I have seen several tournaments labeled “congress”
Is there a format of tournament play–sections, time controls, that traditionally makes this term more applicable?
Rob Jones
At least traditionally, a congress had more activities than a mere large tournament: lectures, instruction, social activites, multiple small tournaments, and the like.
The concept of a traditional congress is very much alive in other organized games. The United States Go Association has a weeklong U.S. Go Congress each year, usually the same week as our U.S. Open. The thrice-annual North American Bridge Championships feature a variety of events for players of all skill levels over 11 days.
The National Chess Congress put on by CCA each Thanksgiving weekend has historically had a few features to distinguish it from a tournament (college alum competition springs to mind, and I think that may have been the tournament where the mixed doubles concept was launched). It seems less congressy than the go or bridge events, but it’s something.
I’d like to organize a traditional congress. I’d also like not to lose my shirt doing so. If only work and family commitments would give me time to figure out how.
For CCA tournaments, the distinguishing feature seems to be that there is a rating restriction for the top section, which is called “Premier” instead of “Open”.
From “An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess” by Edward R. Brace:
If each section is considered a “tournament”, most large tournaments in the U.S. are congresses under the above definition. If the tournaments have to be independent events then the World Open and possibly the U.S. Open and National Open are the best examples. Besides the main World Open event there several other tournaments and side events held at the same site and in a similar time frame: the Philadelphia International, World Open Women’s Championship, World Open Senior, World Open Under 13 Championship, World Open Under 2100, World Open Under 2300, World Open G/10 and Blitz Championships, daily 2 pm blitz events, and in previous years the World Open Warmup and World Open G/7 Championship. It also has GM lectures and analysis.
As I said in my previous reply, CCA uses the word “congress” to identify a particular type of tournament with a minimum rating requirement in the top section (not in all sections - that would be a class tournament).
I’ve seen it used so many different ways I would venture to say there is no uniform definition. I’ve seen some organizers use it to mean “higher entry fees and prizes than our normal fare but otherwise essentially the same tournament”.
I’d concur.
I have been one to look for names which “attract the participants” but, I wanted to get an idea how the term has been used in other events, so as to avoid outright
misuse of the definition. But, logically, it seems that Congress might best be used to describe a collection of different events occuring at the same location on the same
dates. For example, I remember an event in Tulsa, Oklahoma in which they ran a local or area event, the U.S. Senior, and a Women’s Championship over the same weekend. Would this meet the definition of a congress?? Or would all of the events need to be submitted as a whole to qualify??
Rob Jones
I think it is perfectly valid to use “Congress” for an event that has both the usual tournament and a few other things, possibly with conflicting schedules, possibly not. For instance, if you slip in a blitz, a bughouse, a scholastic and maybe a Chess 960. I played in one event where rounds of Chess 960 (IIRC at G/10 inc 10). The main event was 6 rounds two days, so there was time for an evening round Sat-Sun and a mornng round Sun-Mon. A blitz could be Sat night so a player could still play in the main event and the Chess 960 with judicious use of half point byes. Busy local players might not play in the main event but could hit the side events. The point is the alternate events don’t necessarily have to be one where the players would be conflicted over which one to play in.
The National Open I believe uses the word “Festival” which, aside from being more colorful, may be a bit more descriptive. But, that certainly that would be the type of thing that would meet the description of a “congress” as someone defined above for other types of games.
Absolutely not. The sub-events should be submitted once they’re done. You could certainly have a common base name with a qualifier for the specific sub-event so people doing an MSA lookup could easily find all of them.