| |
BGonline.org Forums
My Take On Chiva's Tournament In Maryland October 14-17
Posted By: Paul Weaver
Date: Wednesday, 20 October 2010, at 4:39 a.m.
Chiva, along with Elayne Feinstein and Rob Maier, did a great job running the tournament in Maryland October 14-17.
Although Chiva directs about ten tournaments a year, it was my first time to meet him and play in one of his tournaments. Chiva is a very reasonable, approachable and friendly gentleman who subscribes to the theory that running a tournament on a reasonable schedule is far more important than encouraging participants to dress up for the weekend.
Here are some things about Chiva’s tournament that I liked:
All matches in the jackpot and main events were played with clocks. Consequently, everyone played at a reasonable pace, no one match took too long and the tournament progressed at a good pace.
The tournament was spread out over four days, giving those who wanted it plenty of action. The jackpot started on Thursday and the main event started Friday at noon. Some people thought that the field was not large enough (only eighteen in the main event) for a four-day tournament, but I felt it worked out very well.
I liked it that the matches in the main event were 15pts.
The rooms were huge. Actually, they were all suites or apartments. It was a bargain at $95 per night. I had a bedroom with a king sized bed and large HD TV. The living room also had a large TV with a sofa bed. There was an additional side room with another smaller sofa bed. Two people stayed in my suite, but there was plenty of room for four or five. Chiva said that next year he will find a place closer to the BWI airport.
Having lived in Maryland in 1990-1994, I saw many friends from the area whom I had not seen in years. Neil Berkman and Joe Freedman knew each other nineteen years ago, had not seen each other for more than ten years, and discovered that they now live next door to each other in Arlington, VA. It was also my pleasure to meet a lot of players from Maryland and Virginia whom I had never known before.
I liked it that Matt Cohn-Geier and Bill Phipps showed up on Friday night, too late to play in the jackpot or main event.
I really enjoyed seeing Mochy at the tournament. It was my pleasure to give him a ride to the airport early Monday morning. We plan to share a room at the tournament in Meribel, France December 8-12. Meribel is in the heart of the Alps, near the point where France, Italy and Switzerland meet.
Chiva showed wisdom in being flexible about enforcing his rules. Saturday afternoon at 4:55, he announced last game before dinner break. A few minutes later, Steve Hast and I were tied at 9-9 in our 11pt match. We had half a dozen spectators. I asked Chiva if we could please finish the last game of our match. When he gave his consent, I told Chiva that the only reason he said yes was that he was afraid I would write him up on Stick’s site if he had said no.
Rob Maier taught me how to set my clock. I bought a clock from Carol in Chicago in March. When she and I played a match later that month in Cleveland, she was unable to figger out how to set it. When I asked Rob to please set my clock for me, he mocked me with his response, “I LOVE it when a player does not know how to set his own clock.” I caught on immediately that Rob was referring to my “I LOVE it when…” post on September 12. http://www.bgonline.org/forums/webbbs_config.pl?noframes;read=77343
As I have stated before on this site, I am a goal-oriented person. My goal for 2010 was to learn how to post XG rollout results on this site. It took me a few months of hard work and research, but I finally learned how to do it. I had a very challenging goal in mind for myself for 2011 - learning how to set my clock. Now that I have reached my 2011 goal before the end of 2010, I can take next year off with a good conscience.
I hope no one thinks I am bragging, but how many people do you know who are more than a year ahead of schedule in accomplishing their goals?
I hope to play in another of Chiva’s tournaments soon.
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.