Tournament Organization!

[matt_ward]

Hello All, I have just returned back from a chess tournament up north, I found the facilities atrocious, and the playing conditions awful in addition too this the pairings were extremely late.

I have now decided to give up chess for this reason and others. But I will wish everyone a great success.


Matt.

[David Lettington]

Perhaps you should volunteer to help organise the tournament and assist it in offering better conditions?

I'm sure that the organisers did their best, so if you provided constructive feedback about what specifically needs improving then they might be able to improve future events.

It's not easy to organise and run tournaments within tight budgetary constraints and provide high quality playing conditions at the same time, but your youthful energy and insight might make all the difference to the organisers.

It seems a bit petulant to give up playing over one disappointing experience.

[Alex Holowczak]

I was playing in the same tournament. Here's my take.

The arbiters - one of which got stuck in roadworks on the M6 such that his arrival was delayed - experimented with doing the pairings by computer. It didn't work as they had planned for the Major section. The pairings in the first round were wrong. Either that, or they were accelerated, which was fair enough. However, they ditched the computer for round 2, and didn't do the pairings with acceleration anymore. If anything, their mistake was accepting large number of late entries so late.

They were left in the lurch by the caterers, who told them the night before that contrary to prior arrangements, they weren't going to be working at the agreed times. So, the organisers bought some cake from a local sale, and gave it out for free in the afternoon. The £2 membership discount for the canteen vouchers was replaced with £2 cash. Fair enough. Given the circumstances, they coped well. They were bound by the contract they signed with the venue to using the University's caterers, so they had no option to hire external caterers. They were probably pushing it with the cake.

As for the conditions, they were good. The venue was spacious. There was ample room for drinks and things to go on the desks. The chairs were comfortable. The field of 110 was impressive in size. The strength of the Open was good, Miroslav Gruca and Loz Cooper were the top two seeds. The facilities, strength and quantity of opposition made it a very good event, probably the best of the three I've been to this season (Staffs, Warks and Worcs).

Personally, I find these comments about the event wildly inaccurate. I would recommend it to anyone for next year.

[matt_ward]

Alex, the point is that the pairings shouldn't be late they should not accept late entries etc they didn't have digital clocks there was too much noise, and lastly the prize pool was horrendous.

I Think tournaments should be more expensive and therefore bigger prize pool.

matt.

[Eoin Devane]

I Think tournaments should be more expensive and therefore bigger prize pool.

That's a legitimate opinion. I, on the other hand, prefer the idea of cheaper entry and lower prize funds. From my experience, there seems to be quite a split across the chess community between these two views. Personally, I don't really understand the fascination in this country with awarding monetary prizes in amateur events. I would much prefer some sort of trophy / memento to add to my (very insubstantial) award collection as a reminder of my success. I think I heard somewhere that this is often the more common approach in certain countries overseas (though I may well be wrong ).

they didn't have digital clocks

Most County Associations / Congresses will have their collection of equipment that they have built up down the years. To replace all their analogue clocks with digitals would cost a small fortune - unless the tournament has an extremely generous sponsor it is unrealistic to expect this to happen.

[Eoin Devane]

I notice that any profits are to be donated to St. Mary's Hospice. The organisers should be commended for this excellent idea.

[matt_ward]

Yes that I do appreciate I did not realise this. Well it is debatable I suppose well Alex shame I did not get a chance to meet you would of been good.

I hope sometime we will catch up although probably not as I am not playing chess this year anymore. Maybe next year but I'm not sure.

Matt.

[Eoin Devane]

You might want to give one of the e2e4 events a go before losing faith completely. Though I haven't ever been to one, everyone does seem to feel that they offer the best playing conditions etc..

[Alex Holowczak]

Alex, the point is that the pairings shouldn't be late they should not accept late entries etc they didn't have digital clocks there was too much noise, and lastly the prize pool was horrendous.

I Think tournaments should be more expensive and therefore bigger prize pool.

matt.

OK, the pairings were a bit late. It happens sometimes. Life goes on. The tournament went on, and had enough of a gap between rounds to catch up.

The equipment was loaned from CCF Mindsport. They supplied boards, scoresheets and the bookstall. It was their clocks that were used. The vast majority of equipment suppliers supply analogue clocks.

The prizes on offer were good (given it was for charity):
Open: £200, £100, £50
U160 & U120: £100, £60, £40
Grading prizes of £20 for U180, U140, U100 in each section
A "slow starter" prize in each section (I forget the value).

Besides, you knew the prizes when you entered, so if that was a reason why it was bad, why did you enter?

The entry fee was £25 for the Open, £20 for the other sections. I think this was perfectly reasonable, and is on a par with other congresses in the area. The only thing stopping the prizes being slightly higher was the charity aspect - but then, that was the point of the congress.

[Alan Walton]

It is good to see that Worcestershire is up north, living in Manchester I must be in the Arctic Circle

[James Coleman]

Yeah I noticed that but was counting how many posts it would take for Alex H to query it!

[Alex Holowczak]

Well, I know Matt is from the south. So for him, it was north. South and North is all relative...

[matt_ward]

It did not occur to me that it might be because I am a bad loser.

matt.

[LozCooper]

It is good to see that Worcestershire is up north, living in Manchester I must be in the Arctic Circle

It's the first time I've driven 60 miles south from Stafford to end up in the North I'm guessing north of Watford to many southeners is considered to be the north

Thanks to Andrew Farthing and all the other organisers for their efforts.

[Eoin Devane]

I'm guessing north of Watford to many southeners is considered to be the north

Anywhere North of Watford is the North.