Tournament Methodology

This is a brief explanation of my tournament methodology. I am very grateful and inspired for

Torbjorngjerde creating so many fast tournaments (the “Speed King “ series). Due to this inspiration, I have decided to start another series of tournaments, that I hope will fill a niche for many players.

I will call my series the “Fast Thematic Tournament # __- [Opening]”. The goal is to provide many players a chance to play many of leading openings at a good pace.

General guidelines are as follows:

Thematic Tournaments: All tournaments are based on openings, to enable players to learn important openings.

Greater ease of entry: my tournaments are somewhat more accessible to beginners, but are constructed to keep the tournament moving.

No vacation: I have seen many tournaments held up for 2 months or more due to 1 or 2 players going “on vacation”. As my tournaments are generally 48 hours, I don’t think it hard to check in once every couple of days to make one move for each game.

Larger groups: with groups of 4 or less, little is learned on an opening. Most tournaments will have minimum groups of 5-7, to give players a chance to learn. This also helps build experience in games, and I hope that many players can qualify for other tournaments after playing in the tournaments of this series.

In sum, the goal is to learn openings and have fun.

Cheers and best wishes to all.

777firephaser