Pennsylvania State Open Checker Tournament 2013

[neilwenberg]

Outstanding posts by both Joe and John. It is young men like these two and others like them that make checkers and checker tournaments so great and enjoyable to play in. THX fellows!!

[Irma Sierra]

This letters go for Chexhero :

You are gold young man, with young ones as you, things would be different, you are so positive, full of life, always acting as mediator, always trying to explain well things, I have even read you in the Internet Checkers Federation and you act the same there, wish all the young ones were like you....thank you, always a pleasure to read you!
HONOR FOR WHO HONOR DESERVES!

[neilwenberg]

Irma, you are more than welcome to come to our 2013 Pennsylvania Open Checker Tournament when we have it next year! Hope you will accept the invite.

[Irma Sierra]

All paid? jajaja.....thank you!

[Jason Solan]

Joe really apprieciate your effort. For me to come the PA Open CT will have to be held at Carlisle, State College, or Lancaster Area. My preference is Carlisle and my perfered location there would be Dickinson College. I am in process of contacting "powers that be" at Dickeinson and if I find something out will relay it to Jason Solan.

Neil, if you like Carlisle, we can certainly use the Days Inn again. If you have some contacts at Dickinson, thats great and we can certainly explore it. I'm open to anything. I suggested State College because I didn't want to keep forcing it to be in Carlisle as I'm kind of biased to the town since I live there. The thing I don't like about Dickinson is that the closest motels/hotels are probably 1-2 miles away, which would require a bit of extra driving for players each day.

It was a great time and great success at the event. I played probably around 40 people and Jay and I gave them information regarding ACF and checkers. I gave everyone a business card and encouraged them to check out our site for membership and tournaments. Many seemed to be interested, so we will see what happens. Even if we just get one new member, its an improvement! But I do plan to do more events like these in the future.

Neil, this is just a thought of mine, but I was thinking maybe it would be best not to require ACF membership for newcomers in the next PA tournament. I think the admission price, along with the hotel and travel costs are enough for potential newcomers to handle. Why not just give them a trial run for their first tournament? We obviously want to do everything possible within reason to encourage tournament participation.

Joe that's outstanding. I really wish I could've been there, but I was in DC over the weekend and didn't get home until Sunday. Be sure to keep us posted on future events.

As far as newcomers getting a slide on membership.... I'm kind of torn. On one hand I completely understand that we need to get more players interested in the game. On the other hand, what's the point of having an official organization with members if the results of non-members are counted the same as members?

[Chexhero]

Well its not like non members have all the benefits of the ACF that actual members do. For example, no non member gets an official ACF rating, nor do they get a bulletin. But when it comes to tournaments, if they pay they admission then why not? And I am only saying to give them a pass on their first tournament. The fact is, not many people are going to be so sure to sign up for a membership to a game that they previously considered a kids game. But give them a pass to a tournament, and they may be more likely to change their mind. But this is Neil's tournament and I think he should decide what he wants.

[rich beckwith]

There are also cheaper Associate/Junior member options. The associate membership concept was set up long ago for new players trying out a tournament that required membership who might not be ready to pay for full membership.

[JohnAcker]

Perhaps we could give first-time players two options:

1. Pay up-front for an associate membership, to guarantee a rating after the tournament and the option to upgrade to a full membership.
2. No up-front costs, but deduct membership costs from any cash prize the first-time player wins. IIRC the Illinois Chess Association used a similar method to this; I won the beginner's division at a tournament and got a year's worth of ICA membership instead of cash.

[neilwenberg]

Some fantastically great postings by many indivduals here!! Jason, I am still in process of contacting both Dickinson College and PSU for playing places and will also ask them about possibility of players staying in dorms if one of the colleges allows us a free playing space.

[neilwenberg]

The following is my proposal for the 2013 PA Open CT. Jason Solan will have charge of dates and location, Richard Beckwith will handle prize money, collect entry fees, make sure of ACF membership, etc. I will be responsible for running tournament according to following proposal. It is my hope that tournament can be conducted on a Friday and Saturday, but will let Jason make that decision. Proposed 2013 Pennsylvania State Open Checker Tournament
All standard ACF rules will apply to this tournament and ACF membership will be required.
This will be a seven round, two game per round tournament. Two and a half hours will be the allotted time for each round.
In case of tied game scores, honor points will be used. X and Y are two prospective opponents. If X wins both games from Y, X will be awarded all of Y’s game points for honor points. If X wins one game and draws the other, X will be awarded ¾’s of Y’s game points for honor points. If X and Y split, X will be awarded ½ of Y’s game points for honor points. If X loses one game and draws the other, X will be awarded ¼ of Y’s game points as honor points. Of course if X loses both games, X will receive no game points as honor points. The lowest opponent will be dropped when computing honor points, thus only six opponent scores will count toward honor point accumulation.
Day one
Meeting will be from 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM
Round one 9:30 AM to 12 noon
Break for lunch 12 noon to 1 PM
Round two 1 PM to 2:30 PM
Round three 2:30 PM to 4 PM
Round four 4 PM to 5:30 PM
Break for supper 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Round five 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Day two
Round six 9 AM to 10:30 AM
Round seven 10:30 AM to 12 Noon
Awarding of prizes 12 Noon, tournament ended

[Alex_Moiseyev]

Neil,

90 minutes for 2 games ?! A bit challenging, don't you think so ? Something will be ruin: judging, not finishing normally games, etc And after all these "draws" rating will be calculated "per game" and someone tell me later: "Alex, why your rating is lesser that Ron King, Lubabalo Kondlo and Bagtiyar Durdyev ? "

I remember I played one time with one fellow Octopus. I had red in 1st game. He was completely freezed and spent alot of time on every move ... extremely painful. I was lucky slowly equalize game, get a small advantage in ending and round was over. Game was judged to draw (he simply didn't have enough time to screw it more !), second game was automatically agreed with draw. My opponent was so happy to drew round with me, that he posted this unique fact in local newspaper !

GRRR

Alex

[Palomino]

Alex,

I think you may have mis-read what Neil proposed above.

Neil wrote:

This will be a seven round, two game per round tournament. Two and a half hours will be the allotted time for each round.

That will give everyone 150 minutes for 2 games.

[Palomino]

Neil,

I'm sure that nearly everyone reading your proposal will know that this will be a 3 move tournament but it might be good to add that to your proposal so that there can be no misunderstanding.

"Pal"

[Alex_Moiseyev]

That will give everyone 150 minutes for 2 games.

How about this ...

Round two 1 PM to 2:30 PM
Round three 2:30 PM to 4 PM
Round four 4 PM to 5:30 PM
Break for supper 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Round five 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM

I think in order to solve problem and improve things, we should stick into more traditional round format 4-3 instead 5-2.

1st day

Rd.1 9:30-12:00
Rd.2 1:00-3:30
Rd.3 3:45-6:15
Rd.4 6:30-9:00

2nd day

Rd.5 9:00-11:30
.......11:30-12:30 - launch
Rd.6 12:30-3:00
Rd.7 3:15-5:45

Or something close to this. Another common practice - start 2nd day at 8:00 am

Alex

[JohnAcker]

Neil, I'm not sure I understand why the honor points need to be calculated that way. There are several existing formulas out there-- the simplest being to total the opponents' scores, dropping the lowest score-- so what advantages does your formula offer?