Dramatic changes in congress performances

[MartinCarpenter]

Now that's a fascinating format!

I'm still slightly scared by the idea of Manchester being a tourist town

[Mick Norris]

I'm still slightly scared by the idea of Manchester being a tourist town

Well, Chorlton seem to attract chess tourists back to play for them

Detail on tourist numbers and impact
here

[Jon Mahony]

My first congress was the Yorkshire Easter Congress, played in Huddersfield in 1953. Organised by Edgar Priestley, it had 60 entries, divided into 10 all-play-all sections each of 6 players.

Andy Wainwright ran a congress in this format about 5 years ago in Idle (I think the format was due to limited entries rather than preference, I seem to remember it was swapped round at the last minute) I won my section 5/5 and was awarded 60 quid, my first real success in Chess. Sadly the congress never took place again, it was at a great venue - The Idle Workingmen’s Club - they should have got tee shirts printed

[John Clarke]

The Yorkshire Easter Congress continued in the same fashion at least until about 1970 - it was the first tournament I ever organised, when it returned to Huddersfield in 1967 and we still used 6 player all-play-alls then (I did have gradings to help me by then). At some point in the '70s they changed to Swiss tournaments.

The Ilford congress (held over the Whitsun week-end in early June) followed this path at around the same time. I think 1971 was the first year they went to Swisses, with an Open and an under-160 Major. They continued to run a few 6-player APAs as well for those who preferred them (with 5 games instead of 6, the schedule was a bit less hectic), but the prizes were far lower for those.

[Reg Clucas]

The Idle Workingmen’s Club - they should have got tee shirts printed

They have! - http://www.idleworkingmensclub.co.uk/shop.html

[Jon Mahony]

The Idle Workingmen’s Club - they should have got tee shirts printed

They have! - http://www.idleworkingmensclub.co.uk/shop.html

and apparently Michael Jackson was an honorary member

[Kevin Thurlow]

The Hammersmith Easter event had apa sections as well in the early 70s.

The town of Loose in Kent has a "Loose Women's Institute"

[Kevin Thurlow]

Justin Horton wrote about a player with a similar name to his. This could have been the person who persuaded a grader to put in 20 losses against a lowly graded player from his club. Unfortunately, the lowly graded player was surprised to have spent years graded 90 - 100 and then suddenly go up about 40 points, so he asked BCF how this had happened. The discovery of the 20-0 score line rang alarm bells, and the grades were amended and the grader who fed the results in was quietly removed from office (if you can do that to a volunteer)

[Alasdair MacLeod]

Thanks to Harry Lamb for the interesting information he posted (I'd quote him but I don't want to fill the whole of page 10 here ). Very valuable reading for any wannabe organisers out there.

While I can see the obvious merits of graded sections, I think it does need to be backed up by an appropriate prizemoney structure. I smiled at the simplicity of the old structure of Open 1st prize: £100, Major 1st prize: £50 and Minor 1st prize: £25.

For me, having the same prizemoney in each section, while admirable in its intentions, sends out the wrong message. I'm not sure if there is any other competitive activity that does that?

I accept that it will take a very brave organiser to change this without any Minor section regulars squealing about it

One last point from me - I don't know if it's just me but reading Congress results over the years generally feels like the Open section is getting smaller and the Minor section is getting bigger? Sorry Jonathan Bryant, I don't have any statistical evidence to back this up with

[JustinHorton]

Justin Horton wrote about a player with a similar name to his. This could have been the person who persuaded a grader to put in 20 losses against a lowly graded player from his club. Unfortunately, the lowly graded player was surprised to have spent years graded 90 - 100 and then suddenly go up about 40 points, so he asked BCF how this had happened. The discovery of the 20-0 score line rang alarm bells, and the grades were amended and the grader who fed the results in was quietly removed from office (if you can do that to a volunteer)

Heh, I don't think I ever knew that.

[JustinHorton]

Mind you it was probably in the BCM.

[Mick Norris]

One last point from me - I don't know if it's just me but reading Congress results over the years generally feels like the Open section is getting smaller and the Minor section is getting bigger? Sorry Jonathan Bryant, I don't have any statistical evidence to back this up with

I'd say that with Rapidplays my experience was the Open got smaller and the Minors bigger, but with Longplays the reverse was true

[harrylamb]

In Northwest longplays, up to about ten years ago the Minor was usually the biggest tournament and often had more entries than the Open and Major combined. Over the last ten years it has swung. The trend is

Open numbers have increased even though they are still the lowest section.
Major players have increased significantly and are now the largest section.
Minor players have declined significantly.

This years Manchester Congress reflects these trends. I had

Minor 37
Major 48
Open 34

I am concerned about this. To my mind if players are not entering the minors we are not seeing newcomers come into the game. This is bad news for the future of chess.

[Reg Clucas]

To return to the original subject of this thread - in last Sunday's Bolton Rapidplay I noticed that Mr Crockett was in the Major section, having won the Minor section outright last year. I don't know whether this was his decision or the organisers', or whether he won a prize.

[Barry Sandercock]

He didn't win a prize.( As per Bolton Rapid play results.)