Millionare Chess Tournament in Las Vegas at October 2014

If the rules are a mess, what do you think the rest of the tournament is going to be like?

If the rules are a mess, then instead of abandoing the tournament, lets make Ashley and Co. aware of why we think its a mess. I am sure, they will be looking around social media to see whats the opinion of chess community. Our feedbacks and opinions may help them to adjust rules here and there if they understand that the rules are not going to work.

The idea is to help them than to protest them. Well, you dont like the rules, dont participate. But dont tell others not to participate. Once this one is successful, in future events the rules will get brushed up better and we will see improvements. But by doing negative publicity, we are not helping chess to grow in USA. Of course, some negatives will be there and of course Ashley and Co will have some errors and mistakes. My point is despite all that, its better that the tournament happens than to not happen.

Cheers!!

Chess For You - http://chess4you.blogspot.com

I haven't told anyone not to participate, and i don't recall anyone else saying so either...

Please people don´t participate!!!!! 

lol, i now stand corrected...

Yah, I guess we are all correct now! But I think people will join. Its only whether 1500 people will register by March 31st is the question. I have already coutned for 3 and am looking for 8 more to get the discount of 11th person free in a group. But I will catch the 31st January deadline to get a chance in the lottery!

The chess tournament is going to be awesome!!

i'd need to win the lottery to enter. $1000 to enter!!!

So, that was all your promoting about... it was not about promoting chess in the US, it was about getting your free entry to the tournament! 

Its not free entry and its not me only. If you register by 31st January, you will be part of a lucky draw for a air ticket and 5 nights stay in planet hollywood! I believe if you join after 31st Jan but before 31st march then there will be another lucky draw for air ticket only.

Of course i am selfish. Selfish enough to see chess being a viable option for chess players like me!

@socialista, I see where the "free entry" portion came to your mind. You are thinking that i myself become the 11th person if i can arrange 10 people? Well thats an idea i never had. What i was thinking is to either collect $909 from 11 people so that everyone saves $91. But thank you and thank you for putting the idea in my head! What i am thinking now is that if i can arrange 10 people in total then we 10 will sponsor 1 promising local chess player to be the free 11th player.

See how we learn from conversations. Please keep these ideas coming!

why are high stakes iniatiatives like this requiered they only encourage cheating, match fixation and corruption ... Imagine a last round when two opponents faces, one of them has the tournament win assured by winning the game and the another would need a highly improbable combination of results to achieve anything. Do you think, let's say, 200.000 dollars would be motivation enough to lose on purpose. At least the tournament will take place in the correct placement, the city of the gambling and the mafia

But we should be happy because all chess players will benefit, even the 1600s players will win big bucks!!!! 

(...)

pdela... if you have headache, do you cut your head? No you cure. If cheating is a disease in any sport including chess, then you dont stop playing chess, you control them. The means of your control is to not arrange high stake tournament? how ridiculous!! No, no and no. The means will be to make sure organizers are putting enough importance on cheationg control etc which they are going to do. They have a huge budget and initiative around it. You will see if you read the web site and FAQs in detail. As Ashley said in one reply, he doesn't want to reveal how they are going to control all these, but be assured that they will be looking into it.

Let's say you dont believe them. Even then, are you better off without such tournaments happening? May be you are, but most of the chess players and enthusiasts want to see the game stepping up in all directions. And we can.... we just have to help the people who are trying to execute.

Maurice Ashley?! He's ranked 1,689th in the world. He tried to be funny & sounded egotistical when he was interviewing Magnus Carlsen when he told Magnus "I could teach you a thing or two about football" & it backfired when Magnus responded with "& I could teach you a thing or two about chess". A good laugh was had by all, hahaha..............

But actually, it's a good plan if it can be made to work. I hope it gets a lot of media attention & I would like to see chessplayers support it. I also wish they would hire some real commentators. 

I am not supporting turning chess into wrestling with routinely rigged matches, even if it brings glory, fame and money to all chess players.

Whoever wants to enter that "tournament" can of course do so. I am just warning them the dice are loaded.

The $1k entry fee / $1m prize fund is just a distraction from the real issues, a "misdirection" in technical terms. Look at the glittering gold, not at the ugly backyard rules making the TD all-powerful !

Vegas is the place for it to happen, they spend their whole day there on security detail. I'm sure cheats will have a tough time there.

when betting in sports became a major business in all sports, football, tennis, handball, etc... cases of rigged matches started to be discovered... even involving the biggest starts of their respective sports such as Karabatic, or top ten tennis player like Davydenko. I don't think it is good to mix extremely high stakes with sports. You can do like in boxing but then it will go against the credibility of all. And if you're playing for a prize of 1 million dollars in a open format tourney, I just can imagine all what can be suspicious within the last rounds 

Low rated GMs know they're absolutely outclassed by super GMs and have plenty of respect.  No need to even mention someone like Carlsen.  MA was probably trying to be funny about the football, implying his own chess deficiencies.  If they all laughed after MC's comment it was because they all knew it was true.