Chess in the US in the eyes of the English
Report from Las Vegas by Sabrina Chevannes
…I had heard lots of stories about American chess events, but never experienced them myself. Even at a junior stage, their tournaments are bigger and better than the English events.
…It was difficult to find where the chess was actually being held, as there were no signs anywhere, just hundreds of slot machines and gaming tables. The staff had no idea either!
…Some boards were half set up, some boards weren’t even there, people were everywhere, just gathering and having a chat. It seemed that by arranging things in this manner, the organisers didn’t have any control over when the game could start.
…At this point, the tournament was hotting up with Vallejo, Sokolov, Akobian, Shabalov and Mitkov all on 3.5/4. However, it wasn’t easy to find out this information, as there didn’t appear to be a results board in sight. I then discovered that I had to go on a bit of a trek to another floor to find the list of players and their results, which they had to fill in themselves!! I started to look at the tournament and wondered: did the organisers actually do any work themselves?
…All in all, my first impressions of a US tournament wasn’t great as it seemed like a very lazy and unprofessional way of running things…
Full article here.
She’s spot on.
“list of players and their results, which they had to fill in themselves!!”
I’ve always had to do that. No big deal. And why can’t you set up your own pieces?
There is nowhere else in the whole wide world where you have to bring your own sets and clocks. Nowhere! Not even for little junior school events, let alone big internationals like the one Chevannes visited.
jMac the kid is asking for something I think should be there. Respect. Any player…(I’m no longer one) knows what she experienced. Its a fact of life. And it’s not disrespectful to notice bad organization. The kid saw the shoddy work and just said so. Nothing wrong with that.
Anon (1/11/2012 @ 23:58 CST) says: “There is nowhere else in the whole wide world where you have to bring your own sets and clocks. Nowhere!”
Most large and medium US events require players to bring equipment. In fact, it should be clear that the larger the event, the harder it is to furnish equipment for all games. Plus, this organizer has always advertised that players must bring equipment, and it’s certainly well known that CCA events don’t provide sets/boards/clocks.
It would add significantly to the cost of holding the event – an additional cost that players would not welcome, because it would definitely be passed on, either through higher entry fees, or lower prize funds.
Even the various US national scholastic tournaments – for which USCF does provide sets and boards – don’t try to provide clocks. Good thing, too. Imagine the cost of buying, maintaining, transporting, securing and replacing (as needed) several thousand clocks.
How about reposting pairing in FIDE section (FIDE rule book says NO to that) and still leaving registeres players out form the pairing list?
This organizer has violated FIDE rules for decades. He also has no respect for titled players. Just ask GM Alex Onischuk about how this organizer insulted him after he won the US Championship.
I’ve thought of this situation many times over the years and I always arrive at the same answer: Americans prefer having higher prize money than conveniences…in Europe….it seems to be more of the opposite, I mean who’s paying for all those large computerized displays in Europe and ‘free’ buffet-style meals anyway!? It would really depend on weighing the good and bad of each individual tournament that makes YOU happy.
Quite frankly we should be happy we have tournaments at all!
probably in UK tea is served at your desk. In the great USA we go the break room and make it ourselves.. same principle – we bring our sets and clock ( which everyone has BTW) and play. Keeps the costs low.. what is wrong with that? what is wrong in updating the scoresheet.. The TD is a facilitator here – we will keep it that way and the rest of the world will follow our right way.
FIDE rules are not in place to make USA events run better. If the USA disrespects FIDE, then at the same time FIDE disrespects the USA. FIDE rules are created for the European style tournaments. FIDE ignores USA rules violations to get USA money and prevent them from revolting.
So let’s understand why people do what works for them. Famous European tournament are more likely to be invitational and small. Famous USA tournament are more likely to be large.
It is simple, people do what works for them.
American tournaments are definitely no-frills affairs, run on shoestring budgets. Frankly it’s amazing that they happen at all any more.
This article is extremely dishonest. The photo of Vallejo and Shabalov supposedly struggling to set up their Chronos clock is uncalled for. Anyone can see that the clock has been set at 40 moves.
Simon Ansell’s clock is used in all English tournaments and to suggest that he is struggling with a clock that he has used for years is appalling.
Two floors separating notice boards,bookshop and organisers from the playing hall is ideal.
Every room in Bally’s had a TV channel covering events including the chess and where it would be held.
No-one asks for information in a casino.Of course the punters have no idea of other events.
Did this person not talk to anyone?
Correction: I said that I have always had to write the results on the sheet on the wall. That isn’t quite right – I’ve always had to either do that or turn in the scoresheet at the director’s desk. I guess if I was from Europe I could have my butler do it. 🙂
What the prima donna should be complaining about is the crummy plastic sets that were provided (that she had to set up herself). Some of us take our own sets so we won’t have to play with the cheap plastic toy store ones.
We accept the chess Queen but not Queen like treatment in real life – no free lunches here – welcome to america – everyone does his/her part to keep the show going.. to call it lazy and unprofessional is putting a spin to it.
“nowhere in the world you bring chess sets?” you have to do it in America. BTW is’nt America America because it is THE ONE.
You must always listen to a beautiful lady. She’s completely correct. Americans don’t know how to organize tournaments. They only wanna grab money from chess players and take advantage of them.
The number of players who play in the world open in philly – i doubt there would be ONE tournament in your place on that scale.. just forgot. it is not possible bcoz the country itself the size of new hampshire.. LOL
Originally posted on uschess.org
Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:11 am:
I find it curious that Sabrina Chevannes’ article (“Chess in the US in the eyes of the English”) has been given the attention it has and almost laughable that none of the commenters here, at chessbase.com, or the various online publications that have picked up the story (susanpolgar.blogspot.com, thechessdrum.net. etc.) have noted what I consider to be the key limitation of her review: while Ms. Chevannes did happen to be in Las Vegas at the site of the North American Open, she DID NOT PLAY in the event. Just as I would not recommend against a sound opening I had never tried, I would not negatively review a tournament I had not participated in, and especially not without disclosing that to the reader.
Apparently, Ms. Chevannes did play some tournament chess during her visit to the U.S., participating in the extremely-well-received Northern California International hosted by Arun Sharma and Ted Castro the following week (the organization of which addressed many of the issues she raises in her article, see: http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11556/654 and http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11563/654). It is unfortunate that she dropped out of that event after two rounds. Had she played a complete tournament while in the U.S., perhaps she would have realized how misleading first impressions often are.
Sol Ludwig
New York, NY
Sabrina is proof positive of the power of English culture. One tiny island managed to create the biggest empire the world had ever seen and apart from a few terrible mistakes like Amritsa and concentration camps in South Africa, there was a pax Britannica around the world for over a hundred years, my point being Sabrina is half Chinese and half Jamaican.
“one tiny island created a biggest empire”; sorry the tiny island’s best days are behind them.. the free world is happy being led by a big island..w/o bowing to kings and queens…LOL
Weren’t great. Not wasn’t, weren’t.