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Daniel Rocks
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Joined: 30 Jan 2007
Posts: 305
Location: A galaxy far far away...
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 Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 11:13 am Post subject: East Dunbartonshire Congress |
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Pleased to confirm the 1st East Dunbartonshire Congress is going ahead.Full details can be found on the CS Calendar. Top section will be FIDE-rated and restricted to players with FIDE-rating below 2200 in order to meet regulations.
Early entries would be greatly appreciated in order to gauge numbers. Donald Wilson will be chief arbiter.
Entry List which will be updated periodically can be viewed here:
http://www.chessscotland.com/tournament.php?tid=7375611060893
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Daniel Rocks
Last edited by Daniel Rocks on Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:31 pm; edited 4 times in total |
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Daniel Rocks
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Joined: 30 Jan 2007
Posts: 305
Location: A galaxy far far away...
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| Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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This is in light of the poor entry for the Scottish Championships.
I have only had 5 entries (3 of which are personal friends who said they would play as a favour) and have not received any for around 2 weeks. I would encourage those who are interested in playing to enter as soon as possible otherwise I will be forced to consider cancelling the tournament so as to lessen the inconvenience to those involved in helping me.
I am not prepared to run the tournament unless there is sufficient interest. Really we need at least 30 players to make the tournament feasible.
Thanks
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Daniel Rocks |
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AMcHarg
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Joined: 19 Nov 2008
Posts: 623
Location: Livingston, Scotland
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| Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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The vast majority of entries for tournaments come within a couple of weeks of the tournament start date. It's a pretty frightening curve actually, so don't be too worried about it at the moment.  |
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Keith S Rose
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Joined: 07 Mar 2007
Posts: 107
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| Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 11:05 pm Post subject: |
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Daniel - I can understand you being concerned, but as Andrew says late entries are normal. I sometimes think it is in the genes of many chess players to think 'I'll wait until the last minute to see how many ulcer-induced sleepless nights a late entry can cause'  OK, perhaps not, it's probably more like 'One late entry won't make much difference', overlooking that a number of others might be thinking the same way. This definitely makes for an anxious time and I imagine that these people don't really appreciate the pressure this puts on organisers
As an illustration, seven days prior to last year's Dundee congress, we had only 67 entries. By the Tuesday we had stumbled to 90 and over the next few days, including the Friday of the congress this rose to 122. In 2009 those numbers were 46, 114, 122.
So, a message to anyone intending to enter Daniel's event (and others) - if you can commit, please get your entries in sooner rather than later. It makes a difference. |
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Ian McLachlan
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Joined: 31 Jan 2007
Posts: 63
Location: Lanark
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 8:54 am Post subject: |
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| So far we've had 11 entries for the 32 places in the Lanark Weekly Open (our own members bar a couple of exceptions) and no new entries for several weeks. I'm still optimistic though! |
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Phil Thomas
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Joined: 26 Mar 2007
Posts: 758
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:59 am Post subject: |
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| Daniel Rocks wrote: | This is in light of the poor entry for the Scottish Championships.
I have only had 5 entries (3 of which are personal friends who said they would play as a favour) and have not received any for around 2 weeks. I would encourage those who are interested in playing to enter as soon as possible otherwise I will be forced to consider cancelling the tournament so as to lessen the inconvenience to those involved in helping me.
I am not prepared to run the tournament unless there is sufficient interest. Really we need at least 30 players to make the tournament feasible.
Thanks |
Daniel,
I wasn't out of the country at the time I would play.
It looks like my son Daniel will play - a few logistical problems remain to be solved.
Its an unfortunate feature of chess players that they leave decisions to the last minute - too used top playing key phase of the game when their clock goes below 5 minutes.
Have patience |
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GN
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Joined: 30 Mar 2007
Posts: 415
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| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Phil Thomas wrote: |
Its an unfortunate feature of chess players that they leave decisions to the last minute - too used top playing key phase of the game when their clock goes below 5 minutes.
Have patience |
Most events charge extra for late entries i.e. those made a few days before event. Possibly an alternate strategy would be to offer discounts to players that book well in advance e.g. 1 month in advance saves 25% discount, 2 weeks before gets 10% etc.? |
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AMcHarg
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Joined: 19 Nov 2008
Posts: 623
Location: Livingston, Scotland
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 8:13 pm Post subject: |
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| GN wrote: | | Phil Thomas wrote: |
Its an unfortunate feature of chess players that they leave decisions to the last minute - too used top playing key phase of the game when their clock goes below 5 minutes.
Have patience |
Most events charge extra for late entries i.e. those made a few days before event. Possibly an alternate strategy would be to offer discounts to players that book well in advance e.g. 1 month in advance saves 25% discount, 2 weeks before gets 10% etc.? |
The difficulty with this is that if most players do enter early then you won't have enough money to run the event, and so prize money could be affected (which won't be popular). On top of that, the entry fee the next year will probably go up to cover this early entry, and if you don't apply it again then you're back to square one.
To be honest I don't think most people even care about the money. I'm not sure why the entry pattern is the way that it is but I doubt any financial alteration, except perhaps something very significant (and thus risky for the event), is likely to change anything. Even a late entry fee doesn't really change much by all accounts, but it's a nice little earner for an event that might be struggling.
Just my experience, which is admittedly limited compared to many. |
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Alan Jelfs
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Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 81
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| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think financial concerns come into it when/if entering for tournaments.
It's just a matter of when you are free to play without work or family commitments taking precedence.
PS. I have just e-mailed Daniel my entry.
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Chess Club - the first rule of Chess Club is you don't talk about Chess Club. |
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Mike Scott
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Joined: 01 Feb 2007
Posts: 676
Location: Edinburgh
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| Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 8:23 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The difficulty with this is that if most players do enter early then you won't have enough money to run the event |
I think it is more about presentation and emphasis.
So if you would normally charge £10 entry with a £2.00 late entry charge, you advertise the entry as £12.00 with a £2.00 discount for an entry three weeks before the event, £1.00 discount for an entry two weeks before the event etc
I think this method also has the advantage that the change from the organiser imposing a penalty to a player claiming a discount is a more positive action and is more likely to ensure that the late entrant pays a higher entry fee. |
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AMcHarg
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Joined: 19 Nov 2008
Posts: 623
Location: Livingston, Scotland
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| Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 8:29 am Post subject: |
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| Mike Scott wrote: | | Quote: | | The difficulty with this is that if most players do enter early then you won't have enough money to run the event |
I think is more about presentation. So if you would normally charge £10
entry with a £2.00 late entry charge, you advertise the entry as £12.00 with a £2.00 discount for an entry three weeks before the event, £1.00 discount for an entry two weeks before the event etc |
But this way the initial reaction is, "they've put the price up". Irrespective of that though, I don't think it would make much difference, most people would be willing to pay an extra £2 if it gave them closer to the deadline to decide whether they want to play or not. It would have to be a sizeable difference, like £5-£10 before it would have a massive impact, but then you would be advertising a much higher entry fee, or risk losing a substancial amount of money. Much simpler is for an organiser to just accept the common entry curve as reliable enough (given it's historic significance), and get on with it.  |
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GN
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Joined: 30 Mar 2007
Posts: 415
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| Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 9:41 am Post subject: |
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| This talk of £2 on/off will not change anyone's behaviour. I was thinking something more like £20 if you enter a month in advance, £30 3-4 weeks in advance and £40 if you enter the week before. |
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AMcHarg
King
Joined: 19 Nov 2008
Posts: 623
Location: Livingston, Scotland
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| Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 9:43 am Post subject: |
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| GN wrote: | | This talk of £2 on/off will not change anyone's behaviour. I was thinking something more like £20 if you enter a month in advance, £30 3-4 weeks in advance and £40 if you enter the week before. |
Would phail, but feel free to try it. 
All that this would do would be, some people would be organised and enter early, paying the original price, many would forget to enter early and then decide not to enter because of the much higher price - and the tournament would have no players. |
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GN
King
Joined: 30 Mar 2007
Posts: 415
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| Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 11:00 am Post subject: |
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| AMcHarg wrote: | | GN wrote: | | This talk of £2 on/off will not change anyone's behaviour. I was thinking something more like £20 if you enter a month in advance, £30 3-4 weeks in advance and £40 if you enter the week before. |
Would phail, but feel free to try it.
All that this would do would be, some people would be organised and enter early, paying the original price, many would forget to enter early and then decide not to enter because of the much higher price - and the tournament would have no players. |
So a bit like the open section at next weekend's Scottish Weeken Open... |
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AMcHarg
King
Joined: 19 Nov 2008
Posts: 623
Location: Livingston, Scotland
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| Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:10 pm Post subject: |
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| GN wrote: | | AMcHarg wrote: | | GN wrote: | | This talk of £2 on/off will not change anyone's behaviour. I was thinking something more like £20 if you enter a month in advance, £30 3-4 weeks in advance and £40 if you enter the week before. |
Would phail, but feel free to try it.
All that this would do would be, some people would be organised and enter early, paying the original price, many would forget to enter early and then decide not to enter because of the much higher price - and the tournament would have no players. |
So a bit like the open section at next weekend's Scottish Weeken Open... |
Quite like that yes, but probably even worse. Besides, what's the point in trying something different if the most likely outcome is, at best, as bad as the current situation, and at worst a complete anihilation of what scarse numbers most events do currently get.
Anyway this isn't really about total entries, it's about the timing of those entries, which isn't as important as total entries. I'd rather my tournament had one extra entrant in total, than all of them enter a couple of months before the tournament. We'd be better addressing the reasons for the declining numbers, and putting thought into that; than debating the best way of getting people to enter earlier, which is arguably not even an issue.  |
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