MacIsaac trophy

[Keith Rose]

I'm pleased to say that the MacIsaac trophy (sans plinth) has resurfaced. The MacIsaac tournament as was is no longer so I'm looking for suggestions for what we might do with it. It can either be presented for some achievement but without a dedicated tournament or we can invent a new event. We'll keep the spirit of the old event and make it for grades over 1850. If preference is for a new event we should not overlook potential running costs, so cheap or self-financing.

I did get some suggestions last year:

I do not like a KO system, at least not for individuals. IMO, that
doesn't lend any sort of 'thereness' to the tournament. Who knows
what's going on on an individual basis? If it was feasible to hold
it as weekend Swisses in regional locations, with qualifiers
meeting in a 'final' in a central location later in the season,
that would give it much more prestige and surely raise awareness.

I've always thought that mid-week is an absolute no-no. 'Normal'
chess club activity, plus people have many other commitments on
weeknights (I know I do). I couldn't really contemplate anything
'extra' on a mid-week basis. If others are in a similar boat,
you're not going to get a full uptake.

My 'regional' idea was to divvy the country into four (probably)
Swisses, basically N, S, E & W, with, say, the top three in each
playing a Swiss to provide the champ of champs. The big drawback,
though, would be division of strength, given that most of the
strongest players are based in the Glasgow & Edinburgh areas.
Or maybe it could be run (even as a pilot) as ONE w/end Swiss, open
only to club champs or subs, in a roving location from year to year.

Any other suggestions?

[George Neave]

Where was it?!

My suggestion would be to tie it in with the Grand Prix somehow. Simplest - give it to the winner of existing system.

[Jonathan Livingstone]

I like the ideas quoted in Keith's post. I usually agree with George, but not on this occassion (sorry). The Grand Prix is a seperate event, with a completely different ideal. As I understand it, to realisticly win a Grand Prix prize, it is mostly inclusive of CS Members who are able to get about the country a lot to attend the majority of the weekend congresses. I don't see any real purpose to be throwing in the MacIsaac trophy to this event.

Would it not be really sad to see the death of the MacIsaac? I'd suggest that should be a last resort and every effort made to save it in the short-term and revitalise it in the longer term.

Last year the Elder had 24 entrants, 23 were U-1700. Given there was only 1 x 1700+ player, maybe we need to look at making the MacIsaac available to 1700+ or 1750+ players? I don't think that would dilute the quality too much, and most of the time the cream rises to the top anyway.

So make the Elder an U-1700 event, and make the MacIsaac a +1700 event, and maybe a few of those players in the 1700-1850 window who are not currently participating (of which there is many) can be attracted.

The low MacIsaac numbers of 6 from last season should not be hard to improve on. Even if there is only 8 entrants (probably the bare minimum for a decent competition), I'd say run it. Lets give it one more chance? The short-term target should be just stabilising the event and keeping it going, and longer-term building it back up.

I'd also like to see last years qualification criteria of Club Champion continuing. Our club had its first ever Club Championship with the added prize of qualifcation to MacIsaac no matter what your grade. It can add something to small clubs championships events.

I have encouraged all our members to enter either Elder or MacIsaac. We have 2 confirmed who will enter. Personaly I'd love to be able to enter the MacIsaac and try to win it (trophy or no trophy), but if I don't meet the eligibily will definetly be an Elder entrant. The knockout aspect doesn't put me off, nor does the midweek schedule. The regionalised early rounds seemed to be help the Elder tick along smoothly last season. I'd assume more flexibility comes in when things are not so regionalised as competitions reach the latter stages.