8. Afterwards:

8. Afterwards: Jon Diamond

8.1 Accounts

Final Accounts

These are prepared in a spreadsheet and should be presented to the BGA Treasurer as soon as possible, and in any event by Jan 15. The spreadsheet for the final accounts is the same as for the budget, only with the exact expenditure filled in.

Budget

The budget uses the same spreadsheet and rolls over the last 2 years for comparison. The budget guesses an approximate premises hire fee because PCCC set their fees to cover the period October to October and it may not be easy to get an earlier price. Cautious estimates of attendance are used in calculating the budget.

8.2 Review

The purpose of this report is to keep track of the things that went wrong at any stage of the tournament so that they can be corrected or improved for the next event. It is also useful to keep track of what went especially well so that it can be repeated again. The following is a template for the report constructed after the 35th London Open 2008. Each item references a section in the Plan by name and contains a recommendation for action.

PREPARATION - Order the equipment Some equipment is needed ahead of time so that early arrivals can have friendly games. In the past when the CLGC was located at ISH this was easy to arrange, but following their move to Samuel house it is no longer. Many of the CLGC spare boards have disappeared and we had to arrange a special trip by Kiyohiko Tanaka to bring some sets to ISH before Xmas as he was on holiday abroad over Xmas to New year. The computer and two dozen sets stayed in Greenwich after the Wanstead tournament and extra effort was needed to set the arrangements in place to get these transported to ISH on 28th December. The slotted sets were housed in Hemel Hempstead after the Candidates' and communication there was not easily achieved - eg. phone number not working. It would help for TD to have the BGA computer available before the tournament to carry out basic tests including making sure the printer works properly. Action Ensure all equipment is accessible
PREPARATION - Appoint a New Year's Eve meal managerKiyohiko Tanaka booked the venue at the Shah Tandoori, but was not present for the tournament.
As I was taken ill during the tournament, the liason with the restaurant was less than satisfactory.
ActionThere must be a deputy restaurant liaison organiser
PREPARATION - Process the entriesThe final step in processing the entries once they are entered into the computer is to check that player's entry grades are realistic by comparing with European ratings where these exist. I had run short of time, what with family visits and a cold before the tournament.
I had planned to do this on the afternoon of 27th at ISH. However when I arrived the internet port had not been set up. On the following day it took ISH over an hour to get he port working so I became too busy to attend to this. Two Spanish players subsequently complained that they were playing against fake grades.
Action Appoint a grade - rating checker
PREPARATION - Appoint ghostsI had great difficulty finding local people willing to be ghosts and a lot of effort was spent trying. Action Widen the search nationally and request volunteers at at tournament
SET UP - Board layout There are two air conditioning units in the Theatre and one of these malfunctioned producing a draught of cold air. An attempt was made switch the unit off, but we were not being aware that these were computer controlled. Instead, the halogen theatre lights by got switched off by mistake. Another player then attempted to switch the lights back on, not realising that they were halogen, and required a significant cool down period before being switched on again. The result was a blown fuse and darkness stopped play for about 20 minutes while ISH staff sorted the problem. Action Re-arrange the table layout in the theatre to avoid the air-conditioning units
START THE TOURNAMENT - RegistrationKeith Rapley did an excellent job of recording what people actually paid and passing information to Will Brooks who was operating the computer. I had only a few late arrivals to deal with. Action Registration is well managed as is
TOURNAMENT PROGRESS - Corrections to the register There were one or two occasions where some Pink Slips were not processed before the draw and someone was left without an opponent. On most occasions a stand-in was found. This really ought not to happen. Action Appoint a pink slip monitor
TOURNAMENT PROGRESS - Draw After the event a strong player complained that potential finalists should not be paired in early rounds. Above the bar the pairing is random and what is being asked for is a seeding based on rating or grade. Now there are no EGF rules about this, but the practice is I think common in Europe. Action Investigate
TOURNAMENT PROGRESS - Publish results The BGA printer started misbehaving by refusing to print. A Cannon portable printer was purchased as an emergency. Action Consider arranging for hardware backup of printer and laptop
TOURNAMENT PROGRESS - Lightning The 'American Draw' for the Lightning was extremely well managed by Will Brooks. He took over from me because I had taken ill. He selected the players for the round robin phase effectively at random. Players were entered with grades adjusted to reflect their performance up to round 6 in the main tournament. Action Update the rules to reflect the method
PACKUP - Entertain Sponsor The Winton sponsor's representative appeared by arrangement for prizegiving. She was well looked after by Toby Manning and Edwin Brady in the busy period between end of games and closing ceremony. Action Build into plan