US Cadet Championship

All Things Chess
1

In the national event bidding document it says that for the US Cadet Championship: “The event must be held prior to the U.S. Open.” That wasn’t the case this year. I guess this isn’t a hard rule?

Also, the time control listed for the event, “40/90, G/60” (which doesn’t state what the increment or delay is in the time control) could use updating. It’s been played at G/90;inc30 for a while now.

2

I think most of these aren’t hard rules in that the executive board can award these generally where they think makes the most sense, which may result in flexibility where bids are limited.

3

If it’s a choice between ‘have the event outside of the usual time window or not hold it’, the first option is almost always preferred. Some events don’t get multiple bids.

4

The initial bid was for the Cadet to again be held at the same time and place as a traditional multi-hundred player event with multiple FIDE rated sections held annually in June. That organizer uses DGT boards for the Cadet with the games on chess.com.

Then the US Junior/Senior Open bid (also in the Chicago suburbs) was moved about a month to the same date and leaving the Cadet with a direct conflict on the same weekend as the US Junior Open only a double digit number of miles away. To avoid that unanticipated conflict the date was moved to another event the organizer had scheduled that also had the top sections FIDE rated and also broadcast the DGT games.

The Cadet organizer’s annual tournament in June ended up roughly the same size as usual (maybe a little larger) while the the US Junior/Senior saw one event drop numbers slightly, another drop numbers significantly and the Medior went from 2025’s 107 players in G/90;+30 to 2026’s 4 players in G10;d10 (it more likely had zero players and the scheduled G/10 event was accidentally submitted under the wrong name).

5

U.S. Junior Open
This event is restricted to players age 20 and under. The expected attendance is approx. 100
players. Recently, it has been co-located with the U.S. Senior Open (see above).
Note: this event has special requirements as detailed in the US Chess Scholastic Regulations.
Dates: Fall (flexible)
Format: 6-SS or 7-SS, with a time control of no more than four hours total reflection time over
60 moves, with two rounds per day. Typically, this event has multiple age-restricted sections.
Site: 2,000 to 4,000 sq. ft.
Prizes: Cash (for the U.S. Junior Open champion) and trophies.
Suggested EF: $85-110
Bidding Deadline: March 31.

Has the USJO ever been in the fall?

6

If so, it was in 2009 if it was in the last 34 years.

Is the Junior just more volatile in attendance? I see 66, 202, 150, 199, 108, 82 (Covid), 213, 118…

Similarly, the US G/60 has been a 1-day 4-round event and the US G/30 a 1-day 5-round event for all results I can find going back at least 15 years.

7

Post-Covid the same organizer has run the Junior and Senior in the Chicago land area and the Medior for four years. 2021-2025 were in July and 2026 was in June. The numbers below may be inflated by MUIR (the old MSA counted only unique IDs, not re-entries, section changes or players having additional games in the extra rated games section..

The US Junior numbers have been 2021=85; 2022=110; 2023=226; 2024=150; 2025=206; 2026=66.

The US Senior numbers have been 2021=10; 2022=50; 2023=79; 2024=86; 2025=90; 2026=59

Medior: 2023=12; 2024=8; 2025=107; 2026=(0?)

8

I see they’re not exactly what is displayed on the current rating search, but that’s close to the numbers that has.

Difficult to plan if attendance can vary by more than 100 players a year.

9

That’s true, but the variation can be driven by things other than randomness. Since I’m more familiar with the US Senior, I’ll use that as an example and hope that Kevin Bachler will correct any errors I might make.

  1. How early the bid is awarded is a significant factor. When the US Senior was set in January, attendance has been great, because seniors could plan ahead. When it was announced very late, attendance drops.
  2. In case the first item sounds like a poke at US Chess, it’s not. Availability of the playing site is not always easy to secure in a timely enough fashion to facilitate a timely bid. I don’t really know which comes first, the chicken or the egg, but the organizer is caught between the requirements of both US Chess and the proposed site. I would lay odds that the June dates this year were neither the organizer’s choice nor US Chess’.
  3. Always having the event in the same city is a mixed bag. For people living within range, it’s great, but even then it can become old hat. “There’s always next year”. For people who live elsewhere, other cities would be great. But US Chess has never once accepted a bid proposal that was not made.

Posting as a senior, not as a moderater.

10

Oh, yes, 100% agree on all of your points. Just timing between US Chess events on its own can be difficult.

11

A bidding deadline of March 31 for an event that actually is likely to be held in early summer seems a bit tight.

12

There are a number of issues with the US Chess bidding document.

13

So the G/60 isn’t being run with 7 rounds and the G/30 isn’t being run with 10-11 rounds like the bidding document suggests? It seems odd that the bidding document recommends these number of rounds for these tournaments, especially 10-11 rounds for the G/30.

Also, according to the bidding document, somehow the G/60 is sometimes co-located with itself.

14

Correct. For G/60:

2026 - 4 rounds. US Chess
2025 - 4 rounds. US Chess
2024 - 4 rounds. US Chess
2023-2021 ???
2020 - Cancelled
2019 - 4 rounds. US Chess
2018 - 4 rounds. US Chess

You could run the 7 round and 10-11 round versions, but they would each need to be two-day events.