Millionaire Chess Open

I've criticised anti draw rules in other tournaments. This one is just more ridiculous in that the organiser actually wants to control the moves you play and openings you choose. Baffling.

This is only going to really be enforced in the final playoffs between the top 4 from each section because these games will have live coverage.  The public will obviously want to see some exciting chess.  Players who obviously play for draws will most likely not even attend this event because of the rules.  If you're not one who plays for draws then I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm actually reworking my entire repertoire for this event.  Because of the prize money involved I doubt there will be player who come to draw.

The public won't watch. Only hardcore chess players will and you'd hope they understand that the natural result of some games is a draw. A lot still don't seem to though.

With excellent commentary I do believe people will watch.  Whenever there's a lot of money at stake the public tend to tune in.  I thought that was a great idea to have us play the long games to decide the final four and then to have blitz playoffs to decide the top prizes.  The public think that chess is a long slow game and I think seeing blitz chess would even get those who don't actually know how to play to watch the event and maybe start to learn chess in the future.

Yes draws happen but it shouldn't happen a lot  below master level.   A lot of draws are actually unnecessary.

Too much Bul in here!

What I mean by this is a lot of draws that are made on lower levels are made because the players don't understand the position.  The draw is made sometimes out of fear of losing or lack of experience and not because the actual position is drawn.

Hell, if I had some money I'd try it. I've never played in any organized tournament, and this one has decent cash prizes. I'd learn the ins and outs of OTB while getting the minimum 25 USCF games, so I wouldn't go into it totally blind.

As far as the draw rule: I'm 1570 here on cc, so, I'm guessing about 1400 uscf? In over 900 games I've drawn 6% of them. Not a lot. Draws are more prevalant at levels I will never attain, so I could live with it.

As  far as the cheating aspect, again, I've never played otb tournaments. If I suddenly won the lottery and then found the tournament to be a little fishy, well, then, I would simply make my thoughts known and not participate again. Plus, if the event goes as planned, and there is a lot of buzz about cheating that can't be answered, it will have a negative impact on any future the event might have.

I think Vegas is the best place to host an event like this because it has top of line security with cameras everywhere.  I'm not worried at all about cheating.  I believe that the rules will be strictly enforced to protect the players and discourage cheating.  This just might be the best chess tournament I will ever play in.

Hey, BM, you're not getting it. Draws are a part of the game?!? Who knew?

If one of the goals is to promote the game, it's not going to get a lot of traction if there are a lot of draws.

But, go ahead and start sending your pm's about how the horsie moves.

I'm consistent, pal. Read the rules of the tournament. For the u sections, it doesn't state draws are forbidden.

Get over yourself.

BM your only arguement is that draws are in the rules.  Ok agreed.  But you're overlooking or maybe just choose to not take into consideration that taking draws in chess is overly abused in modern chess tournaments, hence certain rules need to be in place to prevent that sort of behavior.  Obviously draws cannot be taken out of the game, but we should prevent the unnecessary ones.

BM you might want to look at the rules again for this tournament.  It doesn't say that you cannot draw. 

It just says the TD can exclude whoever he wants on the motivation that he is "not trying to win".

Go figure what that means.

I am opposed to anti-draw rules in general, but the ones currently in use at FIDE events, like no agreement or 3-fold before move 30 or 40 etc. are decent. In tournaments you also have the option to put a tiebreak penalty to draws. All of that fullfills the objective of "less draws" without external problems : I despise the objective, but I admit it is fullfilled properly.

The rules of that tournament are allowing the TD to cheat, this is the problem. I am not going to support a rigged tournament even if it was the chance of the century for chess to break out to the general audience. I mean, "irregular pairings may be used" is quite a tell, even if you do not get the byzantinities of the anti-drawing section formulations.

The only ones who should be afraid of this rule are those that play for a draw.  With a $1000 entry, why wouldn't you play highly aggressive chess and play to win?  If you do, then don't worry about.  Strict rules like this are absolutely necessary, given the amount of money involved, to discourage anyone to come and try to cheat.  If these rules weren't in place, then players would be complaining about that.  Besides, we the players have more power than the TD.  The event's success ultimately lies on us.  Imagine what would happen if half way through everyone gets up and walks out of the tournament?

Bulla, your head seems pretty thick.

There are countless ways to discourage draws. pdela in the other thread suggested throwing out the half a point for a draw, and a 3/1/0 score system is already used in some cases (national club league in France, for instance). This is extremely efficient at discouraging draws. You can make it worse, something like 10/1/0 if you want.

Again, that's not something I want, but that's a way of discouraging draws without obvious drawbacks.

Giving power to the TD or chief organizer or whoever to fiddle with the results is not a good thing, even if it was the only way to discourage draws.

Imagine a market system where the TD decides that there should be X draws in each round at most, and puts "authorizations to draw" at auction beforehand. Player bid for them by giving points after each round, can resell from each other at any point during the games, etc.. Someone who draws without having an authorization to do so scores 0 instead of 1/2. That would be awful, wouldn't it ? Yet it is still better, because the TD doesn't get to price the drawing license differently to each player.

Like I said before, WE have the power.  I guarantee that if there's a walk out the TD will bend over backwards to get us back in to play.

Yeah I guess I do have a thick head lol.  I don't live my life thinking about what if.  I seize opportunities.

You either trust the TD to make the right decisions or you don't.  In this case, with as much as Maurice Ashley has done for the world of chess, I trust his judgement.

You either trust the TD to make the right decision when you give them a loaded gun... or you don't give them a loaded gun at all.

And if he yells that he needs that loaded gun when it is not needed, it usually indicates they are more likely to make the wrong decision.

If all players walk out, they will be ashamed, sure. But 1-they will pocket all the registration money and 2-the odds of that happening are really low.

But please, do seize the opportunity to lose $1k to a corrupt organizer. I will not lift a single finger to stop you.

Well I guess you can sit and pout at home while I become $40,000 richer.