Scottish Tournaments - bring back the Challengers?

[Jonathan Livingstone]

Oban and Dundee also had four sections this season past.

I see the next Oban has a Challengers listed, Dundee's organiser KR sent out an email some months ago with some reference to removal of the Challengers and it is just an Open-Major-Minor format on the CS listing for the upcoming October congress.

Upcoming Marymass + Inverness are also both Open-Major-Minor format. The traditional Open-Challenger-Major-Minor is without any doubt now a minority of weekenders.

Worryingly there has been talk recently of the excellent FIDE Edinburgh Congress which adopts the much rarer OPEN-CHALLENGERS-MAJOR-BISHOPS-KNIGHTS type of format, following the trends and significantly downsizing its events.

You have hit the nail on the head, Until there are bums on seats then Open - Major - Minor format will prevail

Unfortunately we are increasingly seeing more seats, and less bums. The wider grading bands and reduced event options are speeding up the bum decline. Seems to be a bit of a vicious circle and none of us be it the bums (myself included there) or organisers seem to have the solutions. Perhaps our game is simply just doomed?