1st Improvers' open - Statistics!

Were you part of the first improvers' open rapid tournament this Sunday? A first attempt by Chess.com to give a tournament to the Improvers Club members. There was a lot of talk before, during and after the tournament, both good and bad. Instead of diving into those discussions right away, let's first have a look at the numbers regarding this open Swiss tournament.

• Winners
• Players statistics
• Upsets
• Discussion
• Fix recommendation

WINNERS

Let's start with congratulations to @EndOf_DA_Line, @indrazn and @Salmas324 for finishing on the podium after 4 rounds! There were also 12 other players with a perfect score at the end of the event, but tiebreaks were invented for this situation. A special mention to the 5 other players who did not lose a single game in the 4 rounds and ended on 3.5/4. Also, players finishing on 25th, 50th and 75th spot got a participation reward as well in the form of a 1 month diamond membership. So, in order of placement, the lucky players with a score of 3/4 are @i-am-graN, @DarthGamer22 and @cesardark.

TOURNAMENT PLAYERS

During the event, we saw more than 500 players registered. However, after looking at the data, there were 443 players playing in at least 1 round. The range of rating was wild, as expected from an open. The ELO ratings after the tournament ranged from 116 all the way up to 2437, with the average being 1225. Out of the 443 players, half of them, 220, played in all 4 rounds. How ? The biggest reasons are early quitters and late arrivals. 79 players started playing on the 2nd round, after the 1st round started, and so did not compete in all 4 rounds. After the 1st round, 66 players withdrew, most of them due to a loss (55 of them). There were also 21 players leaving in the 2nd round after scoring a loss. With that being said, I tip my hat to the 10 players who played all 4 rounds, even if they scored 0/4. I'm sure they will learn from those games, and that's the important part (aside from having fun, of course !). Finally, all these players played a total of 664 games during the event: 181 on round 1, 182 on round 2, 161 on round 3, and 140 on round 4. Favorite opening ? 65% of games started with e4, 27% with d4, 3% with c4, 2% Nf3 and 3% with some an unusual move.

UPSETS

Also a classic of open tournaments: upsets! Upsets are when a lower rated player beats a higher rated player. Without considering the early resignation, I found the biggest upset of each round, and will present two of those. In round 1, @DnyWadhe, playing white, beats @anotherstep5050, with a rating difference of 876! The highest upsets of all 4 rounds. The game is a semi-open Sicilian game where white trades his bishops for black's knights, a strategic mistake in a soon to be opened position. The black pieces are slowly gaining material and control of the 7th rank. Unfortunately, one slip up, 23...Re8, and the black player crumbles as white takes the time to find the critical moves.

The first game shown was from players above 1200, but upsets happen below 1200 as well. In the 4th round, the biggest upset was between @ChessSister2_0, playing the white pieces, and @SHDSchmatt, with a rating differential of 645. The game started as a Scotch, and black makes a mistake quickly with 3...f5, opening up the diagonal to his king. The biggest mistake however, was a few moves later, with 12...Qf6, where the white pieces could now take a queen through forcing moves and pins. After a minute, calculating to be sure nothing is missed, white finds the right moves and went on to win!

Upsets shows us that, at all levels, mistakes happen. At the same time, it reminds us that we are all trying our best, whoever we are up against. On the opposite, we can never have our guards down. We never really know the strengths of our opponents, and sometimes, our own weaknesses.

DISCUSSION

Finally, what had everyone's pitchforks up since the beginning of the week regarding this tournament? A few things: the tournament was rated, the time the tournament was held, and the nature of the open tournament. My quick opinion on the matter is simple. For rating, I think it's simply the nature of the game of chess to be constantly rated, to make sure the rating of players are kept accurate in a competitive environment. Unrated games are with friends, or for training, rated games are for tournaments. Time zone issues? There is no perfect time to pick for everyone around the world. The best option would be to simply have 2 tournaments, 12 hours apart, and hope everyone gets a fair chance to get in. As for the open nature of the tournament, I personally like it. Higher rated players gets easy win at the start, and lower rated players get the chance to play and learn against higher rated players. Everyone wins in my opinion! Although, I understand how not everyone enjoys it.

FIX RECOMMENDATION

I think a quick fix to the biggest concerns of the players, which should (I think, I don't know all the quirks of Chess.com) not cost more to Chess.com, is to remove the 25th, 50th, and 75th placement reward, and have two separate sections, based on the Improver of the month cut-off: 1200 ELO. This way, we keep the number of rewarded players to 6 (top 3 of both events), and we reduce the rating differential in the first round. We saw in the upsets sections that anyone can end up on either podium, and it all stays in line with the current information given in the Improver's club. Finally, if we shift the tournaments by 12 hours every week, everyone around the world will get a chance to play every other week, resolving the last issue.

What are your thoughts? Did you have fun during the event? Do you have other feedbacks regarding the event? Maybe we will encounter each other in the next tournament!