Getting Started In Chess: Part 9 – Tournament Announcement

I just got home from a weekend tournament where I talked to a player that didn’t really understand what was written in the tournament announcement. I was thinking about how intimidating reading your first tournament announcement is and I couldn’t remember how I learned to decipher one myself. It hadn’t dawned on me until that moment that the information conveyed in them isn’t obvious.

This inspired me to provide you a breakdown of what you will find in a standard tournament announcement. I’m going to show you how to find all the information that you will need to consider before attending a tournament. This includes the date, location, sections, time control, and entry fee. As you would expect all this is there if you can find it.

Below is the tournament announcement for the tournament I just completed. I will use that to pull out the information you need to consider.

Jan. 10-12 or 11-12   CFCC 2020 Winter Open and Scholastic

US Chess Grand Prix Points: 20

Wyndham Orlando Resort, 8001 International Dr., Orlando, FL 32819. $10,000 b/150 (Schol=1/2) 60% Guaranteed! 5 Rounds at G/120 d5 (2- day: Rounds 1 & 2 G/60 d5). 5 Prize Sections: Premier $1000-600- 400-200- U2200 ($300) Under 2000 $900-600-300-200- U1800 ($250) Under 1700 $900-600-300-200- U1500 ($250) Under 1400 $900-600-300- 200- U1200 ($200) Scholastic U1200 $400-200- U1000 ($100) – U800 ($100) Free entry for GMs and IMs ($99 EF deducted from prize). Rated players may play up one section only. Unrated players are limited to $100 prize (unless in Premier Section). Players must bring their own sets and clocks. ONLINE ENTRY FEE: Early: $99 by Jan 1, 2020 / Late: $114 after / On-site: $125 ($50 less to students in Scholastic U1200 section) CFCC MEMBERSHIP DISCOUNT: $10 ($5 for Jr/Sr membership). Click “View Available Discounts” when registering online to enter the discount code. ONLINE REGISTRATION & ENTRY FEE DEADLINE: Must be completed by 6pm January 10, 2020 or paid on-site. Direct links to hotel booking and online registration are available on our website: https://www.centralflchess.org/cfcc-2020-winter-open-and-scholastic-wyndham-orlando-resort. ENTRY FEE by US Mail: CFCC (Attn: Winter Open 2020), 95 Orense Way, Oviedo, FL 32765. HOTEL GROUP RATE: $129 (includes free parking and wifi) Book online on our website or call 407-351-2420 and mention “Chess Tournament” when reserving a room. HOTEL GROUP RATE ENDS: December 20, 2019. BYES: 1/2pt must commit before Round 2 is paired (max 2) ONSITE REGISTRATION: Ends 1/2-hour before 1st round begins. 2-DAY ROUNDS: 1 & 2 Sat (G/60 d5) 11am & 2pm, Round 3 Sat (G/120 d5) 5pm, Rounds 4 & 5 Sun (G/120 d5) 11am & 3:30pm 3-DAY ROUNDS: (G/120 d5), Fri 7pm, Sat 11am & 5pm, Sun 11am & 3:30pm. SIDE EVENTS: Saturday Night Blitz, Free Lecture Saturday @ 9:30am. EVENT INFO: TD Steven Vigil (321) 297-7087, or visit www.centralflchess.org/events, or email: info@centralflchess.org

When is it? :

The first thing you are going to ask when deciding if you are going to attend a tournament is when is it. That should be pretty straight forward except it isn’t. The good news is that the date is usually the first thing listed. The bad news is that there are sometimes multiple date ranges listed. Here is the listed date for the tournament I just attended:

Jan. 10-12 or 11-12   CFCC 2020 Winter Open and Scholastic

Jan. 10-12 or 11-12 what the heck does this mean? When you see this it simply means you have the option of starting the tournament on the 10th or 11th. Your decision to start the tournament on a specific day usually has a direct impact on the time control used for a portion of the games, but we will cover that later. The main reason tournaments provide this option is to attract more participants. Some people don’t have the flexibility in their schedule to attend a multiple day tournament. Other players put a high value on minimizing the number of games played in one day. Regardless of when you start the tournament all players must play the same amount of games so if you choose to take the shorter number of days you will have to play more games per day.

Where is it?:

In most  tournament listings you will find two addresses. One is the location of the tournament and the other is where to mail your entry fee if that is an option. The good news is that the location is very easy to find. Usually after the date the very next thing listed is the location. In the example above it was at a hotel and you can see it was easy to find.

Wyndham Orlando Resort, 8001 International Dr., Orlando, FL 32819.

How much is it? :

Now things start getting complicated. I will break it into consumable pieces so that it easier to traverse and understand.

The good news is that finding the entry fee section is usually pretty simple. Just search the announcement for either “entry fee” or “EF”. Some places charge by the word to advertise the tournament which is why you may find it abbreviated to “EF”.

This tournament has a few different prices listed and even some discounts. Here is what each means:

• Early: $99 by Jan 1, 2020
  
  • This means if you register for the tournament by January 1 the entry fee is $99
• Late: $114 after
  • This means if you register for the tournament after January 1 the entry fee is $114
• On-site: $125
  • This means if you register for the tournament at the actual tournament location when you show up the entry fee is $125
• ($50 less to students in Scholastic U1200 section) CFCC MEMBERSHIP DISCOUNT: $10 ($5 for Jr/Sr membership).
  • At this tournament they had several discounts. First if you were rated U1200 in the scholastic portion of this tournament you could deduct $50 from your entry fee. This tournament is also encouraging people to join the local club by providing a discount for its members of $5 and $10. If you qualified for a discount you would deduct it from whatever entry fee price you qualified for based on when you registered.
• ONLINE REGISTRATION & ENTRY FEE DEADLINE: Must be completed by 6pm January 10, 2020 or paid on-site. Direct links to hotel booking and online registration are available on our website: https://www.centralflchess.org/cfcc-2020-winter-open-and-scholastic-wyndham-orlando-resort. ENTRY FEE by US Mail: CFCC (Attn: Winter Open 2020), 95 Orense Way, Oviedo, FL 32765. 
  • These are your registration options. This tournament had three ways to register for this tournament. An online option and they provided a link. A snail mail option and they provided an address. Finally, you could always register at the tournament site. 
  • Something that isn’t mentioned in this tournament announcement are the accepted forms of payment for players registering at the site. Be aware that if you decide to wait until the last minute to register then some tournaments will only accept cash on-site. If they don’t mention it I always assume that they will only take cash. I’ve seen too many players frustrated after driving out to a tournament with a credit card only to be turned away.
• Free entry for GMs and IMs ($99 EF deducted from prize).
  
  • This probably doesn’t apply to most of us, but if you happen to hold the chess title of GM or IM your entry fee is waived unless you win a prize.

Format And Time Control:

Now that you know the when, the where, and the cost it’s time to examine the technical meat of the tournament announcement. Something I found interesting about this tournament announcement was it never actually said the format being used to pair opponents. In one of my previous posts on tournament formats I mentioned that the SWISS system is by far the most popular format used for tournaments. This is just further proof to my claim. The tournament organizers don’t even feel it necessary to mention it anymore. Therefore, in the future it is safe to assume the format being used is a SWISS tournament unless the tournament announcement states otherwise.

Remember when we talked about the start date? We had a three day and two day option for this tournament. Remember I told you that regardless of which option you selected you would have to play the same number of games? Well here is how that decision impacts your tournament experience.

• 2-DAY ROUNDS: 1 & 2 Sat (G/60 d5) 11am & 2pm, Round 3 Sat (G/120 d5) 5pm, Rounds 4 & 5 Sun (G/120 d5) 11am & 3:30pm
  • The two day format has you playing three games on Saturday and two on Sunday.
    • On Saturday you will have: 
      • round 1 starting at 11am
      • round 2 starting at 2pm
      • round 3 starting at 5pm
    • On Sunday you will have: 
      • round 4 starting at 11am
      • round 5 starting at 3 :30pm
  • The two day schedule also requires the you play your games at two different time controls.
    • 1 & 2 Sat (G/60 d5)
      • This means rounds 1 and 2 will be played at a game in 60 minutes with a 5 second delay. Each player gets 60 minutes and your clock won’t start counting down for 5 seconds. For a complete overview of time controls please review my posts that covers them in detail.
    • Round 3 Sat (G/120 d5) 5pm, Rounds 4 & 5 Sun (G/120 d5)
      • This means rounds 3, 4, and 5 will be played at a game in 120 minutes with a 5 second delay. Each player gets 120 minutes and your clock won’t start counting down for 5 seconds.
• 3-DAY ROUNDS: (G/120 d5), Fri 7pm, Sat 11am & 5pm, Sun 11am & 3:30pm.
  • The three  day format has you playing one game on Friday, two games on Saturday,  and two on Sunday.
    • On Friday you will have: 
      • round 1 starting at 7pm
    • On Saturday you will have: 
      • round 2 starting at 11am
      • round 3 starting at 5pm
    • On Sunday you will have: 
      • round 4 starting at 11am
      • round 5 starting at 3 :30pm
  • The three day schedule has one time control for all the games played during the tournament.
    
    • Rounds 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 (G/120 d5)
      • This means all the rounds will be played at a game in 120 minutes with a 5 second delay. Each player gets 120 minutes and your clock won’t start counting down for 5 seconds.

Something not explicitly mentioned in this announcement, but I believe is important, is that whenever you see a tournament announcement with different start dates they have to eventually merge into one group to determine a winner. You can tell which round this occurs at by paying attention to when a round starts and the time control for the round for each schedule. In the example above you will find that round 3 for the two day and three day schedule both have the same start time and time control. Round 3 is when players that started out on the two day and three schedule will start playing each other.

Sections And Prizes:

Your final decision is which section to play in. Most tournaments announcements try to group players of similar strength against each other. You will only play other players in your specific section. This helps keep players from getting crushed by being paired against much stronger players. The inverse is also a factor in why sections are used. Most strong players don’t have much to gain by defeating a weaker opponent.

This tournament announcement advertises that it has 5 prize sections, which is technically true, but for prizes you need to read the fine print. The different sections usually have their own prizes and I will highlight this as I review each of them. 

• Premier $1000-600- 400-200- U2200 ($300)
  • This first section is where the sharks get to swim. This tournament called it the “Premier”, but I’ve mostly seen it referred to as the “Open” section. This is the strongest section in the tournament.
  • Maximum Rating: N/A (This section doesn’t have a rating cap)
  • Minimum Rating:  1700. (I’ll explain how I figured out the minimum)
  • It has several prizes:
    • 1st Place = $1000
    • 2nd Place = $600
    • 3rd Place = $400
    • 4th Place = $200
    • U2200 ($300) = For this prize they will only consider players that are rated 2199 or lower that played in this section. At the end of the tournament they see which 2199 or lower player ranked the highest and give them the $300 prize. If you happen to be the highest ranked player U2200 and you placed overall 1st – 4th you would win both prizes.
• Under 2000 $900-600-300-200- U1800 ($250)
  • Maximum Rating: 1999
  • Minimum Rating:  1400. (I’ll explain how I figured out the minimum)
  • It has several prizes:
    • 1st Place = $900
    • 2nd Place = $600
    • 3rd Place = $300
    • 4th Place = $200
    • U1800 ($250) = For this prize they will only consider players that are rated 1799 or lower that played in this section. At the end of the tournament they see which 1799 or lower player ranked the highest and give them the $250 prize. If you happen to be the highest ranked player U1800 and you placed overall 1st – 4th you would win both prizes.
• Under 1700 $900-600-300-200- U1500 ($250)
  • Maximum Rating: 1699
  • Minimum Rating:  1200. (I’ll explain how I figured out the minimum)
  • It has several prizes:
    • 1st Place = $900
    • 2nd Place = $600
    • 3rd Place = $300
    • 4th Place = $200
    • U1500 ($250) = For this prize they will only consider players that are rated 1499 or lower that played in this section. At the end of the tournament they see which 1499 or lower player ranked the highest and give them the $250 prize. If you happen to be the highest ranked player U1500 and you placed overall 1st – 4th you would win both prizes.
• Under 1400 $900-600-300- 200- U1200 ($200)
  • Maximum Rating: 1399
  • Minimum Rating:  N/A. (I’ll explain how I figured out the minimum)
  • It has several prizes:
    • 1st Place = $900
    • 2nd Place = $600
    • 3rd Place = $300
    • 4th Place = $200
    • U1200 ($200) = For this prize they will only consider players that are rated 1199 or lower that played in this section. At the end of the tournament they see which 1199 or lower player ranked the highest and give them the $200 prize. If you happen to be the highest ranked player U1200 and you placed overall 1st – 4th you would win both prizes.
• Scholastic U1200 $400-200- U1000 ($100) – U800 ($100)
  • This  section is reserved for school aged children that are rated 1199 and lower.
  • Maximum Rating: 1199
  • Minimum Rating:  N/A. (I’ll explain how I figured out the minimum)
  • It has several prizes:
    • 1st Place = $400
    • 2nd Place = $200
    • U1000 ($100) = For this prize they will only consider players that are rated 999 or lower that played in this section. At the end of the tournament they see which 999 or lower player ranked the highest and give them the $100 prize. If you happen to be the highest ranked player U1000 and you placed overall 1st – 2nd you would win both prizes.
    • U800 ($100) = For this prize they will only consider players that are rated 799 or lower that played in this section. At the end of the tournament they see which 799 or lower player ranked the highest and give them the $100 prize. If you happen to be the highest ranked player U800 and you placed overall 1st – 2nd you would win both prizes.

There are two things with this listing that’s important, but a little harder to identify. Let’s examine:

• Rated players may play up one section only. Unrated players are limited to $100 prize (unless in Premier Section).

This is establishing two very important restrictions that you need to be aware of.  The first restriction is aimed at players that already have a rating. This line is what I used to calculate the minimum rating for each section. The easiest way to explain this is with an example.

Lets assume you’re rated 1350. You could play in the Under 1400 section against other players similarly rated or you could decide to play up in the Under 1700 section against harder competition. However, this restriction will not allow you to play in the Under 2000. You are only allowed to move up one section from the base section that you qualify for.

The second part of this is for players that don’t have  a rating. Players that are unrated can play in any section, but if they decide to play in any section besides the premier they are limited to collecting $100 maximum prize money. This is standard restriction at most tournaments. Why is this even here? Unfortunately, the main reason is to guard against someone trying to take advantage of never officially being rated by the governing body. In the United States that would be the USCF. Before this became a standard there was nothing officially stopping a master from Europe in playing in a section that he severely outmatched the other players. Some tournaments have large prize funds for the lower sections and when money is involved people will try to take advantage of the system.

The final thing that confuses new tournament players is the fact that the prize money listed is the best case scenario. All prize money is based on the tournament attendance. Let’s take a closer look at this line:

• $10,000 b/150 (Schol=1/2) 60% Guaranteed!

At first glance it looks like there’s a $10,000 prize fund, but that is not exactly true. The fine print you need to look at is the “b/150 (Schol=1/2)”. This means that $10000 is based on 150 players registering for the tournament and a scholastic entry only counts as a half entry towards that total. If the tournament doesn’t attract 150 players the prize pool will be less. The good news is that most tournaments will guarantee a minimum prize pool. This particular tournament had a 60% guarantee so the minimum prize pool is $6000.

Conclusion:

I think you are definitely ready to start exploring your tournament options if you’ve read the other posts in this serious. I have never played a tournament outside the United States so the information I am providing here is based on what you would find in the states. The first thing you need to do is get a list of tournaments.

Visit the link below to find a tournament near you:

http://www.uschess.org/tlas/upcoming.php

Thank you for reading to the end. I hope your day is blessed and your chess games sharp!

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