Millionare Chess Tournament in Las Vegas at October 2014

Technically he could if the tournament organiser let him, it isn't against the rules. The mechanism is that he'd probably be given a really low handicap e.g. a positive handicap so shots are added to his score rather than taken away as normal, with the intended effect that he's no more likely to win than anyone else.

Golf tournaments are a mixed bag.  Some are professional only, some are amateur only, and some are a mix of professional and amateur.  The important thing is that only professionals can win money.  Even if an amateur wins a mixed tournament, they get only a trophy.  The money goes to the top finishing professionals.

Haven't checked the rule book for a few years, but the last time that I checked, a golf professional is anyone who plays (or has played) for money.  I doubt that has changed in the interim.

So golf is different from chess. I don't really see what this has to do with the money being offered by Ashley and company.

jonesmurphy's claim that sandbagging does not exist. (#413)

Scottrf my last USCF rating was 1985 when I quit tourneys 13 years ago. I peaked just over 2200 back in college when I had as much free time on my hands as you perpetually do since your full-time job is to try to trash Maurice Ashley's reputation. How about you, my brilliant friend?

Being English I don't have a USCF rating but it seems your play has deteriorated a lot in the last 13 years.

What about we all stop bragging about who has the biggest (rating, of course) and trash-talking ?

Sounds boring.

Oh believe it.......... I've got the biggest

Scottrf you have a BCF rating. You ain't telling because it's nowhere near mine. Your BS has deteriorated a lot. I'm going to Vegas. You're not.

Yep, you are paying, he is not.

You make it sound like it's a privilege to join an open tournament.

It is a privilege to participate in making chess history. One which many of you haters cannot afford and are deeply envious of.

Could afford it pretty easily, just have better things to spend money on. If this is the best thing you can think to do in Vegas, you need a better imagination.

I've been in Vegas dozens of times, only a few of which were for chess. How many times have you been?

How could it not be good for chess?

If MC, LLC is successful in promoting high prize tournaments, a small number of avid, affluent chess players will benefit.

However, most chess players in the US are juniors, who lose interest, drop out, and are replaced by other juniors. The majority of those who continue to play as adults have time and money constraints, and their activity is limited to clubs and local tournaments.  In my area, both clubs and the number of tournaments are in decline.  I don't think that the MC Open, if successful, will do much to incourage participation at the local level and reverse that trend.

rdicredico is correct. Look at how the $10k entry fee of the World Series of Poker in this awful venue ruined poker. And somehow, by rdicredico math, a higher payout ratio than ever before is really a lower payout ratio: http://millionairechess.com/news/prize-fund-ratios/

Math and Facts just aren't some people's strong suits.

Ashley's payout ratio calculation is misleading.  He divides the total prize fund by the entry fee for a single player.  Think about it, the winner of the class section gets $40,000 for a $1000 entry fee, a ratio of 40.  How can the payout ratio be 112?

If the total prize fund for the class section, $112,000, is divided by the total entry fees paid by the 50 players who share the prize fund, $50,000, the ratio is 2.3.  Using this logic, ratios for the other tournaments range from 4 to 8.  The other tournaments just don't offer 40 token prizes.

All these people complaining that it costs too much or that it sets too high an entrance fee seem to have forgotten economics 101. Let's see if the entrepreneurs are right. Let's find out what the market is.

The peanut gallery is not willing to share in the risk and will berate Ashley and Lee whether they make or lose money. But Ashley & Lee are the ones who are willing to take the risk and deserve any profit they may make in this enterprise.

How does the song go? The haters will hate.