£10,000 Scottish Junior Tournament

[Geoff Chandler]

From yesterdays (28th March) Times. Headline 'Scot's Gambit to get Kids in Chess.'

The £10,000 Scottish Junior Tournament has been endowed by Gareth Williams, the multimillionaire
founder of Skyscanner, in the hope that hundreds of children of all abilities will sign up.

[Geoff Chandler]

The Rules and Regulations and how to enter for the above tournament.

To enter.

https://www.edinburghchessacademy.com/e ... i3PRHmw62A

The tournament R & R's plus timescales.

https://www.edinburghchessacademy.com/rules-regulations


We are delighted that you want to take part in our tournament. This competition is for children of all levels – from beginner to internationalists.
It is free to play in and there is a total prize fund of £10 000 - generously provided by Gareth Williams (Cofounder of Skyscanner).

[Joseph Conlon]

I hadn't realised from the original post that this was an online event via lichess. I hope it goes well - there are certainly potential issues about a junior rapid tournament with a £1500 first prize ran via lichess, even with zoom and screen sharing.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Joseph,

I only found out yesterday in was online. I could not read all Times article online, I thought it was going to be OTB.

I really hope someone is not stupid enough to try anything daft but when you see adults
doing it for just a handful of measly pointless online rating points it's makes you wonder.

[Wadih Khoury]

Oh god they have the qualifying tournaments setup as an arena

This effectively means that probably in the lower section, the most efficient way to win is to try for a quick mate and failing that offer draw or resign very quickly. Even with 30% win ratio, you'll win if you play 5 times the number of games.

Even in the opens, I often see on lichess 1700 rated players in the top 3 with 40%, ahead of 2200 players with 90%.
Arena is really a tournament mode I loath, it rewards quantity over quality and encourages to give up rather than fight your endgames. Especially for juniors, it gives them bad habits.

[Andrew Martin]

Even more bad habits might be encouraged when offering a £500 first prize in an under 900 ELO tournament. Perhaps £100 in book tokens would be a better way of structuring the prize fund.

Who on earth advised the sponsor to blow £10000 on an online junior tournament? The money could be much better spent developing junior chess in Scotland by perhaps funding a series of training weekends. The possibilities are there, but not this way.

[Wadih Khoury]

It is strange but we should be grateful for ANY money to be put into chess. If it helps 10 or 100 children find a new passion, fantastic. If it raises the profile of chess, get some press articles, even better.

Worth noting that 1800+ are already assumed to be passionate enough and will face much tougher competition (fighting in a likely 600 point band).
Also, I'd suggest the organisers to be careful about sandbaging: given the money at play, it wouldn't be surprising if a 1400 goes and plays in the U900.

[Matthew Turner]

Agreed, it is great that such a good sponsor has come forward.
I too was a bit confused about the rating bands - are they using Lichess ratings, Scottish ratings, FIDE rating? If someone joins up to Lichess now, it will take some time for their rating to settle down.
It is also a bit weird that there is nothing about this event on the Chess Scotland website or forum.

[Ian Thompson]

I too was a bit confused about the rating bands - are they using Lichess ratings, Scottish ratings, FIDE rating? If someone joins up to Lichess now, it will take some time for their rating to settle down.

lichess ratings - see the instructions for entering

3. Get a rating. Once signed up, players need to play 10 Rapid games to obtain a Lichess Rapid rating. We recommend playing 10+0 games. By playing these games, players will obtain a rating which will help them enter the appropriate section.

If the aim is to encourage players new to competitive chess what else could they do? New players won't have any other ratings.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Also, I'd suggest the organisers to be careful about sandbaging: given the money at play, it wouldn't be surprising if a 1400 goes and plays in the U900."

It happens OTB at some of the big US tournaments. I agree with Andrew too. And "Arena" is fine for a fun evening, but I'm not convinced it's right as a qualifier.

[Matthew Turner]

Ian,
I'd looked at the rules and regs section, but hadn't thought to look under 'enter'. I agree it is a very creative way of getting new players. Ultimately what is important in the long run is not the 5% of players at the top, but the other 95%.
Accepting the very sensible reservations aired above, I think Andrew Green will do a very good job on that.

[Roger Lancaster]

It's an eye-catching event and, naturally, I wish them well. But it does seem to me that the organisers might be on uncertain ground if, in the event they decide to withhold prizes - and the largest is a not insignificant £1,500 - on the grounds of alleged computer assistance, sandbagging or whatever.

If acceptance of an entry to this competition constitutes a contract - and I'm even less of an authority on Scots law than on E&W - then presumably it would be open to an aggrieved party, if deprived of a prize to which he or she felt rightfully entitled, to sue for breach of contract. While the organisers could point to rules stating that their decision was final, down south there's then a risk of contravening the unfair contracts legislation. While this risk is endemic to many online events, it's clearly most likely to materialise commensurate with the prize money involved.

[Roger de Coverly]

then presumably it would be open to an aggrieved party, if deprived of a prize to which he or she felt rightfully entitled, to sue for breach of contract.

In England the Small Claims Court route might be used. It's happened. The organisers of a tournament accepted the entry of a previously graded player into a grade restricted section, only to refuse to pay the prize money when the player won the section. They were taken to the Small Claims Court and lost.

[Roger Lancaster]

then presumably it would be open to an aggrieved party, if deprived of a prize to which he or she felt rightfully entitled, to sue for breach of contract.

In England the Small Claims Court route might be used. It's happened. The organisers of a tournament accepted the entry of a previously graded player into a grade restricted section, only to refuse to pay the prize money when the player won the section. They were taken to the Small Claims Court and lost.

Roger, that doesn't surprise me although decisions of the Small Claims Court don't set a precedent, even for other cases in England & Wales.

[Geoff Chandler]

Thanks to all posters.

I too had a few questions but your 'experience speaking' posts have highlighted potential problems.
I have had a lichess account https://lichess.org/@/Geoff_Chandler since the middle of last year
but have not made a single move. (I forgot about it? but now too scared!)

The tournament site does state:

"Edinburgh Chess Academy (ECA) reserves the rights to make changes to the rules
during the competition to protect the integrity and fairness of the competition."

I'll see if I can get in touch with the organisers and point them here.
Plenty of time to cover up a few possible pitfalls.