By day, USCF Tournament Director Michael Regan is an Observatory Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute.  By night and weekend, he runs some of the most player-friendly chess tournaments in the United States, primarily in the Maryland/Washington DC area. Michael joins me this week, to share all of his insights and secrets, gained from many years of figuring out to how to improve the player experience at weekend chess tournaments. We talked about everything from hotel booking, to fair play to punctuality to hygiene. This is an important conversation for any active tournament player, so please take a listen. Timestamps and more details can be found below. 

0:00- Perpetual Chess is now on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/perpetualchess/

You can also interact with me and the Perpetual Chess community  via Twitter and the Perpetual Chess Facebook Group . 

3:00- Michael goes a bit into his chess background, and shares what frustrated him about the other tournaments in which he and his son often played when he first got into chess. Michael’s primary frustration was with tournaments that often started late. 

Mentioned: DGT Chess Boards and Clocks

11:30- Michael shared a lot of insight into the mechanics of booking hotels for chess tournaments. 

Mentioned: The Baltimore Open (coming this weekend) 

19:00- Why does Michael prefer to run tournaments with time increments rather than delay? 

24:30- What does Michael think of the arguments that there needs to be shorter time control as well as more break times during chess tournaments?

Mentioned:  IM Greg Shahade’s most recent Perpetual Chess Interview 

30:00 This episode is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. Check out John Bartholomew’s video course explaining the endgame classic 100 Endgames You Must Know: 

https://www.chessable.com/100-endgames-you-must-know/course/5193/

31:00- Michael answers a question from a Patreon supporter of the podcast regarding how to handle a small tournament field with large rating gaps among the players. 

33:30- We discuss the dreaded issue of fair play. How can we prevent people from cheating using engines? 

39:00- How can we promote better hygiene among chess players and thus limit the risk of illnesses and viruses being spread? 

43:00- What is going on with Michael’s chess game? 

45:00- Michael’s closing advice for those looking to make chess tournaments better are:

Start on time

Provide equipment (helps start on time) 

49:50- Why does Michael often use a prize payment structure of paying a fixed amount based on players’ scores, rather than paying “1st place, 2nd place, etc.:? 

52:00- Thanks so much to Michael for sharing his ideas and for coming on the show. If you would like to try one of his tournaments and find out what it’s like to be treated like a professional, you can see his upcoming schedule on the Maryland Chess Association website. 

If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess you can do so here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/donate

 

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