Improvers Marathon Experience and Feedback

Suggested by:  @Cartoon46

Thread to share experiences from the marathon tournament and constructive suggestions for how to improve in the future.

I thought that it was a great idea, and one of the most enjoyable aspects of the Improvers' club (but I have only been a member a few months). It was a great way to build some new relationships within the club that you are not able to do during rapid game tournaments.

I was concerned that that time zones would be too large to make arranging a match feasible, but despite all my oppenents being in North or South America, even matching on with players on the east coast was not a problem. Looking forward to a Spring tournament???

Only criticism i have is, that there wasnt an immediate follow up tournament because it was so fun

During journey I learnt how to play in 😬

I thought it was excellent. Well crafted and fun to play. The week long forma made it easy to arrange times to play and all my matches were within my skill level. Shout out to Improver @KiriyamaKazuo for all the help in preparing each week. Also, thanks to @juditsztaray for all the work to set it up and update the pairings each week.

Do more, please!

This was a such a positive experience and every single person I was paired against was friendly and accommodating in arranging games.

Also felt like I've gained alot from these games in terms of new ideas and approaches to playing online chess, particularly in terms of treating my pieces with a bit more respect like I can do over the board.

For the first couple of games I just made moves too quickly and didn't use the time well resulting in some rubbish positions, the second two games were much more controlled and they really felt like a proper classical games with this one from round 4 being my favourite.

Already left plenty of feedback on this through the form for future iterations. Just to add though that this felt like a highly successful first event of its kind with many thanks to Judit for running such a huge event with so many competitiors and categories to manage.

Good tournament.

Improvements:

1) More people need to help run the tournament, so results are updated faster and more accurately each round. Also to be able to get back to more people quicker who send messages with any issues during the tournament.

2) Players need to be paired with opponents that are much closer in time zone difference.

3) The time format should be shorter. 15|10, 30|5, or 30|10.

Time format of 60/10 is perfect, theres normal tournaments for 30min, 60/10 made this tournament stand out, because its classical, if you dont have the time for that, join the normal 30min arenas and dont try to convert a classical tournament just because you dont "feel like it"

Very much agree with @Weirdgerman.The best thing about this tournament was that this was a longer time scale tournament and it was fantastic to be able to just focus on a single long game with plenty of time to calculate throughout the game.

With regards to the other points, an assistant for Judit (improver who isn't playing in the tournament? I'd imagine there would be a few that would volunteer) to handle the mundane tasks (such as putting in results when there is no disagreement) would allow her to focus on the more challenging scenarios that come up, a better use of the experience she brings.

Then with regards to the time zones its always going to be highly dependent on the number of entries, thankfully we now have some evidence to base this on. The most populated category was the 1200-2000 for Americas, Europe, Africa & Middle East. This would perhaps suggest that a split of Americas as one split and Europe, Africa & Middle East as the other.

The risk i would see from this would be that the upper and lower sections might get a little shorter on numbers so it might also require a change to the rating categories to better spread the players out. My thoughts would be up to 1200, 1200-1800 and 1800+. I'm sure someone could investigate to find an optimal split that covers all regions fairly.

My other suggestion would be to spread the tournament over 10 weeks with 2 weeks per round to just give extra time for any disputes to be sorted and give anyone who gets repaired more time to get a game in.

Loved the tournament and it would be super nice to have more than just one at the end of the year.

1. The 60|10 format feels like a "real" tournament game, keep it. For weekly Arenas, how about 15|10 instead of 10|2 ?
2. Time zone not a problem with goodwill on each side. It's worth a bit of effort to be able to play opponents from all over the world.
3. Main quibble is too few rounds. Five people tied for 1st place with perfect scores is unsatisfactory. Use log2(​N) to determine rounds needed where:

N = number of players. e.g., for 145 players:
log2(145)=7.18, round up to next higher integer ( CEILING function in Excel) = 8 rounds to guarantee possibility of unique winner.

Thanks so much @wind for starting this

Here is my list of takeaways and options for possible improvers:

• Time Zones: Two time zones weren’t enough. Future marathons should support three time zones to accommodate global participation better.
• Rating Categories: The rating groups were too broad. We should split ratings more finely to make pairings fairer and more competitive. Specifically, the 1200-1999 was way too wide, and the u1200 can also use further splitting for very beginners.
• Format & Frequency: Four rounds work well and open the door to running monthly marathons instead of longer, one-off events.
• Player Connectivity: Optionally collect emails and phone numbers (opt-in only) and publish a list for those who want to connect and schedule games more easily.
• Scheduling Tools: Recommend using platforms like Doodle or WhatTimeWorks to simplify scheduling.
• Prizes & Recognition:
  • Add a female prize.
  • Introduce shared-place prizes (e.g., 1st place for the top score group, 2nd place for the next score group, etc.), so there won't be a need for tiebreaks.
• Operations & Support:
  • Recruit volunteers to help with results entry and overall administration.
  • Forfeit Rules: Clarify and standardize forfeits:
    • Allow some flexibility around deadlines (24–36 hours, with a maximum of 48 hours).
    • Make expectations clear from the start.
  • Repairing Matches: Always keep forfeit wins. Any “repairing” should be done only as an extra game, not a replacement.
• Game Content & Learning:
  • Collect nominations for games to be analyzed, including a Game of the Week.
  • Recruit titled players to provide post-round and featured game analysis.
• Out-of-the-Box Idea: Experiment with a weekly Improvers Marathon using a knockout (KO) structure for a faster, high-energy alternative format.

I'm sure I left out some ideas, so please feel free to add more

@JuditSztaray thanks for sharing! Interesting to see all the ideas.

The game of the week concept sounds rather good! Thanks to whoever suggested it!

This might work best if there was one for each rating category as a game of the week at under 1200 level and over 2000 level would be looking for very different things.

Prizes have been awarded! thank you for your patience.

Great tournament!

Although the time control should be a little less like 20+10

The tournament was great for me but my opponent in Round 3 was not commiting to any timeslot. week went by and he got the points then I was not paired to any player in Round 4 and 5
Literally was dropped out of the tournament. Reported to Admin but no response either. 
That I did not like but well I hold no anger, just think that part can be improved on in 2026.

@JuditSztaray reading this thread there seems to be little concern about the number of time zones, and if it had not been for the wide time zones that were used I would not now be in regular contact with a fellow improver in California; perhaps you have additional feedback about this from elsewhere? I admit that the time zones were a concern of mine, but the reality (for me) is that everyone was very accommodating and no problems were encountered.

The other ideas in your summary all seem worth experimenting with.

A monthly marathon could really be a marathon and turn some people off, time would soon tell.

I'd be careful with deadline flexibility, give an inch.......

I'm looking forward to the next tournament, whatever format it takes, and thank you for all the work that you put into this.

I’m so sorry about that.

i will investigate what happened but I did my very best to get back to everyone.

I love reading this!!! Finally an argument for wider time zones

I also think, actually I can say I know, that many didn’t mind the longer time zone. They participated and they were flexible. One of the first place was from Australia. That tells everything