Locally, we have the Northwest Chess Grand Prix (nwchess.com/gp/index.htm). The idea behind it is that it’s suppose to encourage chess activity by awarding cash prizes.
Based on our feedback, very few players care about our grand prix. One point that was brought up was that to win a cash prize you usually have to play in extra tournaments and the extra hotel costs, gas money, entry fees, etc. is way more than the amount of money a player wins in the grand prix.
I’ve asked locally what ideas people have to increase interest in the grand prix. The most common response was to update the standings more often (right now they are generally updated once a month and appear in the Northwest Chess Magazine). Someone also suggested having quarterly payouts instead of payouts just once a year.
What ideas do you have that would increase interest in the Northwest Chess Grand Prix?
Players gets points based on the number of points they score in the tournament (including byes) plus a 2 point bonus for each tournament they play in where they don’t withdraw or forfeit. Tournaments can have a multiplier if they have above a certain prize fund.
The total dollar amount of the prizes (compared to the prizes in the individual tournaments and in view of the cost of attending a tournament) doesn’t seem enough to tempt most players, although it’s a nice possible reward for those who are very active anyway. Many years ago, the WCF tried something called “Master Points” and awarded a number of places in the state championship tournament to those who accumulated the most in a year. The experiment wasn’t repeated, however.
Back in the mid- '80’s, as the Tournament Coordinator, I set up a Grand Prix for the Pittsburgh Chess Club. It was designed to increase tournament attendance. During the year around 20 different events were held. Players received 3 points for a win, 2 points for a draw, and 1 point for a loss. Since masters and experts were not playing very much, it gave a chance for U2000 players to shine. Quads and Game 30 events were a chance to make up ground on players who only played in two day, long time control events. There were mainly merchandise prizes: chess sets, chess clocks, books, software and a few cash prizes for 1st through 3rd place. We also had special prizes for juniors. As I recall, there were about 20 prizes given out. Comparing attendance with previous non-Grand Prix years, the prize system increased attendance by almost 40% and paid for itself. There was also an increase in club membership, as club members received entry fee discounts.
Grand Prix ideas were mentioned in Harkness’ “The Official Blue Book and Encyclopedia of Chess.” It was easy to adapt them for club purposes. We also used other ideas to create more variety in the type of events we ran. When you run the same type of event every month, player attendance starts to weaken. By trying new approaches, we broadened the base and provided more opportunities to score. For example, inexpensive trophy tournaments provided the same Grand Prix points as a cash tournament. Faster time controls appealed to younger people. Quad events and one day tournaments became more popular. We mixed it up to appeal to all sectors of the chess community. It even caused some of the 2000+ rated players to play more and try different types of events than they were used to.