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Just like any traditional Hart House tournament, will there be teams competing for a team prize in this upcoming tournament?
Thanks.
Hi William,
Thanks for bringing that up.
I usually wait to see that the number of participants will be healthy (125+) to announce the Team Prize.
So as per most previous editions, there will be a Team Prize at the Hart House Holidays Open.
Any 4 players, provided they represent a minimum of 3 sections, can compose a team.
All 4 individual scores will be added up. The winning team will take home a symbolic $400 prize, $100 per player.
Note that each individual can only compete in one team.
Teams must be registered between 7pm Friday December 15th and 10:30am December 16th, on-site. (No fee to register)
Please do not email me Team registrations in advance, and make sure you talk to all the players and have them agree that you're signing them up on your team :D to avoid confusion and double-entries.
We broke 150 and registrations still coming in.
I will update all ratings sometime Thursday, after this week's rating update.
This may mean that someone might shift section.
Results were missing in the U2200 section. Players been e-mailed. Tyler will look into the possibility of pairing that section and posting it online on chss-results a bit later tonight or tomorrow morning.
Results were missing in the U2200 section. Players been e-mailed. Tyler will look into the possibility of pairing that section and posting it online on chss-results a bit later tonight or tomorrow morning.
Alex F.
Hi Alex:
Know your hands are full, but any chance of posting here the team standings (And members?) - I understand it is just a sort of side fun thing. Thanks.
Thanks to Alex and his Hart House team for a well organized tournament.
180 players or more and $ 7k or more was paid out in 6 sections.
Information on standings and pairings are available in two or three places. Round started on time except maybe round 1 on Friday due to the bad weather ( I was not there on Friday so not sure if it is late ).
Lots of initiative by the team this time around.
There was even an interviews of the players and winners of the sections.
Great initiatives and no wonder this tournament is still the premier tournament in GTA area.
We had placed a book for people to place their comments, with concerns or suggestions.
Here's in response to a few, in no particular order:
a - Sub-optimal lighting in some parts of the hall
we struggle with the existing electrical in such an old hall, but will ask for more of the lumahawk bright lights for future
b - Heating struggles and inconsistency
definitely a challenge, again in such an old building. In the Great Hall itself, we cannot control how hot or cold the heaters are, apart from opening some windows to cool down. The accessibility automatic entrance provided for a cold draft in the hallway, but that should not have a negative impact on the players inside the hall. Being a wheelchair accessible exit, we are not allowed to block it. In the skittles areas / couches lounge area, some windows could be open to cool the rooms down a bit. I didn't spend enough time in these to appreciate how hot it might have been, but this is a very easy fix for these rooms.
c - Individual accessible washroom by the hall, as being possibly exclusive to players-only (and not other guests in the house)
again, unfortunately we are not allowed. Even big weddings at Hart House cannot block that washroom. It is one of the few wheel-chair accessible washrooms and it must remain available to the public at large. More washrooms exist a flight of stairs away.
d - Starting rounds on time
no argument there. We really need to improve on this. We did try some new things but I do not wish to make excuses. It can and it needs to be improved.
e - Cellphones and electronic devices in the playing hall
The concern is not so much about cellphones ringing, but about the image or possibility of cheating. There were no accusations of cheating, but what is being discussed are the optics.
Agreed. This will be hard to implement with the players. From a rules point of view, electronic devices should not even be on the persons at the tournament. This is a topic where I welcome further discussion. Having a "cellphone check" requires man-power and responsibility / liability. We are not planning on padding down anyone. Is it reasonable to request players to place their phones on the table?
For spectators, we can have drastic measures immediately, and I like this idea. We have been overall relaxed about a spectator quietly checking their texts, or a parent at the corner of the hall, away from play, viewing something on a laptop. This needs to stop and can be easily implemented immediately.
f - Birds gone
in the past, we've had a couple of resident birds randomly chirping with the morning sun. They're gone but we don't take responsibility for this. As I understand it, Hart House staff placed some net covers over the high windows.
g - Food proximity
not that the Arbor Room is ever open during our tournaments, but it is currently undergoing major renovations anyway. Playing at the castle between beautiful parks does come at the price of being a good 5-10 minutes walk from restaurants or even fast-food places. Although they are plentiful and in any direction from the playing site, at about the same distance. With that said... we had been a bit ambitious with the 10am & 3:30pm start times and will now change the afternoon rounds to 4pm start time. This should allow players who had long morning games a very reasonable time-window to have a decent lunch.
h - Faster time control, eliminating Friday night round
there is currently no plan for this. We were possibly the last of the tournaments in the region to have had an even longer time control. We were playing at a 120 minutes + 30 seconds increment until a year ago. Now it is 90 mins + 30 sec inc. We changed it after several players requested it. Faster time controls will not allow a tournament to be classical FIDE-rated. In an ideal world, or maybe just in the future, we dream of being able to rate all sections with FIDE. As I understand it... most of the tournaments that hold 3 rounds in one day do it because they don't have access to the playing hall for 3 days, but we do. With that said, if there is an outcry by many players to have faster time controls tournaments, such as a rapid, we will welcome the discussion.
i - Online Registration / paypal type options
I wish! The drawback is simple and quite unfortunate. Online payments would go to Hart House Finance Department, something we would not have access to. Even if we had access to the information of payments coming in, we would not be able to process it as prizes. The on-site cash revenue allows us to have cash to pay-out in prizes. We do not have the authorization to write cheques on behalf of Hart House. I have asked on several occasions to consider sending an accountant for two hours on Sunday evening, but it's a tough sell. The alternative is to convince the prize-winners to leave empty-handed, provide us with their mailing addresses, and tell them to wait ~ 3 weeks to receive their cheque in the mail, which is the average time Hart House takes to process it. Whereas several members of the community may not mind this, many others prefer to walk out with something, and I don't blame them.
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There were also several compliments and we appreciate them. Thank you.
Alex Ferreira
Last edited by Alex Ferreira; Wednesday, 20th December, 2017, 03:54 AM.
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