There are many issues which have come to mind over the past few days when discussing with a few friends and I think it is best these get raised in an open forum. The aim is not to criticize. Rather, it is an effort to get issues resolved before they become a serious bottleneck.
- Where is the SCoC?
As per the website and / or the brochure the SCoC was to have been made available on the website by 15th May. It is yet not available.I presume it is because the individuals who normally make the SCoC have been involved with the selection trials. However, it is my stipulation that this could have been done by somebody else in order to make the process more efficient.This is not a statement made in the air. I wrote out the SCoC of the Shree Cements Championships 2024 and got it vetted and corrected by more experienced people. Surely something similar could have been done for this event. I hope the tournament committee is taking notice of this and gets this in place soon. - Tournament Directors The list of directors for the nationals has only one individual whose designation is below the rank of a Regional Director i.e. Satish Kumar (spelling as per brochure). There is one regional director (K. S. Swaminathan). One assistant National Director (Mr. Narsinga Rao).
Including the CTD, there are 4 National Directors.
The need to blood in younger directors and give them relevant experience has been expressed by many experienced players more than once. Nevertheless, this call seem to be being ignored by the tournament committee.
- Number of Boards in the Swiss League The brochure does not mention the number of boards in each round of the Swiss League. Looking at the schedule one can possibly make an educated guess that the Gold Matches will be of 14 rounds each while the Silver matches will be of 10 matches each.A number of Silver players have protested this differentiation pointing out that the experience in the previous Mavericks Summer Nationals edition in Goa was much better where both Gold and Silver played 14 board rounds. This also has another implication which will be addressed later on in this article.
- Qualifiers for Silver
The brochure mentions that 16 teams will qualify for a pre quarter finals knock out on day 2. The last few editions of both Summer and Winter Nationals have seen only 8 teams qualify for the quarter finals due to lack of sufficient entries (around 30).Do the organizers seriously expect a jump in the number of entries to qualify 16 teams? Will they qualify 16 teams even if the entries are the same as (or God forbid lower than) previous editions? I guess these questions will be addressed in the SCoC. - Agenda for Silver non-Qualifiers on day 2.
If a team playing the Silver Event fails to qualify for the knock outs on day 2, it is free till the next morning when the Subrata Saha Board a Match event starts. This may be one reason for having 16 qualifiers as it would encompass half or more of the expected field. If the number of qualifiers is actually reduced to eight (as, in my opinion, it should be), then we have a whole bunch of players left to twiddle their thumbs on day 2.
This can probably be addressed by having the same agenda for Gold and Silver on both days, as was done in the previous year.
- Is there a play off for the teams?
The brochure fails to mention any third place play off. Given that the prizes for third and fourth place are different (they were the same last year), there should be one. - Gold Semi Finalists Qualify directly to the MP Pairs Finals
There was a big hue and cry about this last year. In my article on last year's event, I had outlined the pros and cons of this practice. Maybe this is one of the reasons why Silver is being played to a different schedule. Not that it is necessarily a valid reason, but it could well be.
- Updation of Master Points
It is with some consternation that I note that the Master Points for the Shree Cements Tournament, 2024 have not been uploaded to the Master Point data base. This could mean that some players who have collected enough points to become National Masters could play in a team which may become ineligible. This issue is similar to overage participants in junior events. A week after the Shree Cements event, I had interacted with the BFI about the fact that Master Point for the Goa Bridge Festival 2022 (!) and FNCC 2024 had not had not been uploaded till date. The secretary, BFI got into action and had this done in less than a week! Which begs the question, why could this have not been done earlier?
Coming back to Shree Cements, why should the general public have to raise the issue of Master Points not being uploaded?
I had previously heard some comments about players having to be responsible to get their MP number added.
Given that the BFI uses this criterion to determine eligibility, it is incumbent on the BFI to ensure that not only is this information collected, but that it is also collated up to date.
Surely a month is long enough to get this data in place for major tournaments?
I understand that there are scores of local tournaments whose master points have not been updated for over a year. Given that the BFI collects a capitation fee from its associations for awarding master points, is it not their responsibility to provide them service?
- Master Points total not being correctly shown on the website Players are well advised to check the total master points they have earned by adding up all the individual events detailed out.I checked my own and found a discrepancy.
This again means that unless the issue is rectified, the BFI may be unable to sift out recently qualified National Masters.
Once again, I had raised this issue over 3 weeks ago, but it remains unresolved till date.
This needs sorting on a top priority basis
In conclusion, I would reiterate that these points are not being raised as a criticism of the organization of the event. Rather, it is just drawing attention to things that can be corrected well in time before the event.