2009 Foxwoods Open

Thinking about playing in my first tournament. 2009 foxwoods open. Was wondering if anyone knew of a good tournament rules, etiquette, ETC, book. Pretty excited about this. Anyone else going?

Foxwoods is a very big tournament, and a big deal in my home state of Connecticut. Several guys from my home chess club are planning to go.

Assuming this is your first OTB tournament, you might want to check out http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman42.pdf , which is a pretty good summary of what to expect. I'm sure other guides are out there if you just google "first chess tournament" or something. But I think you'll find that, in general, people at these things are fairly friendly (always a few bad apples, of course); and if you're ever confused just ask and someone will be happy to help.

Nick,

It's an exceptionally well run tournament for a large event. Plus, decent to very good food and reasonable (but not necessarily bargain) hotel rates.  If you're entering the Open bracket, which I wouldn't necessarily advise in your first tourney, you may run into a whole gamut from the inept to good to exceptional masters over the 9 games.  And, that bracket's non-master players tend to take themselves very seriously.  That's whether they should or not!  That's excepting the masters who, generally, only take each other seriously on any given day. Sometimes not.  But, it's how they make their living so it's understandable.

If you play in one of the 7 game sections, you may enjoy it more. They do require USCF membership.  If you want details on that, take a look at www.uschess.org. It's the Federation's website.  You'll run into more very young but sometimes very good players in the unrated or lowest brackets.  {I always ask if there's a room for old guys like myself to go cry where the kid who just beat me won't see.}  But, I've never run into a tourney where there hasn't been an extremely large majority of fun, or at least nice, people balanced by one or two jerks. 

DimKnight steered you in the right direction.  I've been to the tournament to provide moral support for friends who came from out of state to play.  However, since it's always on Easter Weekend, I haven't gotten permission from the management at my house to miss dinner with her folks on Easter.  Therefore, I've never entered.  I took a quick look at your bio.  If you're thinking about driving back and forth, DON'T!  It's a haul from where you live no matter which way you go.

Best Regards,

John F.

I appreciate the advise guys. I've done long stretches at foxwoods for poker tournaments and wouldn't dream of trying to commute. Definitely going to grab a hotel room from Wednesday to Sunday. I won't do the Open section, probably either U1500 or U1300. I think I could compete fairly well in the U1500, but seeing as it is my first chess tourn I think it might be better for me to go for U1300. I think nerves will probably affect my play and I'd rather not frustrate myself in my first tourn. I want a good experience.

I'm going to read that PDF tonight. thanks a lot Dim. 

What do you guys think the age range will be in the U1300? Might be uncomfortable sitting across from some 15 year old...

 Nah, I don't mind the 15 year olds. It's the 8-10 year olds who sit there bouncing up and down on their seat, looking absently around the room, and sucking on a lollypop all while soundly trouncing you that I can't stand. You spend 5 minutes trying to fathom the position before launching your brilliant sublety only to have the snot nosed little punk barely glance at the board before banging out a move that destroys all your planning and sends you into gloomy despair.

Hey! I'm going to Foxwoods for the tournament, I just signed up yesterday. I went once already, in 2007, and it was great! I'm really looking forward to going back.