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looking for feedback on Ottawa weekenders
Hi chess friends and families!
The EOCA (Eastern Ontario Chess Association) is finalizing their 2011-2012 schedule. This series is also known as the EOCA GP (Grand Prix). This season should consist of 8-10 tournaments, and out of those, it looks like there will continue to be 5 weekend events in Ottawa, at the traditional RA Centre site.
I expect to be involved with many, if not all, of the Ottawa weekenders, and I am looking for any feedback that I might not be aware of yet. We found last season to be relatively successful. The only aspect where we seemed to take a bit of a step back, in my humble opinion, was in experimenting with having a special event of 6 rounds over the Canada Day long weekend. Whereas it was a fantastic atmosphere at that tournament, the attendance numbers were lower than previous years, where that event had been held earlier during the month of June. That is easy to fix, and we are already aiming for early June.
Before proceeding, I just want to point out that the decision to have that special event on the Canada Day long weekend, was based tremendously on very strong encouragement from quite a few players at the 2010 Canadian Open. However, virtually none of those same players actually ended up attending! The reason I bring that up is because if you would like to provide feedback, I urge you to tell me what YOU actually think and feel. If I may suggest, refrain from telling me what you think MOST OTHERS think and feel. I really want to hear what would make YOU consider playing in one or more Ottawa events. Then it will be up to myself and other key people in the EOCA to determine what we keep the same, what we change, and so on. Also, please note that from my experience, when I post something like this, only about 20% of the replies are actually publicly posted. The high majority are sent to me by email. So in other words, even if your feedback, at first glance, looks unique or contrarian, there may already be many others who would vote for the same changes!
1) The local Chess&Math team does a great job in running monthly half-day tournaments for kids. However, between those only-CMA-rated events and the EOCA CFC(& FIDE) full weekend events, there is a big gap. This gap is big for both the kids considering "moving up", and also for established players who end up "playing down" vs. such kids. In fact, I suspect that this situation "costs us" both some lower-rated adults, and potentially strong chess kids.
PROPOSAL: My Ottawa weekend events will have a separate kids section that is only rated CMA. It will be the same as the regular sections, except that all players are less than 16 years old, no cash prizes, and lower entry fees. Of course, strong kid players can choose to play up in a regular CFC section.
2) At the Canada Day long weekend this summer, because we had 6 rounds, we had to structure the sections to be relatively larger. However, one nice benefit of this was that many players appreciated meeting multiple opponents that they were not that familiar with. Therefore, I would like to emphasize slightly larger sections than before, perhaps with some sort of accelerated pairings in the earlier rounds. In addition, some of the lower-rated players would really like to "play up". Many of them are veteran players who are capable of stealing big upsets, love to socialize during postgame analysis, etc.
PROPOSAL: Aside from the CMA section proposed above in the 1st point, there would be 2 regular sections, the top CFC&FIDE section, and an Amateur CFC-only section. CFC membership would apply to both of these sections, and players are free to decide which one to play in, regardless of their rating(s).
3) With CFC-only and CMA-only sections being "Amateur", in other words, having no cash prizes, entry fees can be lower. In addition, we can have more class prizes in the CFC&FIDE section, and any extra available funding can be used to make these class prizes "flatter", injecting competitive excitement.
PROPOSAL: Experiment with prize structures where virtually everyone feels that they have a genuine chance to win a decent cash prize, regardless of their rating. One idea off the top of my head is that after the top three prizes, using peak ratings, have the same cash prize every 100-200 rating points?!
4) Regarding early registration discounts, some people have already expressed disappointment with that model. Despite the possibility of deferring registrations to future events, some people feel that the previous early registration discounts forced them to decide earlier than they would really like to.
PROPOSAL: Compress and simplify all the early registration discount periods to within the same month, and offer an email registration discount. In other words, people get the discount based on the date they email me. If they find out that they can no longer make it, then they simply email me to un-register.
Please feel free to post or email your feedback. I would prefer posts, so that others can comment too, but I understand some people prefer email. Time is now tight for our next event, being planned for late September, so please provide your feedback as soon as feasible, so that it can be considered in time.
Thanks and regards,
Aris Marghetis
Organizer/TD
P.S. Round 3 (Saturday evening) was the subject of most bye requests. So, we are leaning towards moving the rounds to 7pm-10am-3pm-10am-3pm.
The EOCA (Eastern Ontario Chess Association) is finalizing their 2011-2012 schedule. This series is also known as the EOCA GP (Grand Prix). This season should consist of 8-10 tournaments, and out of those, it looks like there will continue to be 5 weekend events in Ottawa, at the traditional RA Centre site.
I expect to be involved with many, if not all, of the Ottawa weekenders, and I am looking for any feedback that I might not be aware of yet. We found last season to be relatively successful. The only aspect where we seemed to take a bit of a step back, in my humble opinion, was in experimenting with having a special event of 6 rounds over the Canada Day long weekend. Whereas it was a fantastic atmosphere at that tournament, the attendance numbers were lower than previous years, where that event had been held earlier during the month of June. That is easy to fix, and we are already aiming for early June.
Before proceeding, I just want to point out that the decision to have that special event on the Canada Day long weekend, was based tremendously on very strong encouragement from quite a few players at the 2010 Canadian Open. However, virtually none of those same players actually ended up attending! The reason I bring that up is because if you would like to provide feedback, I urge you to tell me what YOU actually think and feel. If I may suggest, refrain from telling me what you think MOST OTHERS think and feel. I really want to hear what would make YOU consider playing in one or more Ottawa events. Then it will be up to myself and other key people in the EOCA to determine what we keep the same, what we change, and so on. Also, please note that from my experience, when I post something like this, only about 20% of the replies are actually publicly posted. The high majority are sent to me by email. So in other words, even if your feedback, at first glance, looks unique or contrarian, there may already be many others who would vote for the same changes!
1) The local Chess&Math team does a great job in running monthly half-day tournaments for kids. However, between those only-CMA-rated events and the EOCA CFC(& FIDE) full weekend events, there is a big gap. This gap is big for both the kids considering "moving up", and also for established players who end up "playing down" vs. such kids. In fact, I suspect that this situation "costs us" both some lower-rated adults, and potentially strong chess kids.
PROPOSAL: My Ottawa weekend events will have a separate kids section that is only rated CMA. It will be the same as the regular sections, except that all players are less than 16 years old, no cash prizes, and lower entry fees. Of course, strong kid players can choose to play up in a regular CFC section.
2) At the Canada Day long weekend this summer, because we had 6 rounds, we had to structure the sections to be relatively larger. However, one nice benefit of this was that many players appreciated meeting multiple opponents that they were not that familiar with. Therefore, I would like to emphasize slightly larger sections than before, perhaps with some sort of accelerated pairings in the earlier rounds. In addition, some of the lower-rated players would really like to "play up". Many of them are veteran players who are capable of stealing big upsets, love to socialize during postgame analysis, etc.
PROPOSAL: Aside from the CMA section proposed above in the 1st point, there would be 2 regular sections, the top CFC&FIDE section, and an Amateur CFC-only section. CFC membership would apply to both of these sections, and players are free to decide which one to play in, regardless of their rating(s).
3) With CFC-only and CMA-only sections being "Amateur", in other words, having no cash prizes, entry fees can be lower. In addition, we can have more class prizes in the CFC&FIDE section, and any extra available funding can be used to make these class prizes "flatter", injecting competitive excitement.
PROPOSAL: Experiment with prize structures where virtually everyone feels that they have a genuine chance to win a decent cash prize, regardless of their rating. One idea off the top of my head is that after the top three prizes, using peak ratings, have the same cash prize every 100-200 rating points?!
4) Regarding early registration discounts, some people have already expressed disappointment with that model. Despite the possibility of deferring registrations to future events, some people feel that the previous early registration discounts forced them to decide earlier than they would really like to.
PROPOSAL: Compress and simplify all the early registration discount periods to within the same month, and offer an email registration discount. In other words, people get the discount based on the date they email me. If they find out that they can no longer make it, then they simply email me to un-register.
Please feel free to post or email your feedback. I would prefer posts, so that others can comment too, but I understand some people prefer email. Time is now tight for our next event, being planned for late September, so please provide your feedback as soon as feasible, so that it can be considered in time.
Thanks and regards,
Aris Marghetis
Organizer/TD
P.S. Round 3 (Saturday evening) was the subject of most bye requests. So, we are leaning towards moving the rounds to 7pm-10am-3pm-10am-3pm.
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