Congratulations Bill Evans

[Mavros Whissell]

Congratulations to Bill Evans. In my opinion he should be the sole 1st place winner of the U2200 section at the Toronto Open. His rating was clear from the start and he did not agree to any quick draws or forfeits from other players. I can't say the same for the other two who scored 5/6 in the U2200.

[Erik Malmsten]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

Great result for an old-timer.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

Why was there a forfeit on one of the top boards in the U2200 section...round 5?

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

.............

[Mavros Whissell]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

Hi Hugh,
I don't know what reasons the arbiters were given. The player who forfeited returned the next round and appeared just fine.

[Mavros Whissell]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

It is important to not jump to conclusions, but the facts speak for themselves.

[John Brown]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

Hi Mavros;
Do You think there may have been a pay off done with a forfeit?

[David Ottosen]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

It is important to not jump to conclusions, but the facts speak for themselves.

Translation: it's important not to jump to conclusions but I'm going to jump to conclusions.

[Alex Ferreira]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

Hi,

There was a group of players who are countrymen and appear to be friends off the board, playing in this tournament. That is not in any way unusual.
Many performed well and bumped into each other in the top boards, as per their performances and with correct pairings. True, two games ended in quick draws. There is no evidence or necessarily any suspicion of previously arranging anything.
The player who forfeited Round 5 had problems with his car that morning and could not make his way to the tournament in any timely fashion. We contacted him and he assured to be playing in Round 6. He made it to Round 6 and played a competitive game.

I don't know what "pay off" is, John, but last-round draws to secure a prize are quite common. Quite frankly, I prefer seeing it done open, on the spot and quickly than to stage it or mask it as if it's something illegal or pre-arranged. Draws in previous rounds with the intention of improving someone's chances seem to be a foolish and very risky idea.

We organizers are aware of quick draws and the players involved. Some organizers generate "no draws before move 30" or "Sofia - no draw offers" type rules. In an open Swiss it is not expected that many quick draws occur, so most organizers don't forbid these.

Alex Ferreira

[Mavros Whissell]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

Alex,

This is in no way an attempt to draw negative feedback for the arbiters. ACC always holds a top notch event, and you guys did a good job as always. In fact without clubs like ACC, chess is simply dead.

Mavros

[Lucas Davies]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

It is important to not jump to conclusions, but the facts speak for themselves.

Now THIS is a great quote

[Mavros Whissell]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

Hi Mavros;
Do You think there may have been a pay off done with a forfeit?

The only thing I can say with certainty is Bill deserved to win. He competed every game with no breaks.

Alex mentioned Sophia rules, and this would be pretty interesting to see at a big tournament.

[Patrick Kirby]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

The only thing I can say with certainty is Bill deserved to win. He competed every game with no breaks.

Alex mentioned Sophia rules, and this would be pretty interesting to see at a big tournament.

Sofia rules apply mainly to professional tournaments where the prize fund and player appearance fees are contributed by sponsors and sponsors have an interest in seeing entertaining chess to draw attention to their event.

For tournaments where players pay entry fees out of their pocket, they should be allowed to play however they choose within the rules, including offering an early draw or playing unambitiously and aiming for a quick draw.

Other players who choose to pay the entry fee and enter the tournament do so with knowledge of the rules in place. If you don't like early draws, then no one is forcing you to join a tournament that permits early draw offers. If you think Sofia rules should be in place for class events, then no one is stopping you from organizing such an event, or lobbying your local organizers to do so.

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

Sofia rules apply mainly to professional tournaments where the prize fund and player appearance fees are contributed by sponsors and sponsors have an interest in seeing entertaining chess to draw attention to their event.

For tournaments where players pay entry fees out of their pocket, they should be allowed to play however they choose within the rules, including offering an early draw or playing unambitiously and aiming for a quick draw.

Other players who choose to pay the entry fee and enter the tournament do so with knowledge of the rules in place. If you don't like early draws, then no one is forcing you to join a tournament that permits early draw offers. If you think Sofia rules should be in place for class events, then no one is stopping you from organizing such an event, or lobbying your local organizers to do so.

100% agree.

Only problem is that professional players sometimes think they are in the second category and thus can draw however they want.

[Ferdinand Supsup]

Re: Congratulations Bill Evans

The only thing I can say with certainty is Bill deserved to win. He competed every game with no breaks.

Alex mentioned Sophia rules, and this would be pretty interesting to see at a big tournament.

One suggestion I would recommend to prevent (early draws) with significant effect is to apply the "Bilbao Scoring System aka Football Scoring System of 3 pts = win, 1 pt = draw and 0 pt = lose" which I support 100%: http://en.chessbase.com/post/some-th...stem-in-london. Additional tiebreaks (head-to-head, more Blacks and accumulated scores of opponents are more significant than the rest) should be announced at the start of the tournament if the organizer decides not to share cash prizes with similar scores. This type of game point scoring is supported by Swiss Manager.