The last weekend in April was the 14th Annual Space Coast Open and I was lucky enough to participate in this great event. It was held at the Crowne plaza resort in Melbourne Florida. The location was absolutely stunning and the weather was beautiful. I can't imagine a better location for a tournament.

Let's get to the reason you're reading this and find out how I did. Well I was very pleased with my results. I only played one person rated below me the entire event, and I was able to scrape together three draws and two wins. I don't think I've ever played a tournament where it didn't lose at least one game. The format of the tournament was five rounds with each game having a time control of 30 moves in 90 minutes and a one hour sudden death. Most of my games seem to come down to the wire with regards to time control. (I need to work on my clock management.) The good news is that I was able to surpass my old high rating mark of 1537 and came out of the tournament with a 1553 USCF rating. The hard work is starting to pay off.

I plan on posting all my games for this tournament in a future post so please stay tuned and check back. Below are several pitchers of the tournament. If you have a chance I highly recommend that you keep your calendar clear in late a April or early May so you to can attend this tournament.


View from My hotel room.

Empty hall before tournament

I'm the first one in the playing hall

The mental combat begins

A game for all ages

The guy in the blue shirt has beating me in my last three tournament. This time I got a draw WOOOHOOO!

Masters at work.

My last post was about chess cheaters and the best way to remove them from our beloved game. This post started a thread on rec.games.chess.misc and generated a very insightful comment that pointed out a shortcoming in the post. I was negligent in discussing what are valid prizes. This is a big deal because I believe that you shouldn't point out problems unless you are willing to provide a solution or at least work toward finding one. As you can probably guess this post will be all about prizes that are enticing to players, but are not the prizes cheaters will go after.

Let me start with cash. There is nothing wrong with cash prizes. The problem is excessive cash prizes. A cash prize that covers the tournament expenses is fine. A cash prize that's equivalent to a new car is not. Unfortunately it's too hard to distinguish between what's a safe amount and what's too much so it's probably a good idea to just stay away from cash. I am convinced that the players that are motivated by cash are in a small minority of players so eliminating this from all sections except the open shouldn't hurt attendance.

Now on to what I consider prizes that everyone can feel good about providing. Let's start with the old standby, trophies. Trophies are wonderful. Unlike money a trophy last forever. It's a great reminder of an event that you did well at and they say something about you. I did a little research and found that trophies have come a long way from when I was a little kid. We are not limited to plastic and marble bases anymore. The choices for trophies has grown considerably and the material ranges from plastic to crystal and everything in between. The price range for these items also varies considerably depending on the quality of the material and the complexity of the design. With all these options you can see that we could play and win several tournaments without getting the same kind of trophy twice.

The final prizes I would like to mention are books/equipment. These types of prizes are great because I can't think of a single chess player that isn't always trying to get there hands on more chess stuff. Books, DVD's, clocks, and high end chess sets are prizes that can be useful to chess players. Along these lines a training session with a local GM would also be very appealing. These prizes are only appealing to chess players. What would a chess cheat do with a free lesson?

The idea of moving away from cash prizes is not a new and radical change. There are plenty of other very successful competitive events that never give out money. I can't think of a 5K run that gives much more then t-shirts and many racquetball and orienteering races give shoes and other equipment as prizes. Chess at the non-professional level should be all about the love of the game not the cash prize.

Labels: Chess Cheats