Ashley's Million-dollar chess tourney - but bring your own clocks

What really gets me in all this is the "chess is played by hundreds of millions of people, we gotta bring chess to the masses" crap. Umm, lol? 

>chess is played by hundreds of millions of people, we gotta bring chess to the masses"<

This is the same thinking as if you were a model train enthusiast, and said "hey, everyone has played with model trains!" Yes, almost everyone has, and almost everyone has also played chess and even has a set in their house. 

That doesn't mean these millions of people want to join the USCF and go to chess tournaments....any more than the general public wants to buy model train sets and set them in their basement and play with them. 

Were are they playing

There should be all kinds of products in the market. You decide which ones to pick. What is so bad about that? Anyway, the new product is MC#2 and details is in the revamped MC web site. Browse to see what they learnt and how they adjusted MC#2 based on that learning -

http://millionairechess.com/content/prizes

The registration starts at 1st January. When I received my VIP card for MC#1, I saw I was the 5th person who registered. This time I want to take a shot to be #1. However, I will be in long drive in a vacation in Grand Canyon, so unless I get a starbucks in that remote area - I dont see how I can be even one of the first few dozens... 

It looks like they took prizes out of the lower sections and added them to the top section. By getting rid of the prizes 21st to 50th in each section, they took away the incentive that if a player doesn't win a top prize, he might still at least get his entry back (Taxes not counted). This alone will cost them an untold amount of entries. Plus, Millionaire Monday is back, meaning they didn't get that playoffs are wrong, and will cost them even more entries. I doubt seriously they will bother to cover the lower sections in their broadcasts yet again.

I'll go on record right now and say they will be lucky to get 200-300 entries under current format.

Ah I see they have now gone down the road of introducing a bunch of women-only prizes, as well as mixed-doubles which is basically another handout to women seeing as they are outnumbered dozens to 1 most of the time.  The only men-only prize is the best dressed one, but there is a female version of the same thing, which of course has much less competition so is easier to win. I've been indifferent to the success of this format for now but this sort of discrimination pisses me off, and if "bringing chess to the next level" includes gender discrimination then the "next level" can bugger off.

>I'll go on record right now and say they will be lucky to get 200-300 entries under current format.<

I believe I predicted about 250 as well, a few pages back. 

Right. Point being that if chess really is played by hundreds of millions then there's no need to "bring it to the masses" (as Ashley and MC's hype states) because it's already there (even if the vast majority aren't playing the game for glamour or wealth).

Of the millions playing chess, most of them are not playing tournament chess or even following top-level chess. That was my take on "bringing it to the masses."

And most won't be interest in doing so no matter how much Ashley tries to glam it up. For the vast majority of people chess is simply a plesant diversion played in friendly company and that's all it ever will be. And that's ok. Ashley wants to establish a big money chess tourney that will bring in a tidy profit and some measure of celebrity for him and his partners. That's fine enough on its own, he simply needs to be honest about his motivations. No need to dress it up as some noble effort to "bring chess to the masses".

... and I will multiple it by 3 and predict 750. 

You don't know what "the masses" means. Cool. Advertise that some moooar.

I was hoping that MC would succeed, but their new prize distribution was a bad miscalculation. It is no secret that it is the lower sections that have carried American tournaments, and now they have cut into the payoff of the lower sections. I hate to admit it, but they have possibly ruined any chances of this succeeding with a wider range of players. Normally, the greater number of players are in the lower sections (by far), but with MC#1 the open section had the most; very unusual. Now, they will have an even greater disparity in the distribution of players, with even fewer going in the lower sections. This is not good; they will lose at least 150 to 200 players. Again, I hate to admit it, but I think they're doomed with this move; they desperately needed to increase the lower sections, now they will inevitably lower it.

I think ultimately they would have had pissed off one group or another however they did the prizes. Last time better chess players in the open section won nothing and watched the entire field in some of the lower sections collect prizes. The concept is entirely doomed anyway until they announce that somebody actually wants to sponsor them in a way that injects a significant level of cash.

"...decisions coming are really bordeline nuts as far as business acumen in this arena is concerned."

I sort of agree. Must first impression after the prize changes was that this decision was made by an out-of-touch GM who has very little contact with the vast majority of players, and/or, this was a change suggested in order to sell the idea that this tweaking would actually help, ie. keep the excitement and prospect up that this will succeed.

I want to be wrong because Amy Lee is a very nice and hard-working person.

In one of her blogs, Amy Lee acknowleged that a survey that they conducted netted them nothing because of its wording.  I think that this is the crux of their dilemma.

They had no idea how many people could afford the $1000 entry fee.  More important, they had no idea how many would be willing to pay the entry fee.

I admire your optimism, but it's going to be tough...

Let me digress...

When I first saw the structure of MC 1 and prizes down to 50th place, the first thing that grabbed me after the huge top prizes was even if I didn't place near the top, I would have a great chance of at least winning my entry back. I'm certain many who entered MC 1 felt exactly the same, and that's why they played. Now it isn't so easy to hit the top 20 unless you know for a fact you are underrated. Chess players will pay $100 to $200  to enter an event if they think they have a shot even if they know they aren't a huge favorite. Now, they are being asked to ante up a cool $1,000 knowing they will be lucky to place in the money. That's a pretty steep price for a risky, at best, return.  If this opinion is held by all they just lost at least half the entries they had in MC 1.

the North American Open is up to 418 entries and rdecredico says it will hit the 600 it usually gets as many entries flock in the last week.  So, the NAO isn't being hurt by MC. I doubt the National Open next June will suffer either. However, MC 2 could be a million dollar bath for Amy Lee.

MC have also changed the entry fee structure.

There's a 12% discount for the first 500 registering before Jan 31.

The fee increases 25% after Mar 31, 50% after June 30 and 100% after Sept 30.

wow, this is even worse than before.  the "smart" ones will register early at $880. $1000 shuts off March 31, way earlier than last year. They just don't realize a lot of people can't and won't commit that far in advance which will keep most of them away as the event approaches. We saw how few entries they got last year when the price went to $1500 so whatever entries they have once they tabulate their totals of March 31 will probably be close to what they end up with. Amy Lee is supposed to have plenty of money, why do they need to get the bulk of the entries in by March 31? They surely can't earn that much interest on it.

By my estimates of 550 players MC 1 they lost $800,000. No way in hell do they top the entries this time, meaning an even bigger loss. Even if they find a sponsor to cover the entire prize fund, they will lose money, as well as their sponsor for a return engagement. MC 3 will be even worse. If you're reading this Amy Lee, time to pull the plug, or revamp it entirely. (Especially the playoffs).  It's your money Maurice is pitching away, not his. It's going to take at least 20 MC's and $20 million dollars of losses before a small profit of even $100,000 is realized, if at all.

Instead of focusing on huge expensive tournaments they should have more tournaments more spread out for reasonable prices (to reduce the need for travel) while of course still having  big (but still reasonably priced) tournaments.

Pouring so much energy into big expensive tournaments only the rich can attend sounds like a big affront to the rank and file  USCF member.