Hamilton Stars Barred (and Stars Barred sections in general)

[Alan Tate]

I agree that variety is good and entrants should be able to play in an event that they wish. But it's just not clear if more people are being helped than upset.

p.s. sorry I thought there were 8 entrants last year not 4

[Phil Thomas]

Not actually checked data today but I'm reasonably sure it was 4 players above 2050 and 4 players below 2050 in the 2011 event.

Curious that the higest grade entering this year's U2050 event was around 1900

POST SCRIPT

24 Players in the top section

[robin moore]

I was casually strolling through past postings when I was reading through this. That is when I had a slightly father ted "mad" idea. When a group of us went to play at the Benidorm International we always had a handicap sweep. Elliot Frew for example was off scratch, I would get about 2.5 of a start and young David Gillespie got 4 of a start eg. 9 round event, usually ended in a photo finish, I remember we had to use a tie break to seperate Elliot, me, big Pat and David junior one year. Now this might sound nuts but could there be a format here for having an experimental tournament with your handicap based on grade? There would obviously have to be a limit on the "start" anyone would get and the number of rounds/difficulty in pairings/deciding tie break rules would be an issue, but there may be enough there to suggest a very interesting weekend especially as there could be a right jumble in the last round (with live boards present). Winner take all, minus 10% to Scottish juniors seeing I suggested it.

Robin.

Or maybe a six round one day allegro with a view to raising funds for Scottish juniors and the live boards fund?

[T Doherty]

To be honest the main thrust of the discussion on this thread doesn't really affect me directly, interesting though it has been to read. I am not a strong enough player to be thinking of playing in a Stars Barred tournament and I don't expect I ever will be. Which is connected to the only point I did want to mention.
Often in these discussions there is a presumption that, as well as playing in congresses for the fun of it, everyone will also be seeking to play ever more challenging games, looking to be an ever stronger player. I think there are a fair few players like myself who enjoy the challenging games, enjoy the more even games and sometimes even enjoy the easy ones too. We would like to be stronger players but lack the time and/or energy to put in the amount of work needed. For us the tournament is primarily a fun weekend playing some chess, meeting old and new friends and with a bit of luck maybe even winning the odd prize. I think that a fair number of the entrants at any congress, and in most of the categories, will fall into this category but we don't ever get a mention in these discussions. I suppose that is because we will be there when we can regardless but it would be nice to get an occasional acknowledgement of our existence. ;P
My grade has actually started to slowly creep up the last couple of years but that is far less to do with the tournaments I've played in and far more to do with no longer being a shift worker.
I think all I wanted to say (and I wanted to say it in a less longwinded way, sorry about that) is that in discussing and planning the way events are run it is important not to lose sight of all those taking part, not just the strong and improving players. We plodders need attention too! =)