RESULTS OF AUG 26 SURVEY
by Bill Goichberg
This survey had an excellent response, with over 700 participants on some questions.
*** Do you consider yourself better at quick or blitz chess than at regular time controls, about the same, or not as good?
Better 49
About the same 169
Not as good 521
Apparently most players expect to perform worse at quick or blitz chess than at
regular time controls. If all the respondents
faced each other in a huge quick or blitz tournament, a lot of players would
score better than they expect!
*** What type of chess clock or clocks do you own that are in working order?
At least one digital but no analog 328
At least one analog but no digital 88
At least one digital and at least one analog 314
Don't own a clock 12
(So almost everyone owns a clock. Why do so many players come to
tournaments without it?)
*** Players were asked to rate their chances of entering a specified
tournament depending on schedule and time control.
The tournament varied with the region receiving the survey. For the
Midwest and Southeast, the shortest event listed was 5
rounds (Chicago Class or Southern Open), for the Northeast and West it was 6
rounds (Continental Open or Pacific Coast Open).
On all surveys, the vote was against adding an extra round and extra half day.
The time control 40/2, SD/1 for all rounds was strongly preferred in all
regions, finishing well ahead of shorter schedules which play the first few
rounds at G/60 or G/75 and then merge. This reflects actual turnouts in
which the all 40/2, SD/1 schedule usually draws best, however the shorter
schedules draw enough entries to apparently be worthwhile.
A surprise was that offering the option of the all 40/2 schedule or the shorter schedule with the schedules merging, while scoring better than the shorter schedule alone, scored worse than the all 40/2 schedule in most areas. As those who want to play 40/2 in all games can do that with the two schedules merging just as well as with all 40/2, I wonder what the message is here- do those who prefer all 40/2 believe that all players should have to play the same time control throughout, or do they misunderstand and think that allowing the shorter schedule option somehow might speed up their play?
Two other options offered on all the surveys were a 7 round Swiss over 2
days, G/60 (to see what players think of faster time controls), and a 5 round
Swiss, 40/2, with one game per day. The G/60 schedule did poorly overall
everywhere, but comparing this time control to 40/2, SD/1, there was a huge
margin in favor of the latter for higher rated players and older players, while
with players 18 or under, and players rated under 1400, the margin was much
narrower. Apparently fast controls such as G/60 are far more acceptable to
young players and low rated players than to others. This was not
surprising, indeed what some may find surprising is that even those 18/under and
those under 1400 prefer 40/2, SD/1. Also, for the one game per day
schedule, while I didn't expect this to score well, I did expect that whatever
support it had would be mainly higher rated players and older players, but the
results did not match this expectation.
The results that follow are an average of how the player rated his or her
chances of entering (Excellent=5, Very Good=4, Good=3, Fair=2, Slight=1, No
Chance=0).
Column A is the 40/2, SD/1 schedule.
Column B is the shorter schedule playing 2 or 3 games at G/60 or G/75, then
merging.
Column C is the option of either 1 or 2, merging after 2 or 3 rounds.
Column D is 7 rounds over 2 days, G/60.
Column E is 5 rounds, 40/2, SD/1, one round per day.
* Indicates that the tournament mentioned is in that area, therefore higher
scores are to be expected.
Also, for other areas, the closer the area to the tournament, the higher the
scores are likely to be.
Responses A B
C D
E
Overall
699 2.28
1.48 1.88 1.20
1.06
New England*
69 3.2
1.9 2.8
1.5 1.1
New York
89 2.2
1.2 1.7
1.0 0.9
New Jersey
20 1.6
1.1 1.7
1.2 0.5
PA-DE
43 1.7
0.9 1.3
0.9 1.0
MD-DC-VA-WV
34 1.1
0.6 0.9
0.4 0.7
NC-SC-GA
22 2.1
1.3 1.8
1.2 1.0
Florida*
33 2.7
1.8 2.3
1.7 1.1
KY-TN-AL-AR-MS-LA 27
1.6 1.4
1.4 1.6
1.0
Ohio
27 2.2
1.7 1.7
1.2 1.0
Michigan
9 2.1
1.6 1.7
1.9 0.8
Indiana
24 2.8
2.2 2.5
1.5 0.9
Illinois*
55 2.9
2.3 2.5
1.7 1.6
WI-MN-IA-ND-SD
18 2.2
0.8 1.5
0.6 1.1
MO-KS-NE-OK
19 2.7
1.8 1.9
0.7 1.2
Texas
20 0.9
0.4 0.4
0.6 0.7
AZ-CO-NM-UT-WY
29 1.8
0.8 1.6
0.6 0.9
SouthCA*-SouthNV-HI 55
3.1 1.8
2.4 1.3
1.5
NorthCA-NorthNV
52 2.5
1.9 2.2
1.6 1.1
WA-OR-ID-MT-AK
13 2.2
1.3 2.0
1.0 1.0
Foreign
26 1.5
1.0 1.2
1.3 0.9
Rated 1800 & over
312 2.37
1.29 2.03 1.06
1.08
Rated 1400-1799
254 2.31
1.56 1.91 1.15
0.99
Rated under 1400
128 2.08
1.75 1.66 1.69
1.11
Age 50 & over
294 2.11
1.19 1.67 0.85
0.98
Age 31-49
238 2.39
1.56 1.90 1.35
1.03
Age 19-30
70 2.32
1.62 2.09 1.25
1.19
Age 18 & under
93 2.60
2.13 2.34 1.97
1.16
*** Time delay, increment, and time adjustment for using delay or
increment.
Players were asked to rate each possibility Excellent=4, Very Good=3, Good=2,
Fair=1 or Poor=0. Surveys were first sent to the Midwest and Southeast
with the following results:
40/120, SD/60, 5 second delay 2.0
40/115, SD/60, 5 second delay 2.0
40/120, SD/60, no delay 1.9
40/120, SD/55, 5 second delay 1.4
40/90, SD/60, 30 second increment 1.4
40/120, SD/60, 10 second delay 1.2
40/90, SD/30, 30 second increment 1.2
40/110, SD/60, 10 second delay 1.0
40/120, SD/50, 10 second delay 1.0
40/115, SD/55, 10 second delay 1.0
Because there seemed to be a strong consensus that any time deduction should be
from the first control and not the second, three choices were removed and
replaced by others when the survey was sent to the Northeast and West:
Northeast West
40/120, SD/60, 5 second delay
2.7 2.7
40/115, SD/60, 5 second delay
2.5 2.4
40/120, SD/60, no delay
1.9 2.0
40/120, SD/60, 10 second delay
1.9 1.9
40/110, SD/60, 10 second delay
1.8 1.8
40/105, SD/60, 15 second delay
1.6 1.6
40/105, SD/60, 15 second increment
1.6 1.6
40/90, SD/60, 30 second increment
1.5 1.7
30/85, SD/1, 5 second delay
1.5 1.3
40/90, SD/30, 30 second increment
1.4 1.2
The trouble with the top choice is that playing two games a day at 40/120,
SD/1 plus 5 second delay appears to violate FIDE rules, which say that more than
12 hours of play per day is not ratable, counting increment games (so presumably
also delay games) as being 60 moves. It would be confusing to deduct the 5
minutes only in FIDE rated sections and not in lower sections, so for now we
intend to stick with 40/115, SD/60 and 5 second delay.
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