RA Fall Open (FIDE & CFC): good start to registrations

[Aris Marghetis]

Hi again, after just the first week of registrations, I am pleased to announce that we already have over 15 players, including a GM and IM. In addition, it seems my initial estimates for the prize fund were too conservative. This is because I expected a certain amount of people to register as Amateur, but so far, almost everyone is registering to play for cash prizes. If this trend continues, then in a week or two, I'll post a revised higher minimum prize fund! :)

If you think that you are going to register for this event, then please feel free to do so as soon as convenient by email, and your payment can follow later.

Please note that due to a family situation, that I will be offline for a few days next week. As soon as I can, I will confirm registrations, answer questions, etc.

rating FIDE# ....CFC# surname name byes

2529 4128290 146462 GM Sambuev Bator
2445 2600064 106245 IM O'Donnell Tom
2244 2602431 106629 Gordon David
2200 2605651 134989 Qin Joey
2132 2607310 101805 Fiedler Brian
2098 2603136 106856 Palsson Halldor
1945 2606445 112806 Van Dusen Eric
1886 ........... 111268 Robinson Kenneth
1823 2604892 104270 Laszlo Robert
1735 ........... 103959 Nadeau Benoit
1719 2606267 136932 Schwartz Saul 1
1649 ........... 104181 Wright Ken
1541 ........... 147351 Liu Dan
1418 ........... 120275 Levesque Andre
1402 2604698 145247 Jarmyn Tom
1400 2604205 135113 Eyre Keven 3
1161 ........... 147460 Wan Kevin

--------- original event announcement ---------

The EOCA is pleased to announce the first event of the 2008-2009 EOCA Grand Prix, the RA Fall Open. It is scheduled this year for the weekend after Labour Day. My plan is to spend lots of time with the family on the holiday weekend, thus earning time away to run the tournament the weekend after! :)

Back to the event details, to start this new season, the Top (>=2000) section will now be rated FIDE. In addition, regular participants from past EOCA events will notice that the prize fund is getting chunkier. We're still working on potential sponsorship, but even without that, we should exceed $3000.

On top of that, I used to offer discounts for GM and IM, and now there are also discounts for FM, and for the female equivalents: WGM, WIM, and WFM.

We are also happy to announce that we have formed a partnership with the Crowne Plaza Hotel for those of you who need a place to stay. If you are indeed interested in taking advantage of the rate we negotiated ($100! off their regular weekend rate), I recommend you reserve as soon as you can.

For complete details for this event, and a great webpage to bookmark for all of the events in the 2008-2009 EOCA Grand Prix, please go to this weblink:
http://www.eoca.org/htm/tournaments%202008-09.html

All the best,

Aris Marghetis, Organizer/TD
EOCA President, OCA/CFC Governor

[Craig Sadler]

Re: RA Fall Open (FIDE & CFC): good start to registrations

from the .pdf on CFC website

"Top section = $95 (Amateur = $45) & other sections = $75 (Amateur = $35)
Amateur players are ineligible for prizes, and cannot play up a section"

that sounds expensive to me for a weekend tournament, but it sounds like the people are coming. i guess for the top section a chunk has to go to FIDE fees. let us know how the tournament turns out!

[Aris Marghetis]

Re: RA Fall Open (FIDE & CFC): good start to registrations

Hi Craig, sorry for not replying sooner, but I was away (my email is way backed up! :(

I deliberately offered big discounts to play Amateur (for example, an U2000 RA Club member could play for only $30), but when I posted above, I was surprised that most people were not registering as Amateur. Let me catch up on my emails and I'll repost.

I hope we also get a lot of non-Ottawa players, as I believe many players find it more appealing to play at least some opponents that they have not played often before! :)