Chess'n Math Association (CMA) - Update

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  • Chess'n Math Association (CMA) - Update

    We are holding our first rated online event on May 24, 2020. At this point we have 70 youngsters registered. This will be a test for us and if all goes well then we will do this regularly. A youngster has to have a CMA ID number to participate. We will see where this goes in the new normal.

    We are now teaching hundreds of youngsters online...go to www.chess-math.org for details.

    Our Ottawa shop will re-open on Friday. Our reduced hours will be Friday from 11am - 1pm and 4pm - 6pm. Saturday from noon to 5pm. We will adjust as time goes on.

    Our Toronto location is also a FED-EX drop-off spot so we have never really closed. Contact Francis at 416-486-3395 to check on hours of operation.

    Our Montreal location will open next week from 9am to 2pm 7 days a week.

    Most of our business over the last two months has been online and we thank all those who have supported us over these difficult times.

    Go to: www.strategygames.ca

    The Chess'n Math Association (CMA) is celebrating 35 years of service to the Canadian Chess Community thanks to you! And we will be around for many more years in the future!


    Larry Bevand
    Executive Director
    Chess'n Math Association

  • #2
    Hi Larry,

    Could you please point us to the link and the preregistered list?

    Comment


    • #3
      Great to hear that tournaments are also being adjusted to the situation, one idea could be joining Montreal/Ottawa and Toronto players together, as long as it's the same time zone, should be fun. Even Canadian Chess Challenge can be run that way potentially...

      Comment


      • #4
        Here is the link for the tournament. https://chess-math.org/event/regular...rnament-online

        Registration closes tonight at midnight.

        Our Vancouver partner has registered a few of their youngsters...so to Mike's point, the future could have potential.

        Larry

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        • #5
          Thanks for setting up. I signed up my 3 and they are quite excited about it.

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          • #6
            Thanks Graham!

            It looks like we will have about 100 participants!


            Larry

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            • #7
              Thanks for organizing. The tournament worked well and the large number of overall entries helped keep all games competitive.

              One useful reminder to participants would to clear cache - this is a known issue and there is actually a dedicated page for it.

              Also, would it be possible to turn off the abandon game feature? Due to the cache issue we had to restart the computer resulting in abandoning a winning game. It's unlikely someone would abandon their game in the middle of a tournament.

              Comment


              • #8
                It was sort of frustrating. I had 3 kids playing and they had 4 games affected by abandonment. (We had 3 losses and 1 win) I don’t know if the problem was on our end or chesskid but we had things lock up several times and playing on a browser seemed much worse than the app. We have chesskid and chess.com accounts and the kids have no trouble navigating but I had to be there the whole time for technical issues. We had 2 on iPads and 1 on a laptop and the iPads it didn’t matter how we sized the screen we couldn’t see the time without scrolling down. So the kids would scroll down and inevitably do it just right so they would minimize the browser. When I would bring the browser back up it would start loading another chesskid window in addition to the one that was previously up causing confusion and sometimes causing things to lock up. There was too little time allowed before games were declared abandoned.

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                • #9
                  Tony and Graham,

                  Thanks for your feedback! I will share them with our team.

                  Today, I received about half a dozen calls at the office with folks who had issues.

                  We will look into how we can make it a better experience for everyone next time. This was a test . We will grow into offering a great product over time...thank you for your patience.

                  The first event was run out of our Montreal location.

                  The next online tournament is scheduled for June 6. It will be run out of our Toronto office.

                  For the first event we limited our publicity. I think you can expect Francis Rodrigues, our marketing genius, to draw substantially more players for this one...and hopefully we can iron out some of the bugs.

                  The event is rated so once that happens I will post the link here.

                  Please please please...I would appreciate all your comments on the first event...the good, the bad and the ugly...we want to learn...so send me an e- mail: bevand@chess-math.org

                  Thanks!

                  And welcome to our new world :)

                  Larry Bevand

                  Executive Director

                  Chess'n Math Association

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I reread my post and realize I sort of came across as a whiny chess parent. Sorry about that Larry. I do appreciate the effort to give the kids a chance to play serious chess in all this craziness. We are looking forward to the next tournament.

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                    • #11
                      The website had very poor connection. We lost connections twice! Boy played 4 games, and lost two because of the disconnection. He could not reconnect until the last round already started, therefore lost the last round as well. Felt so upset. Emails sent to the organizer without reply.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Hi Chris,

                        I am sorry your boy had a bad experience. We are working on some improvements for the next time. We thank folks like Tony who have made some constructive suggestions.

                        I am surprised that you did not receive a response from my team as they were all working in real time to trouble shoot. May I ask, you sent your request for help, to which e-mail?

                        Sincerely,

                        Larry

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                        • #13
                          Hi Larry,

                          Sorry for the late reply. I seldom came here. Kids value every point, even half point are very important to them. Lichess is more reliable than chesskids, from my point of view. Anyway, thanks for organizing.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            BTW, during such rated games, is it possible to have someone checking the emails during the game, in case players have any issues?

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Hi Chris,

                              Yes we had someone monitoring e-mails...can you tell me what e-mail address you used please?

                              Before going into this project we analyzed both possibilities and decided on chesskid. Obviously we are looking at this issue again and we will decide shortly on how we will proceed in the future.

                              In order to give us time to make the necessary adjustments, we have moved the next event to June 14.

                              Thank you for your input!

                              Sincerely,

                              Larry

                              Comment

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