Debating playing up a section (World Open)

I'm playing in the World Open in Virginia in July. This will be my first big tournament in about 10 years. I'm USCF rated 1745, but have probably progressed a good amount since my last rated game. So instead of playing in the U1800 section, I have been toying with the idea of playing in the U2000 section. 

When I decided I wanted to play the tournament, I thought a little warm up event would be helpful, and I played in a mini one-day tournament a couple of weeks ago. It was a very tiny tournament with only two sections, U1700 and Open. It was g45/d5, which is a little quick for me, but I did well. In the first round, I was beating a CM (rated 2227), but lost in a time scramble. 

On the one hand, playing in U2000 will almost certainly count me out of any prizes (and it's an expensive event). But I wonder if it would be worth it for the higher level of play, and better opportunity to learn? I feel like it's the nobel thing to do, but you know... money. 

What would you do?

That's a tough choice. Everybody that responds can only base it on their individual situation. Will it hurt bad financially to not recoup any of your expenses? It'll cost maybe 800-1000 total right? If you can spare it and you're intent on improving, play up.

It's actually only about $350 since I live nearby and won't be staying at the hotel. It's in no way a hardship, but prize money is tempting. 

Of course I could also play in U1800 and still get no prize money. I'm not so delusional to think that's not a possibility. :)

Well you're mid 1700s and it IS 9 rounds. The more rounds there are the better the odds that the higher rated players will win. Mathematically speaking, your odds are good. You live nearby, the loss wont be too bad if you don't win money, therefore less pressure which is more fun. I think your chances of winning money in the B section are good.

If you play within your given section you could be the one to impart some 'lessons' too, not to mention the ones you'll get from the players who are playing the games of their lives because money is on the line.  Money is a good incentive to play your best -- especially when you have a hope of making the prize list.

I play in the under 2000 and I love it.

I'm the underdog and it's a pleasure to play against people stronger than me, and every time I lose I learn valuable lessons. That's the way to improve your chess. If I make a positional mistake my opponent punishes me for it, so I learn to avoid it the next time.

The gap in skills should not be too large though; I'd say playing against somebody 200 points higher than you it's the ideal.

U1800 means that the MAX allowed is 1800, not that the average player will be a 1800. Big difference. If you're rated 1745 you'll probably play with many people weaker than yourself in that section.

That can really suck for two reasons:

- if you lose because of a stupid blunder your rating gets raped

- you might find somebody slightly weaker than you who is hellbent in getting a draw. Against these people it's really hard to gain the full point.

Winning a tournament depends a lot on luck. Depends on who you get paired with. You might play the best chess of your life but still drawing against strong opponents, while players weaker than you gets paired with "cash cows". Problem of being in the U1800 is that sometimes there are some 1500s (or even lower) who try their luck, giving an obvious advantage to those paired against them.

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the insights. I'm still on the fence, but I'll give myself another week or two to decide.

I don't know how it is in the US, but in Paris, to win a section, you usually have to post a performance at least 200pts superior to the section ceiling (so 2000+ for a U1800 section).

If you feel like it's your current strength and you want to play for a prize, take your chance. Because if you play in the upper section and with too many points, you can't come back and win the U1800 later

However, it may also depend on your style of play. Some people are decidedly better at beating weaker opponents, while some are better at beating the odds against stronger opponents.

hicetnunc,

No such requirements here, though with so many players, I'd guess you might have to have that kind of performance anyway to win the section.

You make a good point about this possibly being my last chance to play in an under 1800 section.

Money aside, I'd play in the lower-rated section. There are less-painful ways to improve than losing a five-hour tournament game. If you're not trying to become a professional chess player, what's the point of improving if not to win games sometime? And what better time than a tournament? Plus, 1700-1800 players should give you a good game. 

This totally depends on your style.  For example, I am not so great at getting wins against lower rateds and draw a ton.  So at the recent Chicago Open instead of playing in the u2100 section I played up in the 2300 section and made a bunch of draws and gained a ton of rating.  So basically it all depends on your style.  If your games are more decisive and you play stuff like Kings Indian (Lol) it might be better if you played in your section.  If you are more solid like I am; it might be a good experience playing up.  

Since it has been so long I would recommend going with the U1800 section. Unless you are one of those jerks who can just enter a stressful environment like that and completely ignore the pressure....it might be best.

Plus it'll be a great way to see how you fair against your old "collegues".

Whether you play up or down...  another thing to consider is your schedule.  4 day, 5 day or the whole '9 yards'.  Since you say this is your first big tourney in 10 years and you're driving back & forth to the site.  You may want to consider taking a bye at the appropriate time to rest up.  Sure, you're close by the site but driving back & forth can be stressful.  Especially after a loss.   So, plan your time on and off the board.  The World Open is often a lesson in humility.  Eat right, sleep well and good luck.

I'm doing the 4-day. Stamina is definitely an issue. It's not the number of days that get me, but the idea of playing too many hours in a given day. I'll just have to see how that goes.

Driving back and forth is not much of an issue. It's 15 minutes tops to get to the site from my house, and I actually enjoy a litte drive. Get a little music going on the way, and I'm raring to go.

Sleep is my number one concern. Everybody does better on a full night's sleep, and that goes doubly for me. I estimate the difference in my playing ability between a good night of sleep vs. a poor one at probably 400 points. And I have a nasty habit of staying up way too late for no reason at all. It's going to be all about my self-discipline.

You're starting to get a little jittery the closer the 1st round comes from just thinking about it I bet. I want to play in a few big tournaments soon. Its been a long draught for me........ I just need to go play some.

You would be playing many underrated players in the U1800 section anyway and I expect you would find it very competitive.  Just go and play and learn.  Playing 9 rounds in itself is a challenge, you might find U2000 to be a bit of an overkill.

I'd strongly suggest playing in the lowest section in which you qualify, but if you're in it just for the learning experience, playing up a section doesn't hurt.

I doubt it, unless it is a really big tournament. An order of magnitude on top of my head from my experience: in 9-round events with 1000 players, each player in the top ten was matched with more than half the other. This is because those kind of lucky matches only happen at the beginning.

@OP : I had a similar experience recently.

A couple of months ago I was at the Manchester rapid play tournament, and I was let in a section ~50 Elo points under my FIDE performance due to a mess with the ratings (ECF ratings differ from FIDE's + they took their decision based on my slow FIDE performances, when I am significantly better at rapid). I finished shared third place, ie fourth/fifth/six out of a grand total of 20 or so people in the rating range.

I had not a single easy game, blundered once from drawish to losing but one of my opponent made the same and another blundered from winning to losing so on the average I was lucky. Oh, and the prize fund was around $150 for the open section (ie nothing), my shared third place refunded a third of my inscription ; so the incentives to sandbagging were not high.

So, don't overestimate your ability to win money, don't underestimate your section.

As for why I took the decision to play in that category : simply because it was the last category before the jungle (ie the Open section), plus I had the opportunity to do it, plus I was not "cheating" a lot (50 Elo points are nothing).

All in all, I think it depends on how much stronger than the rating limit you think to be.

If I had to make a very rough guess as to my current strength, I'd put it somewhere around 1900-1950. But honestly, I don't really know. I think on a very good day when I'm fully awake, I can probably play even much higher, but my off days can be very off. I also can lose a lot of focus after a few games have passed. 

Starting to lean towards the lower section at the moment.

Considering how many players play down in big tournaments like the World Open, I recommend playing in your bracket unless you want to play against titled players in the open section.

The only reason to play up would be to gain rating points. There are other tournaments where you can do that. If you win enough money in your class, you will gain rating points, move up a class, earn lifetime title points, and money. 

This is kind of a no-brainer. Play in your section.