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Re: Hebert vs. Bond
I wouldnt be too hard on Mr Hebert, Paul. The way I read it he's an older player lost in the glory years of the Fischer era when everyone could ride the coattails of Fisher's media attention, public adoration and prestige.
He seems to think all you have to do is send out a press release and chess and himself as Canadian champion will be media stars. That's probably why Canada's team at the chess olympiad gets little or no coverage in the mainstream media, the CFC doesn't send out press releases?
He also seems to think that all it would take to get sponsorship in the middle of a recession is to send out a few letters to likely sponsors and the prize money will come roling in and he'd be quite a bit enriched now. Unfortunately a small closed tournament with a few players is not attractive to sponsors - there is no audience, no television coverage, no exposure for the sponsor. Unless you find a private company whose owner is sympathetic to chess (sympathy money) or a business that caters to chess players - unfortunately chess players do not use Chalk Off pool table cleaner and those that sell to chess players such as the CFC either do not have funds or like Chess and Math don't need to sponsor to get exposure. I figure to run the kind of event he wants would take $100,000 at a minimum to pay for all the player expenses and substantial prize money. For that kind of money if I was the sponsor I would either want an open tournament with significant number of players such as the Toronto Open or I would put my money elsewhere such as a nice charity golf tournament or a summer festival that thousands would attend, where I would get alot more exposure such as Hamilton's old Aquafest.
Companies that do have those kinds of funds are planning their budgets now for the next 2 years, better ask them now whoever is planning to run the closed next time, actually it should be the CFC approaching them now, unfortunately though they don't know where it will be even or if it will be given their bidding process.
I'm just as sorry that chess is not a money sport as Mr Hebert is. One does have to speculate if it was a prestige event if he would have still emerged the winner out of a 12 or 16 player round robin of the very highest rated Canadian players, not just those rated over 2200. Even though I would say its a kick in the pants that winning a Canadian championship does not make you a media star or substantially wealthy such as it would if it were tennis or golf or poker. Unfortunately Mr Hebert doesn't seem to be a champion at any of those money sports, but I guess that's besides the point.
I wouldnt be too hard on Mr Hebert, Paul. The way I read it he's an older player lost in the glory years of the Fischer era when everyone could ride the coattails of Fisher's media attention, public adoration and prestige.
He seems to think all you have to do is send out a press release and chess and himself as Canadian champion will be media stars. That's probably why Canada's team at the chess olympiad gets little or no coverage in the mainstream media, the CFC doesn't send out press releases?
He also seems to think that all it would take to get sponsorship in the middle of a recession is to send out a few letters to likely sponsors and the prize money will come roling in and he'd be quite a bit enriched now. Unfortunately a small closed tournament with a few players is not attractive to sponsors - there is no audience, no television coverage, no exposure for the sponsor. Unless you find a private company whose owner is sympathetic to chess (sympathy money) or a business that caters to chess players - unfortunately chess players do not use Chalk Off pool table cleaner and those that sell to chess players such as the CFC either do not have funds or like Chess and Math don't need to sponsor to get exposure. I figure to run the kind of event he wants would take $100,000 at a minimum to pay for all the player expenses and substantial prize money. For that kind of money if I was the sponsor I would either want an open tournament with significant number of players such as the Toronto Open or I would put my money elsewhere such as a nice charity golf tournament or a summer festival that thousands would attend, where I would get alot more exposure such as Hamilton's old Aquafest.
Companies that do have those kinds of funds are planning their budgets now for the next 2 years, better ask them now whoever is planning to run the closed next time, actually it should be the CFC approaching them now, unfortunately though they don't know where it will be even or if it will be given their bidding process.
I'm just as sorry that chess is not a money sport as Mr Hebert is. One does have to speculate if it was a prestige event if he would have still emerged the winner out of a 12 or 16 player round robin of the very highest rated Canadian players, not just those rated over 2200. Even though I would say its a kick in the pants that winning a Canadian championship does not make you a media star or substantially wealthy such as it would if it were tennis or golf or poker. Unfortunately Mr Hebert doesn't seem to be a champion at any of those money sports, but I guess that's besides the point.
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