice had no problems with him, but got my money on the last day.

In South Africa an organiser invited a foreign GM who went to SA from Europe. But the organiser had cancelled the event and the GM was considerably out of pocket. CHESSA banned that organiser, he was an obvious bullshitter - indeed could have won the Mind Sports Olympiad in that category.

We did have an event in England which the organiser invited players to where he believed he had a sponsor. The sponsor withdrew. The organiser then felt he was not liable to the agreed sums. I have myelf worried about this problem. Players think the contract is between me and them. So if the sponsor withdrews, then they might think I should be liable. I try to get a letter of intent from the sponsor - if not an actual contract. But the Grieveson Grant sponsorship of the British Championships for 11 years was done purely on word of mouth and of course there were no problems.
Stewart Reuben