Tweet
Almost 2 weeks from the finish of Canadian Closed. Enough time to get into some conclusions about this tournament.
1. First of all I want to thank Hal Bond for organizing this event. I believe
we, chessplayers, had all necessary things to make it successful: very strong field, sets and clocks provided, air-condition, spacy playing hall, good lighting, sharp start of each round and last but not least nice atmosphere in tournament.
It's always could be better. Some improvements could always be done. But generally it was well-organized tournament.
2. It's good to have a sponsor. Chess organizers can dream what the can do with 20-30 thousand dollars. But since 2006 we have no sponsor. So what to do? Cancel Canadian Championships till better time? May be current conditions will stay (hopefully not) for pretty long period of time. My opinion is that tournament like this is much better than nothing.
3. Pretty funny to see the winner (Mr. Hebert) criticizing otganization of this championship so intensively and player who had just poor tournament (me) is thankful to organizer.
I look at chess as a hobby, like many others. For me chess is a very interesting, pleasant and very cheap hobby. For person like me this tournament is just great.
But how can this tournament be great for professionals ( I am talking about adults)? Even second prize hardly covers all expenses, probably even doesn't (especially if you are not from Ontario). In any case ratio profit/time is extremally low.
It's very tough to be a professional chessplayer right now (I mean player, not chess teacher). What rating is high enough for normal life? I think, at least 2650. At least, probably more. From naked financial point of view even 2700 player could earn more in other fields. OK, I know, chess is more interesting than some boring jobs. Right, it's nice to play 40, 50 games per year. But what about 200? And I personally know few GMs who play this amount each year. I don't believe they have fun.
In Canada we don't have any player above 2650, that means chess tournaments should be amateur-oriented. Everyone likes to win prize. Personally I suggest myself very competitive. But I don't play chess for money. For money you can do a lot of other things.
What is important for amateurs? Fun, rating, norm, titles, attitude, atmosphere, prizes. For professionals where are no conditions here.
Every time I play in Guelph I see a lot of players in lower-rated sections without any cash prizes. Actually they provide some profit (or at least balance) to organizers and cash prizes in open section.
4. It was a usual argue here between Quebec and other provinces (mostly Ontario). In my childhood (in 70-s) I knew nothing about Toronto and lot of information about Montreal - the biggest city in Canada, place of Olympic games 1976, place of one of the strongest chess tournaments in 1979...
Since 2004 ( year I returned to play slow chess) I played about 20 tornaments here in Canada. Two worst experiences were in Quebec:
Canadian Open 2008 in Montreal (no clocks, no opponent in 1-st round) and CYCC-2008 in Quebec-City (of course, I didn't play... my son did). May be it's just random distribution.
And last one to conclude...
5. For some reason I play very poorly in Guelph. I counted loss of more than 150 rating points altogether. (My current rating is above 2300, but it doesn't mean I am 2500 player without playing in Guelph). But I can blame only myself. Conditions are good, organizers ari friendly, opponents... the same opponents.
I just wrote my Personal notes.
1. First of all I want to thank Hal Bond for organizing this event. I believe
we, chessplayers, had all necessary things to make it successful: very strong field, sets and clocks provided, air-condition, spacy playing hall, good lighting, sharp start of each round and last but not least nice atmosphere in tournament.
It's always could be better. Some improvements could always be done. But generally it was well-organized tournament.
2. It's good to have a sponsor. Chess organizers can dream what the can do with 20-30 thousand dollars. But since 2006 we have no sponsor. So what to do? Cancel Canadian Championships till better time? May be current conditions will stay (hopefully not) for pretty long period of time. My opinion is that tournament like this is much better than nothing.
3. Pretty funny to see the winner (Mr. Hebert) criticizing otganization of this championship so intensively and player who had just poor tournament (me) is thankful to organizer.
I look at chess as a hobby, like many others. For me chess is a very interesting, pleasant and very cheap hobby. For person like me this tournament is just great.
But how can this tournament be great for professionals ( I am talking about adults)? Even second prize hardly covers all expenses, probably even doesn't (especially if you are not from Ontario). In any case ratio profit/time is extremally low.
It's very tough to be a professional chessplayer right now (I mean player, not chess teacher). What rating is high enough for normal life? I think, at least 2650. At least, probably more. From naked financial point of view even 2700 player could earn more in other fields. OK, I know, chess is more interesting than some boring jobs. Right, it's nice to play 40, 50 games per year. But what about 200? And I personally know few GMs who play this amount each year. I don't believe they have fun.
In Canada we don't have any player above 2650, that means chess tournaments should be amateur-oriented. Everyone likes to win prize. Personally I suggest myself very competitive. But I don't play chess for money. For money you can do a lot of other things.
What is important for amateurs? Fun, rating, norm, titles, attitude, atmosphere, prizes. For professionals where are no conditions here.
Every time I play in Guelph I see a lot of players in lower-rated sections without any cash prizes. Actually they provide some profit (or at least balance) to organizers and cash prizes in open section.
4. It was a usual argue here between Quebec and other provinces (mostly Ontario). In my childhood (in 70-s) I knew nothing about Toronto and lot of information about Montreal - the biggest city in Canada, place of Olympic games 1976, place of one of the strongest chess tournaments in 1979...
Since 2004 ( year I returned to play slow chess) I played about 20 tornaments here in Canada. Two worst experiences were in Quebec:
Canadian Open 2008 in Montreal (no clocks, no opponent in 1-st round) and CYCC-2008 in Quebec-City (of course, I didn't play... my son did). May be it's just random distribution.
And last one to conclude...
5. For some reason I play very poorly in Guelph. I counted loss of more than 150 rating points altogether. (My current rating is above 2300, but it doesn't mean I am 2500 player without playing in Guelph). But I can blame only myself. Conditions are good, organizers ari friendly, opponents... the same opponents.
I just wrote my Personal notes.
Comment