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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas? (Read 6319 times)
Bibs
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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #15 - 04/10/10 at 11:52:16
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Out shopping a while back, passed by a kids shogi (Japanese chess) tournament held in a hotel lobby.

Nice idea - had a clown entertaining the kids while the organisers were tidying up and sorting out the prizes.

Also some dude giving a simul to keep others occupied.
  
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Bowen
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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #14 - 04/10/10 at 11:34:32
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Girls scantily clad, vodka shots before rounds, why even bother with the event, it would just get in the way.

I always found an award for the player traveling the greatest distance was an incentive to draw in more players, even modestly. In big events I like the idea of tee-shirts to commemorate the occasion. The U.S. Open and British Championships do well at this. I was surprised, and disappointed, that the 200th Anniversary tournament in Zurich last year offered no souvenirs whatsoever. No wait, I am wrong, I came away with a hotel bill.  Cry
  
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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #13 - 04/09/10 at 14:57:14
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MNb, your suggestion would not only mortally wound opening preparation (no idea why that's a bad thing anyway), it would also kill all ambition in the opening.

(Tho, there could easily be a strategy of trying to fatally weaken each side, hence a new type of opening strategy.)
  
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MNb
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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #12 - 04/09/10 at 03:40:01
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Switch colours after 10 moves; those first 10 moves no captures and checks allowed. Same for White's 11th move.
Makes an end to all opening preparation.
  

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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #11 - 04/08/10 at 20:10:50
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Markovich wrote on 04/08/10 at 15:09:04:
Well then, have a scantily clad girl jump out of a cake.

I can't agree with this. I can see no need for a cake.
  
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Markovich
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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #10 - 04/08/10 at 18:38:30
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How about, everyone has to take two shots of vodka just before the first round, and the winner of each game has to take two more shots when the scoresheet is turned in (or both take one shot if there's a draw)?
  

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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #9 - 04/08/10 at 17:51:30
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"Extra" awards like these should be minor things - maybe a small gift certificate for a chess vendor or something, not a big trophy or decent cash prize. But at large adult tournaments, I've seen awards for youngest player and oldest player in the same tournament (5 years old and 84, as I recall), longest trip to the tourney site (an opponent of mine from Washington state won this at the Florida state championship one year), and top female in the open section (she didn't also win the tourney, though). 

Also, upset prizes are common, though they usually end up going to players in the lowest section, as kids with a 400 rating beat other kids with a 900 rating, while the rest of us are in sections divided by 200 point breaks, and you can only "play up" one section, so there's never more than a 399 point margin in our sections. There's also the "brilliancy" prizes, judged by a strong master or grandmaster.

I've also seen drawings for random book prizes, where they just pick player names out of a hat for no obvious reason. I like that, because it's fair. 

Costume contests for Halloween are always a good idea - for both kids and adults.

  

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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #8 - 04/08/10 at 16:58:57
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You can include a 960 rapid tourney
  
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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #7 - 04/08/10 at 16:17:10
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Indeed, why bother with the chess at all!
  
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Markovich
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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #6 - 04/08/10 at 15:09:04
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Well then, have a scantily clad girl jump out of a cake.
  

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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #5 - 04/08/10 at 14:35:09
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Small tournament for adults.
All will know each other quite well.
A 'cosy' tournament!
  
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Markovich
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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #4 - 04/08/10 at 13:06:10
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Is this for adults or kids?  If the latter, I would discourage awards for anything but chess success.  Bad lesson.

I was at one scholastic event where they handed out a big trophy to the youngest player.  The kid had scored 0-5.  Plenty of kids with 4-1 scores took home nothing.  I wanted to puke.  

At that same event, they gave a nice big trophy to the highest-finishing girl.  The only problem was, the girl in question also won the event outright, taking home two trophies.  Ridiculous.
  

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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #3 - 04/08/10 at 12:54:49
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Some ideas I've seen/heard of:

- chess problem competition. 
- "who can set up the starting position fastest-competition", some people can do this really fast.
- youngest competitor-award
- I have jokingly suggested using jerseys like in the Tour de France, i.e. yellow jersey for the leader, green jersey for best timetrouble player, polka dot jersey for most moves made, for a tournament. Funny, but impractical and maybe not suited for a serious tournament. I didn't happen, anyway.

  
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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #2 - 04/08/10 at 12:31:38
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TicklyTim wrote on 04/08/10 at 09:57:30:
Hi,

I seem to remember reading somewhere some ideas for adding a little something extra to a tournament. Maybe it was this site - maybe not.

Does anyone have some opinions on what can be added to make a small local tournament more fun.

I'm interested in hearing quirky as well as sensible ideas!

To start us off:
- posting chess puzzles on the walls.
- posting chess humour on the walls.
- handing out awards for various things that maybe aren't chess related (any ideas on awards also?).


Fortunately this question is fairly easy.

- Girls
- Norms
- Titles
- Simuls
- Commentary
- Random non-cash prizes
- Free food
- Free drinks
- Grandmasters
- Arbiters with a good sense of humour
- Large cash prizes

Can't think of any more right now.
  

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TalJechin
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Re: What makes a fun tournament? Any quirky ideas?
Reply #1 - 04/08/10 at 11:48:37
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TicklyTim wrote on 04/08/10 at 09:57:30:
Hi,

I seem to remember reading somewhere some ideas for adding a little something extra to a tournament. Maybe it was this site - maybe not.

Does anyone have some opinions on what can be added to make a small local tournament more fun.

I'm interested in hearing quirky as well as sensible ideas!

To start us off:
- posting chess puzzles on the walls.
- posting chess humour on the walls.
- handing out awards for various things that maybe aren't chess related (any ideas on awards also?).


English/Irish tournaments seem to be better at this than others. I've seen or heard about stuff like awards for strangest appearance - though it's more like drawing attention to players who stand out in some way, so these awards are usually the other way around - the arrangers notice somebody for doing something and then give him/her an award for at the closing. Could be as simple as "longest daily commuter".

Another idea I've seen was to allow people to form teams before the tournament, which sounded like a good idea but I don't know how it turned out...

Anyway, up here in the nordic region these kind of "extra things" are virtually non-existent - every tournament is usually arranged exactly like it was last year, which could be one reason why so many stop playing chess up here.
  
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