11-07-2016, 02:48 PM
I believe that Edinburgh FIDE Congress is now the only weekender in Scotland that has a OPEN-CHALLENGERS-MAJOR-MINOR type format. The norm now seems to be OPEN-MAJOR-MINOR.
With pretty much every other event now removing the challengers, there a number of question marks resulting from this situation.
- Has this has been detrimental to Scottish Chess and weekend events?
- Has the decline trend of entrant numbers sharpened as a direct result?
- The wider grading bands are putting some off?
- Some are being forced into playing the Open or a highly rated Major when they would rather not?
- Have the Open events been weakened, and the others to a lesser extent?
- Are players going to increasingly go elsewhere for their weekend congress action? (England/abroad).
Obviously there are congress viability issues here, and one less event means one less set of prize funds. Is this the solution though? How long until the MINOR gets ditched and its just an OPEN-MAJOR format? Will it just eventually be OPEN format for all weekenders. Things look bleak for weekenders?
Would anyone like to see the original format of events that included a Challengers return?
With pretty much every other event now removing the challengers, there a number of question marks resulting from this situation.
- Has this has been detrimental to Scottish Chess and weekend events?
- Has the decline trend of entrant numbers sharpened as a direct result?
- The wider grading bands are putting some off?
- Some are being forced into playing the Open or a highly rated Major when they would rather not?
- Have the Open events been weakened, and the others to a lesser extent?
- Are players going to increasingly go elsewhere for their weekend congress action? (England/abroad).
Obviously there are congress viability issues here, and one less event means one less set of prize funds. Is this the solution though? How long until the MINOR gets ditched and its just an OPEN-MAJOR format? Will it just eventually be OPEN format for all weekenders. Things look bleak for weekenders?
Would anyone like to see the original format of events that included a Challengers return?