
Untitled Tuesday - 2020 recap and changes for 2021
What a year 2020 was!
Some highlights:
- @MikeChesser finally ended @SmyslovFan's 3-year reign as the overall annual champion. Overall leaderboard: https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/event-history-and-leaderboard-2020
- @rychessmaster1 won more events (six) than anyone else, one more than @DunkingDonuts007's five. @rychessmaster1 also earned his NM title during the year, disqualifying him from future Untitled Tuesday events.
- The Covid lockdown boom in online chess filtered into Untitled Tuesday. Average participation in our tournaments went up from 32.5 in 2019 to 50.5 in 2020. On December 22nd, we had 84 people. This was our second-largest event ever, after the August 2017 event that had 90 participants.
- In response to the Covid lockdowns, Titled Tuesday switched to a weekly schedule, and in April Untitled Tuesday made the same change.
- We broke 2000 members in the Untitled Tuesday club. At the current rate of growth, we should hit 3000 sometime in mid-2021.
- New admins! @qalimz was a major help for much of the year until he stepped down. @msd238 has also contributed in the last few weeks. This has enabled us to maintain the weekly schedule without significantly increasing my administrative workload.
Some changes for 2021:
- In January, we are experimenting with a schedule that should be friendlier to people in Eurasia. Our Tuesday times will alternate between the current time of 23:30 UTC and an earlier time of 16:00 UTC. If this is a success and participation is good at the earlier events, we will continue this schedule going forward.
- The monthly Saturday event will now have the same scoring system as the weekly events. Previously they counted double, with 60 points available for first place on a Saturday and 30 on Tuesday. The Saturday events will remain on their current schedule: the Saturday following the first Tuesday of the month, rotating between 09:00 UTC, 17:00 UTC, and 21:00 UTC.
Happy new year!