Below are the pairings for the 24th North American Masters, Sponsored by Vince W Berry Real Estate Services.

The event will run over the course of 2 weekends, Jan 8th - 10th and Feb 5th - 7th, 2010, with 5 rounds played each weekend (Friday night, all day Saturday, all day Sunday).

The Holiday Inn North Shore hotel will once again provide sponsorship as the official venue for this tournament series. This is their 3rd year providing sponsorship.

Time control will be G/90 + 30/sec increments.

Round time are: 6:30pm Friday; 10:30am and 3:30pm Saturday; 10:30am and 3:30pm Sunday. All times Central Standard Time.

Good Chess to All,

Sevan A. Muradian, Founder
North American Chess Association
International Arbiter and International Organizer

Last week I received a demonstration unit of the DGT North American clock, a new clock put out by DGT and brought to North America by DGT North America. I began putting the clock through a battery tests, including what I call the 2-year old test (more on this later).

As an organizer, arbiter, and player there are some key features that I want from a clock: light weight, easy to use, and rugged enough for blitz. It also helps to look stylish. The DGT North American fits the bill to a tee.

Physically the clock body is blue, with a white rocker plunger, and red buttons. The on/off button is accessible on the underside of the clock on the left removing the need to flip the clock over and it’s also recessed so there can be no accidental shut off of the clock. The display is large and simple to understand. There are 4 red buttons on the face of the clock that provide the controls to the clock.

An important feature, which is helpful in reducing the overall weight, is that the clock only requires 2 AA batteries, versus, for example, 4 AA batteries for an Excalibur or 4 C batteries for a Saitek Competition II or 2 C batteries for the Saitek Competition III clocks.

The clock comes with 13 pre-sets (delay, increment, neither), 10 manual settings, and can handle up to 4 time periods. Creating you own time settings takes only a few minutes.

When you have less than 20 minutes left you will see the seconds counting down to the right of the minutes. When your flag is down, you will see a flag image display. If you have the audible alert you will hear the alert as well.

This past Saturday, I organized and directed the 2009 IL Class Championships and I provided the clock to different players each round to use (and I used it in the final round when I played a house game).

First I had to set the clock to G/55 w/5-sec delay. After I learned the controls (took me about 5-10 minutes playing around with it and not looking at the manual), I was able to set it quickly.

Players enjoyed the large display, the easy of use of the plunger mechanism and the plungers quiet execution. A few of them played with the clock settings as well and I had them configure a couple of different time controls without looking at the manual. After a few minutes of trial and error they were able to figure it out and were quite amazed.

Now I’ve used a variety of different clocks from the Excalibur, to the Saitek II, to the Chronos and the DGT XL (which I still will use for my norm tournaments since they plug into DGT boards), and by far this clock is the best from the triple perspective of player, organizer, and arbiter.

Now as previously mentioned there was a 2-year old test performed. I place 5 different clocks in front of my 2-year old daughter Jessica: Excalibur, Saitek II, Chronos mini, the DGT XL, and the DGT North American. Which one did she pick? The DGT North American. It was the first clock she went to when I placed them in front of her. Attractive colors or something else? Only she knows for sure!

I’m glad that this clock will be the official time piece of the World Amateur Chess Championship and the official clock of the North American Chess Association. Shortly I’ll be announcing a special package that includes this clock and other items.

Good Chess to All,

Sevan A. Muradian, Founder
North American Chess Association
International Arbiter and International Organizer

Hello all:

Recently I announced at the World Amateur Chess Championship website, that the DGT North American chess clock will be the tournaments official chess clock, I’m also pleased to announce that the DGT North American will also be the official clock of all North American Chess Association tournaments beginning in 2010.

For the past 2 years I have exclusively used the DGT XL clocks for my GM/IM norm tournaments as DGT. The DGT North American is similar in many ways to the DGT XL with some modifications to it for the regular player (such as no interface to the DGT Electronic Chess Boards).

I’m very happy that DGT North America has released yet another spectacular clock for the tournament player. In the coming weeks you will see a special promotion that I will be running that includes the DGT North American along with other items. So check our website often for it!

Here is a picture of this sleek new clock:

Good Chess to All,

Sevan A. Muradian, Founder
North American Chess Association
International Arbiter and International Organizer

In this posting we’ll quickly examine different variations of how an organizer can increase the number of FIDE rated players over the course of one year.

Now let’s start with the assumption that the organizer will only organize 1 event per calendar quarter (let’s say the first month of the calendar quarter). Now each quarter will get more organizationally challenging of coordinating players, so the organizer has to know when to say uncle and not bite off more than he can chew.

Quarter 1

1 event, 1 section, 10 players (4 FIDE rated, 6 non-FIDE rated)

End result: 6 new FIDE rated players

Quarter 2

Working Assumption - the 6 new FIDE rated players will come help out and provide their new FIDE ratings to create more FIDE rated players.

1 event, 2 sections, 10 players per section (4 FIDE rated, 6 non-FIDE rated)

End result: 12 new FIDE rated players

Quarter 3

Same working assumption as the previous quarter

1 event, 3 sections, 10 players per section (4 FIDE rated, 6 non-FIDE rated)

End result: 18 new FIDE rated players

Quarter 4

Same working assumption as the previous quarter

1 event, 3 sections, 10 players per section (4 FIDE rated, 6 non-FIDE rated)

End result: 24 new FIDE rated players

Year 1 result

60 new FIDE rated players

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Now this is one variant however it can be challenging. Let’s look at another variant where you hold the event every other month and have a maximum of 2 sections. The working assumption will always be the same.

Event 1

1 event, 1 section, 10 players (4 FIDE rated, 6 non-FIDE rated)

End result: 6 new FIDE rated players

Event 2

1 event, 2 sections, 10 players per section (4 FIDE rated, 6 non-FIDE rated)

End result: 12 new FIDE rated players

Event 3

1 event, 2 sections, 10 players per section (4 FIDE rated, 6 non-FIDE rated)

End result: 12 new FIDE rated players

Event 4

1 event, 2 sections, 10 players per section (4 FIDE rated, 6 non-FIDE rated)

End result: 12 new FIDE rated players

Event 5

1 event, 2 sections, 10 players per section (4 FIDE rated, 6 non-FIDE rated)

End result: 12 new FIDE rated players

Event 6

1 event, 2 sections, 10 players per section (4 FIDE rated, 6 non-FIDE rated)

End result: 12 new FIDE rated players

Year 1 result

66 new FIDE rated players, and much easier to organize in terms of space requirements, and getting people’s commitment.

This is impact of just 1 organizer. Think if we have 10 organizers around the country doing this each year for the next 5 years. We’d have 3300 new FIDE rated players that would be class players!

Now go out and organize!

Good Chess to All,

Sevan A. Muradian, Founder
North American Chess Association
International Arbiter and International Organizer

In this posting we’ll discuss how to organize a FIDE rated round robin event.

So some administrative topics to cover first:

1. The Chief TD must be a USCF Senior TD or higher
2. The organizer must submit to Walter Brown (wbrown@uschess.org) at the USCF the following information so he can register it with FIDE:
   1. Name of the event
   2. Format (RR in this case)
   3. Time control to be used
   4. Dates of the event
   5. Location of the event
   6. Chief TD
   7. Names of any players that currently do NOT have FIDE ID’s so he can create them

Now what you need to do is find 4 FIDE rated players and 6 non-FIDE rated players. All 10 players should be relatively similar in strength with it being ok that the FIDE rated players are a bit stronger than the non-FIDE rated field. You want the event to be competitive, not lop-sided.

I personally recommend using those rated under 2199 FIDE and if you can find them, which is hard right now, U2100. The reason, aside from the competitive issue, is the time control issue. When players are rated 2199 and under you can use a time control that is a total of 90 minutes, such as G/60 + 30/sec increments or G/90. If even 1 player is rated over 2200, then the minimum think time must be at least 120 minutes. *Note when increments are used, you compute the total time based on a 60 move game, which would add 30 minutes to each side assuming a 30/sec increment.

I personally recommend staying under 2199 so you can take advantage of the faster time control allowed and to use the G/60 + 30/sec increment. The 30/sec increment will require everyone to continue taking score even after they fall below 5 minutes.

Now do to a 9 round event, you can format this is multiple ways - 3 days with 3 rounds per day, or somehow spread it out over multiple weekends. Make sure you keep in sync with the FIDE ratings cycles to make life easier. FIDE publishes their ratings every other month starting with January.

A few possible formats:

• Friday, Saturday, Sunday - 3 rounds per day
• 3 consecutive Saturdays or Sundays with 3 rounds each day
• 1 round Friday, 2 Saturday, 2 Sunday, and then 2 another Saturday and 2 Sunday

So you get the idea on the different types of formats. Just make sure all of the players have no conflicts with the schedule.

Now personally I also recommend providing the boards, sets, and clocks for the event so the player can just come and player their games.

After the tournament is done, submit the tournament to the USCF for rating and make sure you mark it as a FIDE rated event. You’ll pay an extra $60 per FIDE rated section on top of the regular rating FIDE because it’s a FIDE rated event. You’ll also have to send an email to Walter with a colors allocation crosstable and a regular crosstable. The USCF has to provide what colors people played in an event.

The design of the tournament in terms of prizes is really up to you, the organizer. I can’t advise one way or the other as many different aspects have to be taken into account.

The next posting we’ll look at how 1 organizer can help increase the number of FIDE rated players over the course of 1 year.

Good Chess to All,

Sevan A. Muradian, Founder
North American Chess Association
International Arbiter and International Organizer

Over the past few years the World Chess Federation, FIDE, has been lowering the rating floor, making it more attainable for class players to achieve an internationally recognized rating. Currently the rating floor is 1200.

There are still requirements for achieving your first established FIDE rating, which is based on a total of 9 games. If you participate in a Swiss tournament, then you must meet at least 3 opponents with an established FIDE rating and score 1 point out of 3 games (1 win or 2 draws). Using the Swiss style, you will generally need 3 events to pull this off as depending on the event size and such, you may not get lucky to be paired with more than 3 FIDE rated players.

The other way of doing this by holding a 10 player, 9 round, round robin. Per FIDE regulations, you need only 4 of the 10 players to have FIDE ratings, and the other 6 can have no FIDE ratings. As long as the 6 non-FIDE rated players scores 1 point or more against ANYONE in the field (yes this means 2 draws against non-FIDE rated players will work), then after the tournament is rated there would be 6 new FIDE rated players!

In my next posting, I’ll talk about how to design a round robin style of tournaments to help create more FIDE rated class players.

Good Chess to All,

Sevan A. Muradian, Founder
North American Chess Association
International Arbiter and International Organizer

24th North American Masters

Sponsored by Vince W Berry Real Estate Services

As the new year begins, so does the renewed effort of the North American Chess Association in providing opportunities for the more accomplished chess players to earn their requirements for the internationally recognized title of International Master as bestowed by FIDE, the World Chess Federation.

In the new year, in addition to a name change for the tournament to ‘The North American Masters’, our format will change to accommodate a new style for our round robin events. Beginning in January, the traditional 10 player, 9 round, round-robin event will be transformed into 6 player, double round robin events for a total of 10 rounds. All players will play against everyone twice, once with each color. We will continue to additionally organize Swiss style norm tournaments as well.

The 10 round will be divided over 2 weekends spanning two months (January and February). The dates are January 8-9-10 and February 5-6-7. There will be 1 round on Friday night, 2 rounds on Saturday, and 2 rounds on Sunday. This will allow us to maximize the capability of the local chess viewing public to come visit the event, along with more focused coverage on various Internet venues.

To start off the year we have secured a new sponsor in Vince W Berry Real Estate Services , who is graciously sponsoring the entire event. Vince W Berry has been a mainstay and well known chess figure in Illinois Chess and we are thankful that he has agreed to sponsor this well meaning event.

Our cast of masters (or characters!) includes:

• International Master Florin Felecan (USA)- earned all 3 IM norms here
• International Master Mehmed Paslic (GER) - earned all 3 IM norms here
• International Master Arjun Vishnurvardhan (IND)
• FIDE Master Robby Adamson (USA)
• FIDE Master Gauri Shankar (IND) - 1 norm earned here
• Jon L Burgess (ENG)

A score of 7/10 will be needed for an IM norm. We will be experimenting with various broadcast methods for this event which includes MonRoi. The event will also be covered by Chessdom (www.chessdom.com) as part of a promotional effort to attract players from Europe for future events.

Good Chess to All,

Sevan A. Muradian, Founder
North American Chess Association
International Arbiter and International Organizer