Imagine a tournament where every level pays a prize money.
I WANT to discuss a concept with you today. Imagine this: a knock-out tournament where the winners of each round gets to win some prize money.
Interesting concept, eh? The idea is definitely not new but it has not been tried anywhere here before. So why don’t we think about it? If our chess associations can find the sponsors, such a tournament may well become a new fixture in our local chess calendar.
I know what you readers are thinking, that finding sponsors may not be the easiest thing for chess organisers right now, seeing that 2009 will be a very challenging year with the global recession threatening our shores.
Therefore, this idea can only be a proposal for the future. Nevertheless, who knows, maybe it will be possible to find a sponsor today and the idea may well take off.
I’m talking about a knock-out tournament of maybe 60 to 80 players, but an ideal number will be 64, the number of squares on the chessboard but more importantly, 64 players will allow the field to be halved perfectly after every round right until we get the final two players.
In each round, the paired players will be required to play a mini-match of three games with the winner advancing to the next round. In case of a tie, the players will go into a play-off until there is an outright winner.
Now here are the interesting parts. The mode of play for the tournament will be very flexible. The players themselves will decide how they want to conduct their games. Thirty-minute time control? No problem. Sixty-minute time control? Also no problem. Just as long as the mini-match gets played and a result obtained.
Next, the players themselves decide when and where they want to play within a given time frame. It can be on a neutral ground or it can be in one of their houses. They decide and then they play. All results are then reported to the organising association.
The most interesting aspect of this idea is that the winners in each round will win a prize and the value of the prizes will double with each round.
For example, in a knock-out tournament of 64 players, the organisers may offer a RM20 prize for each of the 32 winners of the first round and the prize increases to RM40 each for the 16 winners of the second round. In the third round, the winners will get RM80 each and in the fourth round, it will be RM160 each for the winners. By the time we get to the fifth round, there’ll be four players left and the two winners will get RM320 each. The sixth and final round will determine the winner who will get RM640.
By my reckoning, a tournament such as this will need a prize fund of only RM3,940 and the eventual winner, having played in all six rounds, get to collect in every round. I shall leave it to you to work out how much the winner will receive. It’s by no means a small sum and half the field gets to win something.
Of course, I’m not thinking of only one tournament. We can have many running across the country at the same time, each catering to their particular area. The organising association only needs to coordinate the players, collect the results and determine the next set of players.
Moreover, if the national federation can play a coordinating role as well, they can even bring the final four or eight players from each tournament together to a central location for a finale. I think the possibilities are endless. What do you think? Is it possible?
(This article first appeared in The Star on 9 Jan 2009)