Suppose one wanted to hold an open, single-section, rated tournament in a city near the intersection of three mutually contiguous states (we’ll call them Cherokee, Missiconic and Jeffersonia) and hoped specifically to draw players form all three states. Would it be (a) legal and (b) practical to offer a separate prize to the top player from each state? Is there any technical difference between these and, say, class prizes or junior prizes? Would it be required to offer an overall first-place prize in addition to first-from-state prizes? If so, suppose the top player came from Cherokee: Would it be required to award him the Top Player from Cherokee prize as well, or would that prize go to the Cherokeean player with the second-best performance? What would one do with, say, the Jeffersonia state prize if nobody from Jeffersonia attended?
Am I courting perdition by merely inquiring about this scenario?
This prize stuff is all covered in the rulebook in excruciating detail. Any journey along the road to perdition should begin by reading that section of the rulebook.
(But already I wonder what happens when you’ve got lots of strong players from Jeffersonia, and none from Cherokee.)
If the prizes are monetary then a player can only win one prize (could be something like two halves of two prizes if there are two players tied - see 32B1). So a 5-0 Missiconic player would get the overall prize while two 4-1 Missiconic players in the same event would split the top Missiconic prize.
If there is a first place monetary prize and state trophies then the 5-0 Missiconic player would get the overall first and the first place Missiconic trophy (see 32F and 33D2).
32C3 and the TD tip under 32C4 covers the case with no Jeffersonia players (no prize awarded).
Well, if only one player from Cherokee showed up, s/he’d win the prize just for representing. Similarly, if two, the stronger player would win the prize, even if the stronger player were weak compared with the rest of the field. It’s only the zero condition that raises concerns.
(It dawns on me belately that your parenthetical comment may have been a joke, in which case I think strong players from Jacksonia would pose more of a worry.)
And I have read those sections of the rulebook, but wouldn’t you agree that even if something seems legal, it’s still good to ask others with more experience whether it’s actually a good idea?
Actually, I wasn’t kidding, but I also wasn’t clear.
What I meant was “what happens if you get lots of strong players from Jeffersonia, and only weaker players from Cherokee.” I think the stronger players from Jeffersonia will be dissatisfied with the prize structure if that happens.
That might be an reason to not have state prizes. What would be the reason in favor of having state prizes?
To answer your question, no, there is nothing wrong (wrong == illegal) with your plan. Some people have brought up objections that some of the players may have, but that wasn’t the initial question. A couple of other things to think about:
First, Grand Prix points would be based on place prizes only.
Second, players from a fourth state, or possibly a foreign country, who just happened to be in the area might prefer if there were some prize available to everyone so that they would have a chance at winning something.
Consider: if you are the best player from the weaker state, would you travel to the stronger state to compete against stronger players? Would you make the trip if there were a prize you could actually win?
I think that’s the argument. My personal opinion is that this prize structure is just asking for trouble.
This has been done in the past at some of the US Amatuer Team events. Specific prizes for teams from specific states. Also, at this year’s US Open there was a specific special prize for the top player rated U2000 from the state of Washington. 1) you must make it perfectly clear who qualifies for a specific prize. 2) you must decide if there is a limit [i.e. 1 prize per person, or the ability (such as a junior, senior, or other special prize) to win more than 1 prize. 3) how will the various chess players and potential chess players feel about such prizes [i.e. out-of-state players visiting relatives or on business].
There are always a lot of variables when trying to figure out a good prize distribution. Good luck, and I suggest playing around a little with the numbers.