19-01-2013, 11:39 PM
At least for my participation I generally find that main factors that determine it are location, work commitments/time and generally if I feel I'm in form or not. As I've not been playing well and been very busy I've not entered many :\
One thing I'll also note is that East/West of Scotland Open has to me seemed always a bit confusing since they usually have "qualifiers" although it's always left kind of vague whether qualification simply entitles you to a discount in which case to me it would be more of an invitation than qualification although that's me overly obsessed around semantics.
As far as stars barred events go I'm not that keen on them. I remember Lothians Congress used to have a championship limited to edinburgh and then something like an U2050 and it felt more like non-edinburgh players over 2050 were simply excluded. I'll also note that I personally see it as a good opportunity whenever I play a strong opponent since any result is a major achievement and obviously helps players improve a lot more. I think high amount of entries in Scottish Championships last year was down to opportunity to play strong players and glasgow being relatively easily accessible although I won't deny that money also played a big role.
Something that could be food for thought is that I'm unsure to what extent chess congresses have a target demographic other than chess players. For example if Stars-Barred events were to become a feature and let's say it's for U2100 then target demographic I'd assume would be 1900-2100 players that currently cannot play in challengers. Looking at hamilton with a £23 entry fee and £150 first prize I would assume that with the high entry fee to prize ratio that either they had problems getting a cheap venue or that it's mainly aimed for local people or people who don't care about financial side. On the other hand Glenrothes that I think had sponsorship has a higher prize fund thus aiming to attract people from further away to compensate for it's potentially slightly isolated location. Having not really run any congresses I'm unsure how developed business plans are and how much analysis is carried out on future growth prospects, their target market and how successfully they reach it.
Apologies if I'm looking at problem wrong way or if I've strayed slightly off topic
One thing I'll also note is that East/West of Scotland Open has to me seemed always a bit confusing since they usually have "qualifiers" although it's always left kind of vague whether qualification simply entitles you to a discount in which case to me it would be more of an invitation than qualification although that's me overly obsessed around semantics.
As far as stars barred events go I'm not that keen on them. I remember Lothians Congress used to have a championship limited to edinburgh and then something like an U2050 and it felt more like non-edinburgh players over 2050 were simply excluded. I'll also note that I personally see it as a good opportunity whenever I play a strong opponent since any result is a major achievement and obviously helps players improve a lot more. I think high amount of entries in Scottish Championships last year was down to opportunity to play strong players and glasgow being relatively easily accessible although I won't deny that money also played a big role.
Something that could be food for thought is that I'm unsure to what extent chess congresses have a target demographic other than chess players. For example if Stars-Barred events were to become a feature and let's say it's for U2100 then target demographic I'd assume would be 1900-2100 players that currently cannot play in challengers. Looking at hamilton with a £23 entry fee and £150 first prize I would assume that with the high entry fee to prize ratio that either they had problems getting a cheap venue or that it's mainly aimed for local people or people who don't care about financial side. On the other hand Glenrothes that I think had sponsorship has a higher prize fund thus aiming to attract people from further away to compensate for it's potentially slightly isolated location. Having not really run any congresses I'm unsure how developed business plans are and how much analysis is carried out on future growth prospects, their target market and how successfully they reach it.
Apologies if I'm looking at problem wrong way or if I've strayed slightly off topic