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View Full Version : Eastern Ontario Open: $30 March discount



Aris Marghetis
03-16-2010, 02:11 PM
Hi chess players, this might seem to be a little early to announce the Eastern Ontario Open, but over 15 players were already registered for it as of the recent RA Spring Open! In addition, the double-early discount seemed to work well for the last event, so we are trying a $30 triple-early discount for the Eastern Ontario Open, in June. In other words, you save $10 for every month ahead of time that you register and pay. So, $10 off in May, $20 off in April, and $30 off in March! For local players who pay me in person, the payment date is obvious. For players who mail in their payment, your early discount amount is determined by the postmark on the letter. For example, to take advantage of the $30 March discount, you should mail it before March 31st!

For local players, please note that I plan to be at the RA Chess Club this Thursday, March 18th. I should be there before 6pm, as I have an EOCA meeting from 6pm to after 7pm. After that, I will be playing in the RA Active tournament for the rest of the evening. If you were planning on attending that evening anyway, then I would suggest that you register and pay that evening, as I might be working on the only other Thursday in March, the 25th, and so would not attend the RA chess club on that evening. This far ahead of the event, cheques would actually be preferable to cash, as if you were mailing it in. On that note, local players please feel free to mail your registrations and payments! If any of this is unclear, please reply to this post, or by direct email to me.

Whereas the Eastern Ontario Open will be quite similar to recent Ottawa weekend events, there are also 4 differences that might be of interest to people :

1) As this event occurs after the end of the University school year, travelling players can get great deals to stay in the residences of Carleton University, which is a convenient walking distance from the playing site. It is not right next door, but it does include free breakfasts, in a scenic green part of Ottawa!

2) As our numbers for recent Ottawa events have been increasing, we are in discussions with the RA Centre regarding the actual playing room(s). For example, for the RA Spring Open earlier this month, we could tell from the number of early registrations that we needed to open the wall to the old skittles room, and book another room for skittles. That was not too hard to manage as we grew from about 50 to almost 70 players. However, the Eastern Ontario Open normally attracts 1 or 2 dozen more players than the other Ottawa events, which means that we should be looking at 80 players or more this year, but our current maximum configuration would be 100 players. Therefore, the early registration discounts are not just to build an early buzz for the event, but they will also provide more information for our discussions with the RA Centre regarding the actual playing room(s). In the end, we want to get the most comfortably quiet room(s) to fit everyone, which is why early registrations, and even early emails indicating intent to register, are so appreciated!

3) In recognition of this potential relatively elevated impact of late registrations, the only significant change to the entry fee structure is an increase to the entry fee for players who prefer the personal convenience of registering and paying at the last minute. In other words, GMs and IMs can still enter for free if they commit before June, players who pay this month still pay the same amount as when they registered during the first month of registrations for the RA Spring Open, the Amateur discount is still $30, a member of the RA Chess Club can still register the earliest as an Amateur for as little as $25, etc.

4) As noted above, we normally get quite a few more players for the Eastern Ontario Open, probably due to the combination of the time of year, the easy driving conditions, the residence option at Carleton University, etc. We are planning 4 sections, including prizes for every 200 rating points from U2400 to U1600. For the 2nd through 4th sections, U2000 to U1600, we have most often had 1 to 2 prizes for every 200 rating points. However, with more players registering, this will likely increase to 2 to 3 prizes for every 200 rating points. This might be something to consider if you are undecided as to whether to play as an Amateur or not. With such small 200 point rating ranges providing a reasonable chance to the vast majority of players to win a money prize, and any savings realized from registering early, it might be an idea to pay the extra $30 to upgrade from Amateur to playing for prize money. I know this will also help raise the prize fund faster and higher, attracting even more players, but the other reason I mention it here is because almost every tournament, 1 or more players/parents will approach me after the tournament has started to ask if they can go non-Amateur, because they are getting good results within their 200 point rating range. Please note there is (understandably!) no way that anyone can switch up from Amateur after first pairings are done.

Yours in chess,

Aris Marghetis, FIDE Arbiter
Organizer/TD, EOCA President

Please note that we are looking for up to 4 floater players :
- floater players help the TD guarantee no “forced byes”
- floater players are paired and rated like all the players
- floater players play for free, but under some conditions :
----- they play in 0 to 5 rounds, depending on byes by all the players
----- they can be phoned/texted in the hour before every single round
----- they have a current CFC membership by the time of first pairings
if you are interested in being a floater player for this event, please apply by email

--------- ongoing registration list ---------

CFC# rating name: title last, first

Top Section
146462 2610 GM Sambuev, Bator
106245 2452 IM O'Donnell, Tom
138609 2420 Sapozhnikov, Roman
U2400 Class
103715 2377 Pacey, Kevin (renewing)
106629 2277 Gordon, David (confirming)
135223 2276 Kraiouchkine, Nikita
U2200 Class
141393 2194 Marinkovic, Mate (confirming)
111166 2164 Collins, Christian
104837 2049 Riordon, Jason

U2000 Section
102539 1994 Groleau, Gilles
101895 1909 Danilov, Alex
110972 1899 Ritchie, Gordon (confirming)
112353 1814 Tomalty, Alan

U1800 Section
129952 1654 MacNevin, Dave
136037 1610 Xiong, Wei (floater)
147460 1602 Wan, Kevin

U1600 Section
140794 1564 Huang, Jayson (confirming)

P.S. All applicable ratings will be rechecked before first pairings at 645pm.

--------- original event announcement ---------

The Eastern Ontario Chess Association (EOCA) organizes the EOCA Grand Prix, a series of weekend tournaments over the 2009-2010 chess season.

The next EOCA event in Ottawa will be the Eastern Ontario Open, on June 11th-13th. It will consist of 5 rounds, with flexible bye and discount options.

We are planning 4 sections (rated CFC, Top Section also rated FIDE), and prizes (2010 average > $2600) for every 200 rating points (U2400 to U1600).

For more details on this event, and a great webpage for all of the events in the 2009-2010 EOCA Grand Prix, please consider bookmarking this weblink:
http://www.eoca.org/htm/tournaments_2009-2010.html