The last time the Oregon Senior Open was run over-the-board was in 2019, uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201903100742. There was a choice between a 3-day schedule with one round on Friday night, two rounds on Saturday, and two rounds on Sunday with all of the rounds played at G/90;inc30 and a 2-day schedule with round one on Saturday morning at G/30;inc30 and then the schedule merging with the 3-day. If I recall correctly, twelve players chose the 3-day, eight players choose the 2-day, and two players took a half point bye for round 1. I think the players in the 2-day schedule found round 1 at G/30;inc30 to be a little too fast for their liking. Which one of the following do you think is better?
Play round one of the two day schedule at a slightly slower time control like G/45;inc30 or G/60;inc10, even though this means the players in the two-day schedule could be looking at a long day of chess on the Saturday.
Play rounds one and two of the two-day schedule at slightly slower time control like G/45;inc30 or G/60;inc10 and then merge the two schedules in round 3, even though this means the players in the two-day schedule will have to play two games at the faster time control.
Keep the format the same as it was in 2019, even though this means the players in the 2-day schedule will have to play round one at the much faster time control.
You might consider option 4: splitting into two sections and having it as a four round event, with two rounds Saturday and two on Sunday. Your tournament in 2019 had a rating spread of 959 points from high (2220) to low (1261), with every rating class in between represented. That means you’re going to get a lot of mismatches. Splitting into Open and U1800 for example will get more competitive games, keep the tournament as only two days, and unless you get a lot more players in the top section will guarantee to get you not more than one perfect score.
That’s a possibility and having it be four rounds with two rounds on Saturday and two rounds on Sunday is what we did with the 2020 version of the event that was held online, http://oregonchessfed.org/10th-Annual-Oregon-Senior-Open-(Online)-Results.pdf. We assumed the turnout would be lower with it being online and that four rounds would be enough to have only one perfect score and this turned out to be the case. I worry slightly that we might not get enough players for it to always be two sections, even when it’s held OTB.
If you’re worried that one section or the other might not get enough players you can always add the disclaimer, “sections combined at TD’s discretion”, or some variation on that theme.
Simple, increase the participation, have zero covid19 issues, and run the event chess.com
online. OTB tournaments for those 60+ are simply GROSSLY irresponsible. Period.
With all due respect to the other posters, you’re asking the wrong people. It’s your participants (or potential participants) who will decide what works best for them.
Taking it one step further, in my experience, you just have to try things and see what players respond to. I do still take informal polls one on one with the regulars at my events, but I have found on more than one occasion that people who tell me “this is what you should do” don’t show up when I set up an event the way they suggested.