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Forced to play open--a problem, and my suggested solution

Posted By: Phil Simborg
Date: Sunday, 16 April 2017, at 5:04 p.m.

In Response To: Chicago roommate--what is better (ScottJ)

The rules about moving up are unclear, and the implementation of rules vary greatly from tournament to tournament.

The truth is, it is not an easy problem. Someone who wins an intermediate tournament might have a fighting chance in the Open of a small tournament and little chance to compete in a major event where there are many great players and giants.

We have seen many people who have won intermediate tournaments continue to play in the Intermediate, and several of them have repeated their wins.

We have seen many people forced to move up, because they won an intermediate event, that simply got lucky and are no where near good enough to compete in the open. Many of these people, unfortunately, have chosen to stop coming to most or all tournaments because they don't want to pay the higher entry fees with so little chance to win. That's a great loss to the game, and I really feel for those players (I have coached many of them, by the way.)

I do agree that the TD should have some leverage to look at the individual player's skill and history to decide eligibility, but this is quite subjective and often leads to people resenting that they are forced to play open, or if they are allowed to play intermediate, other intermediate players feel it is unfair. It's a no-win situation.

But I also believe we can "somewhat" eliminate some of these problems.

First, we need to have clearer guidelines to start with, so it is not completely ambiguous. And those guideline should be reasonable. What is reasonable is highly debatable, but I am willing to offer what I think is reasonable.

I believe if a player starts the year in the intermediate division, he should be allowed to finish the year there no matter how many tournaments he wins. In that way, we can have a true, Intermediate Champion at the end of the year.

Second, if a player wins an Intermediate tournament, he can move up right away if he so chooses, or he must move up the following year. However, if he plays in 6 ABT or major events without cashing in the main or masters, he should be able to move back down to the Intermediate. After moving down, if he comes in First, Second, or First consolation, he should be required to move up again for another year, and then he can move down again after not cashing in 12 events.

I believe this is reasonable, and will keep us from losing so many players who feel they are out of their league in the open division. And if they do move down, the other players will not resent it so much because they know these players have "paid their dues" by losing in the open a number of times.

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