Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Recurring Problems at Chess Tournaments

Last weekend I ran the 2012 Guavaween Open. We had 12 players in the event, including Mike Hoffer and both Gospodinovs. Lyubo and Timo did not want to play each other in the last round so I let Mike Hoffer twist my arm into changing the pairings. He has an annoying habit of having me switch pairings if a child does not want to play his parent or coach. I would really like to put a stop to that!

Truman Hoang got Timo and beat him. Roshan Jayaraman got Lyubo and lost on time. However, Lyubo did not set the clock correctly and Roshan challenged the time forfeit. After admitting that he did not turn on the 5-second delay on his clock Lyubo argued that it was not announced in the advertisement for the tournament. At the beginning of almost every tournament that I run I tell people to turn on the 5-second delay. I am pretty sure that I made that announcement at this tournament as well. However, I am posting this here to cover my bases. IN ANY CHESS TOURNAMENT THAT I RUN, YOU WILL USE A DIGITAL CLOCK WITH THE DELAY TURNED ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lyubo had 28 minutes left on his clock when he claimed the time forfeit. Lyubo was also up a protected passed pawn on the h file. Lyubo was clearly winning at that point in the game. However, his excuse for not resuming a winning game was that Roshan knew what Lyubo's strategy for winning was. I later found out that Lyubo's strategy was to simply run Roshan out of time! Now, Lyubo is making all kinds of complaints about Mike Hoffer and is being a big-time cry baby about losing a game that he refused to play out!!!!!!! I have no sympathy for this cheater at all!

In the future, if both players fail to keep an accurate score sheet when both players have plenty of time left on their clocks I will double forfeit them! If your claim for a win or a draw gets denied by me and you then refuse to finish your game I will adjudicate the game as a rated win for your opponent! If both players fail to post the result of a game before I need to pair the next round I will double forfeit them!

I have never played in a chess tournament in which the organizer allowed anyone to take a half-point bye in the last round. Mike Hoffer has been allowing this even though he knows that I do not like this! To make things worse, he is allowing the request for a final round bye to be made after the first round has been played! Last weekend he allowed Andres Hernandez to make a late request and then change his mind because he wanted to play Corey Acor in the last round! Over my protests Andres was allowed to play! Mike Hoffer is running his chess tournaments as if they were Friday night unrated quads!

Lyubo knows that Mike Hoffer is inconsistent in the way that he enforces rules and has taken unfair advantage of that in the past. He also knows that he cannot manipulate me so he tries to get Mike Hoffer to over rule my decisions. If this continues I am going to ream both Mike Hoffer and Lyubo in front of everyone who is present at the time!!!!!!!!

Mike Serovey, MA, MISM

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Latest ICCF Ratings

Here are my ICCF ratings so far:

RatinglistRatingGames

2011/4 0 1Details
2012/1 0 9Details
2012/2 1734 17Details
2012/3 1812 28Details
2012/4 1866 35Details


Mike Serovey, MA, MISM

Please Answer My Poll Question

I am planning to develop a program that will help people to concentrate better while studying or playing chess. It will combine music with subliminal suggestions that will help people to relax and concentrate better while studying. This program will have suggestions that are specific to chess players. If I get enough interest I will release more information and additional questions here.

Mike Serovey, MA, MISM