"BLUNDERS"- Dec 1 - TOPIC # 3: Should chess organizers participate?

There's a few points I want to make. The first one I made during the broadcast, but can elaborate more on here:

To play or not to play isn't the first question you need to ask. The first question you need to ask yourself as a tournament director is where your priorities lie. If your top priority is to run a great tournament, or even to change the way professionals look at tournaments, then that's your starting point. I am going to assume for the moment that every tournament director has this view, or they wouldn't put in the work to run a tournament. 

The next question is: What do you want to get out of playing? Do you want to play to try for a GM norm? Do you want to play to have fun and create memorable sacrifices against the great chess players you have attending (David)? Are you playing to prove something? 

Once you have the second question answered, you can go on to the third one. It isn't "should I play?" but instead is "How can I achieve my goal without sacrificing the quality of the tournament?" 

David seems to place his TD duties first, and play for fun, not being too serious about the results. This works for him. If you want to play more seriously, figure out how to make sure the tournament runs smoothly even if you aren't spending time as a TD. This brings me to the comment of another user in the channel, quoted here:

madhattery: surround yourself with competent help...let them handle the particulars during play

I don't care if the TD plays as long as someone else can handle the problems and questions.  As long as the TD doesn't rig it in someway so they can play a higher rated player or rig it in general.  But other then I don't care much.

I disagree. Why would they consider that? I don't see how being the organizer of an event affects the competition. If anything, it would put the organizer at a disadvantage because they cannot focus exclusively on chess.

Moreover, if we are talking about a round robin, the case if even clearer. If it's a Swiss tournament, as long as there is an impartial party in charge of overseeing the pairings, it shouldn't be an issue either.

michaelslosson and madhattery make a good point about getting solid help for your event, then you can focus more on the chess. however, i suspect you could never quite play at your normal strength. you'll always be wondering about how the tournament is going (after all, it's a good time to gather data about that question). your mind will wander: did the snacks arrive in time, is there someone who needs a ride back to their room after the round... even if you have great people taking care of this stuff for you... it's hard to imagine Danny ever *not* worrying about his copperstate baby.

as to tds playing in their own events-- i agree that at a professional level it could create problems. you don't want them setting pairings or arbitrating rules disputes if they are competing against other professionals for top prizes. but even then it's mostly about appearances-- it would be hard to truly compete with other strong strong players while doing td duties.

andy lee, vinay bhat, and myself used to run a real life chess club. we would td and play in those events on a daily basis (we were running ~3-4 tournaments per week). well, the club members dearly wanted to get to play with us, and not a single person ever evinced a fear that we were falsely arbitrating in our own favor. i'm extremely confident that it was in the best interests of chess players and chess for us to have played in those events while we td'ed.

Who would adjudicate in a dispute between the TD and his/her opponent ? It would be awkward for all concerned.

  Aren't there assistant/associate directors or some kind of arbiter a little further down in the food chain than can help out these kinds of duties or am I just mistaken? 

   -Mark

nick, if the td is the only td, then they would adjudicate themselves.

yes, there are directors out there. but in the case of the club we were running, we were the directors. so we ran the tournaments. we weren't going to pay someone else to come run our tournament bc the participants asked us to play. i donated plenty of money to the chess community as it was, without hiring out for more tds. (not like i wanted to play in our events to begin with).

That would create at least the appearance of impropriety IMO.

  True. That's just more money out of your pocket. And having someone to deal with these things may not be the way you deal with them, so that is an added hassle too.

This is why I wonder if I should try and start a chess club in my area. I have no problem doing all the work and certification necessary to be a TD, but it would stink to only be able to play in the 2 or 3 events a year that occur within driving distance of me.

=(

Eniamar, at a small local club with prize funds less than 500$ for events, i don't see why you shouldn't play in everything you organize if you want to play in it. in general you'll be building something that 2 dozen local players will find positive. if there's one guy who meets you, hangs out at your club, and then thinks he doesn't trust you... (and id be surprised by this) then it'll be his loss.

building something real and positive is more important than the possibility of someone detecting a possible impropriety. the people who do attend your club will be very thankful for your efforts.

  Eniamar - I myself want to have a chess club at some point in my life. It's one of the big dreams that I have and I really want to get it done in my life before I forget what chess actually is LOL.  I actually haven't played much OTB at all lately, just do some opening study, endgame puzzle things on my sets.

   But I am split on the organizers participating. It's great for the events that they host so people can see them OTB, but if you have situations that arise and you wind up flagging a game you might've been winning, then I guess you just have to take your medicine and deal with it. 

   -Mark

The only thing holding me back from starting a club and/or doing some version of scholastic chess(I think it'd be a hoot) is that I'm such a weak player. I don't want to run things or have to adjudicate situations if I don't understand what's going on.

Who knows, maybe I'll make the 45 minute drive to the closest club and see how they do things there.

On the topic at hand, so long as there's always an objective 3rd party around, I see no problem with a TD playing in his/her own tournament.

In a professional event, the issues are different than those in a smaller club ran event. In my area, we used to have a TD that would organize and TD the events. However, he had to move and I took up that responsibility instead. Here is what I have been doing (with the exception of my first event).

1. I only play if there are an odd # of players
2. I don't pay an entry fee and I am not eligible for prizes (so, I'm essentially a house player)
3. I enlist the help of a stronger player in the club if there ever would be a question on any of my games that needed adjudicated.

In smaller areas like mine, if the TD couldn't play then they would have very few chances to play in any events, unless they traveled. I'm lucky now, we have another player that has stepped up to be a club level TD. Initially he will help run events but eventually he will be able to run events himself (his choice).

The USCF rules specifically allow for a playing TD, even if it is discouraged. There is even a rule that a TD can stop his clock if he/she has to leave the game in an official capacity.

I hold my stance on prizes in order to hopefully eliminate any chance of problems or claims of unfairness, event though it isn't required by the rules. However, I also want to be able to play and I want to be sure that no one has to sit out a round, if at all possible.

sounds like a really well-thought-out way of doing things. i'm interested in your club; do you write about it anywhere online?

Define write about it

There is a link in my profile to a site I run for chess in my area, though I have been very neglectful of it for the past year.