The most stressful part of being a tournament organiser is often waiting to see how many people will actually turn up. These days a lot of tournaments try and speed up the entry process by offering discount for early entries, but even then a lot of entries still come in at the last minute.
I assume the main reason for this is simple procrastination on the part of most players. They always intend to enter, it is just that haven't got around to it just yet. However their are some players who either see how the field is shaping up (strength wise), or simply want to make sure that the field suits them (from a personality point of view).
What seems to happen more and more is that early entries come from the top end of the field, with the more casual players entering late. Even small events like the upcoming Vikings Weekender already have 3 IM's (Xie, Smirnov and Brown) and 1 WIM (Guo) in the field, although only abut 50% of the expected field have entered. And big events like Queenstown have titled players making up more than 20% of the field.
So I'd like to make a plea to the run of the mill weekend chess players. Entering early helps the organisers (in reducing stress), encourages other to enter, and most importantly, shows respect to the titled players who have committed to playing the event.
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I'm find the whole weekender atmosphere pretty unhealthy, jamming those rounds in, 7-8 hrs of sitting - nothing to do with this particular tournament of course, which has alot going for it. I wish there was some variety in the offerings of these weekend events - PP
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