I am a new USCF member, unrated. I would like to play in a tournament, but I am clueless as to how to read the announcements in Chess Life, or on the website. Too much undefined jargon for this noob. What is the difference between a “Grand Prix” and a “Jr. Grand Prix”? What is a “Heritage Event”? I am 49, so I am NOT looking for a scholastic event. I really don’t know what I am seeking. What is a good way for an old noob to join the tournament scene? I live in northern Indiana, and don’t want to travel more than 3 hours by car, so Indy, Toledo, Chicago are all good. But I just don’t know how to get started. Please help.
Grand Prix events are ones that guarantee at least $500 in prizes to masters. You probably don’t need to worry about them yet.
Junior Grand Prix is an annual competition for players under 21, you don’t need to worry about those, either. (However, adults can play in many/most JGP events.) JGP events have slower time controls, so each game lasts longer. The idea behind JGP is to encourage young players to play slower chess, as most people think that helps them improve.
A Heritage event is one that has been around a long time, that usually tells you they’re well run.
You probably want to look for smaller events with lower entry fees at first. Until you have a published rating, you can generally only win top prizes (1st, 2nd, etc) or prizes specifically for unrated players. It takes 4 games to get a published rating (ratings lists are issued monthly, computed on the 3rd Wednesday of the month and taking effect on the first day of the next month), but some organizers will limit prizes for players with not very many games, because those ratings aren’t very reliable yet.
The terse coding used in tournament life announcements takes some getting used to. These codes were developed to save space in the magazine, online TLAs don’t really need them but there’s no easy way to decode them once they’ve been encoded, and it would be tricky to maintain two sets of descriptions (one encoded, one expanded) and make sure they were identical.
You might want to come to the Burr Ridge Chess Club Friday night. There is often a 1 or 2 round rated event that is done. The club meets Friday night from 6:30-10pm at Harvester Park in Burr Ridge. This is located on Harvester drive, which is off of frontage road [north side of I-55]. This is the near southwest suburbs of Chicago. Easiest [not quickest] is to exit I-55 at Kingery Highway [IL Rte 83] north, Turn right at the first stop light [Between Holiday inn & Target] & go straight until street ends, then turn right & again go until street ends [at frontage road], go left past stop light and you will go around a curve which will have a left turn lane to take you onto Harvester drive. Another option would be the Renaissance Knights Quest event on Sunday January 20. The Quest is 4 rounds of chess in 1 afternoon. You can likely find information on both on the Illinois Chess Association web site. State web sites are a good place to look for tournaments.
Larry S. Cohen
Moved to Running Chess Tournaments.
There are at least three tournaments in Chicago (or suburbs) this weekend.
On Saturday (January 19) there is a one-day low-cost event in Evanston, the first suburb north of Chicago near the lake. Check out http://evanstonchess.org. That one has a fairly fast time control, G/40 d/5 (game in 40 minutes [per player] with a 5-second delay per move). You should register no later than Wednesday, as it tends to fill up and space is limited.
If you want a more leisurely pace, and are willing to spend a little more money (and vie for prizes), check out http://chichess.org for a three-day event (one round Friday night, two rounds Saturday, two rounds Sunday) near downtown Chicago. Time control is something like 40/100 SD/30 inc/30 (40 moves in 100 minutes, then sudden death in 30 minutes, all with a 30-second increment per move).
I think there may be one or two others, which you can look up at the Illinois Chess Association website, http://il-chess.org.
Bill Smythe
The new tournament player has to ask himself several questions.
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What types of tournaments do I want to play in? You have several options: local, regional, national. Some players are content to play on the local level and not travel much. Those with more ambitions and time may prefer to play in larger, regional events or at least mix a few in with local play. Because you live in northern Indiana, you have more options to play in IL, MI, OH, and IN than someone who lives in NE or SD. You also have to determine whether you prefer one day or two day or more tournaments. Most tournaments today are one day events with fast time controls. If you prefer slower time controls, expect to search for bigger events that are in cities than in local towns.
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How often do I want to play in tournament? This is going to vary by the amount of time you are able to give to it depending on family and work obligations. While local tournaments can be inexpensive, if you want to play in bigger events, the amount of money spent goes up 10X or more. You will also have consider the time you are able to commit to preparing, to study between tournaments if you plan on being successful to any degree. Playing frequently in tournaments can be a grind. Playing only once or twice a year seems to miss the point of being a competitor. You must determine what is the most comfortable schedule for you.
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What are your goals? If you think in short term, mid-term, and long term goals, then you will find it easier to organize your study as well as the type of tournaments you play in. If you don’t care about results or rating, then you will likely seek out tournaments that are more sociable and fun, and which have other recreation venues to attend on a long weekend. Also, it is a lot more fun to go with friends or family than go alone.
As far as the symbols to pay attention to, I would focus on the following:
4ss = Four round tournament in the Swiss System format
Rds = times when rounds start during the day. Many tournaments start at 10 am for the first round. Other round times follow.
TC = time control. Example, Game 60, d5 means that you will play with one time control of 60 minutes with a 5 second delay. Most one day tournaments range from Game 30 to Game 75 with some sort of delay or increment time. Learn how to set your clock before the event.
EF = entry fee. Some tournaments have a lower advance entry fee. See what the advance and on site entry fee is.
HR = hotel room fee. This may be your biggest expense, so pay attention to the fee schedules. Expect taxes to be between 12% to 17% . Also note if there are any parking fees that are not covered under HR.
Byes = If you cannot play or do not want to play a particular round, you can request a 1/2 bye. The usual practice is to ask in advance at registration. Some TDs will allow you to take a bye later in the tournament, but you should establish what the policy is early on.
Any other symbol can be asked about at registration or a pre-tournament communication with the TD. There is usually a chart in Chess Life which explains what some of them are, but the above is pretty much all you need to know. BTW, get yourself a copy of the Rulebook, or download recent developments from the US Chess website. You may think you might not need one, until you do. More explanations of tournament play, specific rules, how pairings are made, and other information is in the Rulebook. New players are often dazed by reading the Rulebook, but you will pick up valuable tips to make your entrance to tournament play so much easier.
State web sites to find tournaments in those states:
IL
il-chess.org/
IN
indianachess.org/
MI
michess.org/
OH
ohchess.org/
Some open tournaments have scholastic-only sections. It is not uncommon for the open sections of such tournaments to have a lot of the players being scholastic players that are comparatively stronger than the scholastic players that stayed in the scholastic sections.
A year ago I would have been quite hesitant to ask a new-comer to purchase the rulebook. Now that it can be downloaded without a charge I am much less hesitant. Note how to keep score (write down the moves), the difference between determining and completing a move, what time controls are, how to use the clock. Ask what the penalty is for a cell phone going off (at a local club with a casual attitude there may not be a penalty for a first offense while an event in the area that is also being rating internationally may have loss of game for a first offense).
Play a few casual games using a clock (if you haven’t already) so that you don’t get flustered by using one for the first time in a rated game.
Other people have given you some good information, but I’ll add the following:
The first thing you always need to look for is whether there are restrictions regarding who can play. What really makes a tournament “scholastic” is that entry is restricted to people under a certain age (or a certain range of school grades, such as K-12). But there are many tournaments that are open to players of all ages, and the biggest hazard is that you may find it humiliating to be beaten by a young kid.
The two basic tournament formats are Round Robin and Swiss.
It’s extremely rare to have a true Round Robin, since the number of rounds would need to be one less than the number of participants (since every player plays every other player). A common compromise is Quads, in which players are divided into groups of 4 based on rating, and every player in each quad plays every other player in that quad (i.e., 3 games in all). There is normally no absolute winner in Quads, since players from one quad don’t play players from other quads. Quad tournaments usually have a standard procedure for placing unrated players. Quads are usually designated in ads either as Quads or as “3RR” (round robin with 3 rounds).
A Swiss is a tournament form that is designed to come up with an overall winner without the enormous number of rounds a true Round Robin would require. The initial rounds of a Swiss try to match players of widely differing playing abilities, and subsequent rounds try more and more to pair players with comparable win-loss records, so that the final round will usually pair people with nearly equal playing abilities. Advantages to the Swiss format are that (1) good players usually get easy wins in the early rounds while poorer players get good experience playing people who are better than they are, (2) an overall winner is chosen (assuming the Swiss has enough rounds for the number of participants), and (3) it’s easier for a player who’s improved to quickly improve their rating (since a lower rated player who beats a much higher rated player in an early round is likely to see a big boost in their rating). Disadvantages are that many players will usually have no chance of actually winning anything. A common way Swiss tournaments deal with this disadvantage is to have rated sections (in which only players whose rating is below a certain number can participate). But these sections are normally only open to players who already have a rating. You will commonly see Swiss System tournaments designated in ads as, e.g., 4SS (Swiss System with 4 rounds).
Another thing you will probably want to consider is time controls. The simplest time controls are Game time controls, in which each player has a certain amount of time to make all their moves in each game. G/30 d5, for example, means each player has 30 minutes to make all of their moves, and the clocks will be set to count off 5 seconds on each move before they start timing. But some tournaments have more than one time interval. For example, 40/80 15/30 SD/30 d0 means that each player will need to make 40 moves in the first 80 minutes, then 15 moves in the next 30 minutes, and then all their remaining moves in the next 30 minutes (hence the designation SD=Sudden Death), and if they fail to meet any of these requirements, they will lose on time, and the d0 means that there is no delay after each clock button press before it begins timing. One of the reasons Game time controls have become so popular is because they place an absolute limit on how long each round can last. Some tournaments nowadays use an increment rather than a delay. If d5 is specified, for example, and a player makes some of their moves in less than 5 seconds, this doesn’t provide them with any benefit. But if i5 is specified, and a player makes some of their moves in less than 5 seconds, they will actually get credit for the seconds they didn’t use.
Bob
I think you’ll find it easier if you can connect with other experienced chess players in your area.
Several years ago Chesterton used to have some nice tournaments run by Harold Henderson. I don’t think those still happen. But there is still a group meeting regularly in Chesterton, if that helps you. Check Facebook: Chesterton Chess and Go: from 6-8 on Thursdays at the Red Cup Café. facebook.com/groups/158013981561843/about/
Also check wheretoplaychess.info/ and choose Indiana. Hope this helps.
Whether you are a tournament virgin or an experience tournament veteran there are usually a few things all chess player look for in a tournament. They look at the time controls to be used, the entry fee, the prize fund [or prizes they hope to win], travel time to and from the tournament, and round times [in case of a need for a half point bye].
As far as the tournament short-hand in the tournament announcements, there should still be a listing with explanations of these at the beginning of the tournament life announcements in the monthly Chess Life [both the paper and the online version]. Most common is 4-SS for a 4 round swiss tournament. In a Swiss system tournament the players are ranked by their rating [unrated players at the bottom], split into two groups, the higher rated group is paired against the lower rated group. The top pairing is randomly determined as to which color the higher rate player gets, then that color is alternated. So play 1 could have White in the first round and then player 2 would have Black. After the first round players with the same score [1 for a win, 1/2 for a draw, & 0 for a loss] are paired against each other & again the groups of players are split in half with the higher half getting their due color if possible. The due color is usually the other color of what you just played, although sometimes a player gets the same color twice in a row and will then have the other color for the next game.
Chesterton may be the closest location to you currently. In the summer months there may be tournaments in Park Forest, maybe Glenwood, maybe Joliet on a Saturday. You should also check out the Illinois Chess Vets for their tournaments. They are at an American Legion Hall in Worth, located on 111th street just east of Harlem avenue.
Hope the above has been helpful.
Larry S. Cohen