Friday January 9, 2009
Game for a knock-out booty?
CHESS By QUAH SENG SUN
Imagine a tournament where every level pays a prize money.
I WANT to discuss a concept with you today. Imagine this: a knock-out tournament where the winners of each round gets to win some prize money.
Interesting concept, eh? The idea is definitely not new but it has not been tried anywhere here before. So why don’t we think about it? If our chess associations can find the sponsors, such a tournament may well become a new fixture in our local chess calendar.
I know what you readers are thinking, that finding sponsors may not be the easiest thing for chess organisers right now, seeing that 2009 will be a very challenging year with the global recession threatening our shores.
Therefore, this idea can only be a proposal for the future. Nevertheless, who knows, maybe it will be possible to find a sponsor today and the idea may well take off.
I’m talking about a knock-out tournament of maybe 60 to 80 players, but an ideal number will be 64, the number of squares on the chessboard but more importantly, 64 players will allow the field to be halved perfectly after every round right until we get the final two players.
In each round, the paired players will be required to play a mini-match of three games with the winner advancing to the next round. In case of a tie, the players will go into a play-off until there is an outright winner.
Now here are the interesting parts. The mode of play for the tournament will be very flexible. The players themselves will decide how they want to conduct their games. Thirty-minute time control? No problem. Sixty-minute time control? Also no problem. Just as long as the mini-match gets played and a result obtained.
Next, the players themselves decide when and where they want to play within a given time frame. It can be on a neutral ground or it can be in one of their houses. They decide and then they play. All results are then reported to the organising association.
The most interesting aspect of this idea is that the winners in each round will win a prize and the value of the prizes will double with each round.
For example, in a knock-out tournament of 64 players, the organisers may offer a RM20 prize for each of the 32 winners of the first round and the prize increases to RM40 each for the 16 winners of the second round. In the third round, the winners will get RM80 each and in the fourth round, it will be RM160 each for the winners. By the time we get to the fifth round, there’ll be four players left and the two winners will get RM320 each. The sixth and final round will determine the winner who will get RM640.
By my reckoning, a tournament such as this will need a prize fund of only RM3,940 and the eventual winner, having played in all six rounds, get to collect in every round. I shall leave it to you to work out how much the winner will receive. It’s by no means a small sum and half the field gets to win something.
Of course, I’m not thinking of only one tournament. We can have many running across the country at the same time, each catering to their particular area. The organising association only needs to coordinate the players, collect the results and determine the next set of players.
Moreover, if the national federation can play a coordinating role as well, they can even bring the final four or eight players from each tournament together to a central location for a finale. I think the possibilities are endless. What do you think? Is it possible?
Here is the full article.
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Susan, if I get your idea right…there will be 0 prize money for draws?? If that is the case…IT’S AN AWESOME IDEA.
Congratulations to Susan on winning $100,000, instead of chez-moi, just now.
Can anyone figure out what I’m talking about?
🙂
No.
First of all, this is not write-up by Susan, anonerds…
Second, there are no hard rules so the participants are likely to end up chessboxing….
Excellent tourny idea im down with that, yo Reagan you ready to play ive been putzin around too much, you gotta get me warmed up so i can smash p. blatny. haha, see ya soon.
Hi, Lionel, sorry we missed each other last month. I’m off to Montreal this weekend, until July. Except, I’m back in town on the 19th and Tue. Jan 20th, and it might be symbolic to play a game of your-style chess on either of those particular days…
The answer to my teaser is that Texas Tech and my University at Buffalo football teams both had spectacular last-minute touchdown plays that were finalists in the Pontiac $100,000 Game-Changing Performance Scholarship Challenge. Texas Tech won the vote. Who knows, perhaps the scholarship recipients will mind their Ps and Qs (and KRBNs) more than their Xs and Os!
Ok Regan cool the 19th and 20 is fine maybe we can play 2 or 4 games. The Langston Hughes Centre have agreed to let us play there see you then!Peace. Thanks Susy ,sorry i missed you in Niagara Falls maybe next time!
OK, send me an e-mail at regan [at] cse.buffalo.edu and we can make arrangements. Evening of the 19th probably best. I can suggest 2 games: the first your way, and maybe the second my-way, which is thematic for at least the first 8 moves.
To make this generally relevant: “my way” starts with players alternately placing pieces behind the row of Pawns, subject to Bishops on opposite colors, King between the Rooks, and maybe at least one Rook in a corner, without the symmetry requirement of FischerRandom Chess, but retaining its castling rule. Committing last gives Black the edge in the early going, which hopefully counteracts White’s first-move pull, and in particular enables Black to put Kings on opposite wings and create imbalance.