Morelia International Cancelled

Are there any plans to add the San Diego schools chess day back into the program? That's a huge opportunity to promote chess. It would be a shame to see it go to waste.

I have 2 non-refundable airline tickets for the Mexican Open in Morelia and would like to know any and all information regarding the cancellation of the International there. Thank you

We don't know the last minute circumstances beyond their control, but this is a lesson in planning to almost the last detail before announcing events.

It almost seems like this was something that Kirsan had a hand in.

Jose Cuchi is not an organizer of the three (now two) Morelia events. He is an advisor. The organizers admired the New York Opens which Mr. Cuchi ran, and why not?

What I have heard is that the Mexican (federal) government cut its funding to all the states (Morelia is the capital of the state of Michoacan) under a particular program, and that the state preferred to pass the cuts along to new programs rather than ones which were well established.

Yeah, OK, it shouldn't work that way. Did you know that the builder of the Space Needle for the Seattle World's Fair completed his work ahead of schedule and under budget, but due to government bureaucracy and its slowness in paying the bills, he went bankrupt? Nothing to do with Mexico, but shirt happens.

I was supposed to be an arbiter at the International (now cancelled), and chief arbiter at the Gran Mexican Open Morelia (not cancelled, but no news from the organizers).

If you have a non-refundable ticket, I suggest that you consider using it. I've never been to Morelia, but it is definitely a Destination. Not far away are: the wintering grounds of the Monarch butterflies (not sure about the exact timing, but it should be close to the time when the trees and ground (at different times of the day) are carpeted with butterflies), Lake Patzcuaro with some very interesting locales (Patzcuaro, Janitzio, Tzintzuntzan, Quiroga), and a bit further afield, Uruapan, with the Paricutin volcano. In the other direction, it is about 4 hours by bus from Mexico City, if you like lights and excitement and smog. Or 4 hours from Lake Chapala, and a bit further from Guadalajara. Going north, the incredible Guanajuato is within reach ....

Peace...

Situations such as these are just ridiculous. This is very bad business, indeed. Regarding travelling to Morelia just for the hell of it, that is a lot of money to be putting out for no reason. The appeal of the tournament is separate to the appeal of the location, and as much money as would be lost on tickets, it is not always so feasible to forfeit even more money for hotel and meal fees without a particular goal in mind. Certainly, people have orders of priorities in their lives, and other things likely have been moved down the ladder in order to accomodate such an endeavor as this tournament, so it is both a waste of time and resources to go there regardless of the lack of tournament.

Hotep,

Maliq

Jonathan,

I'd suggest that many players would not have even signed up for this event if Mr. Cuchi's name was not associated with it. The name Jose Cuchi gave the (otherwise nameless) organizers tons of credibility.

It is also very bad for the US Championship, which moved dates for this event, but couldn't for the FIDE Women's Champ. So a double casualty there.

While I appreciate the positive spin, I don't think people intend to take a 10 or 11 day vacation to anywhere, especially chessplayers. Vacation days are usually hard to come by. Heck, I can't imagine spending 10 or 11 days in Cancun or Acapulco. This event is a total loss for anyone who was going to play, and one of the most horrible event cancellations in chess history.

Aside from the attractions Jonathan mentions, visitors can also play in the Open tournament, (with huge class prizes) and watch the first leg of Linares without travelling to Spain.
By the way, there is another major tournament coming up in Mexico. It will be a 10 player category 16 round-robin in Cuernavaca, from February 1st-11th. Participants are: Ponomariov, Karjakin, Volokitin, Vallejo, Bruzon, Cheparinov, Dominguez, Nakamura, Felgaer and Leon-Hoyos.

Going to put an item up about it today.

http://www.uaem.mx/ajedrez2006/

is there any possibility that a travel agent can sell the tickets. how about trying to sell the tickets on ebay. just looking for ideas. 200 tickets are suddenly up for sale on the same day to a city in Mexico. I bet a travel agent could arrange a group and take all the tickets.

what a mess. Mexico will have a hard time attracting players next time.

Tommy

I just noticed that Cuernavaca tournament mentioned at TWIC, and I was going to make some comment like "How come they can get these elite level tournaments in Mexico but we can't do it in the US?" But I guess the Mexican organizers have shortcomings of their own.

Gee, I didn't know that some of my home boys visited this site. Well, I plan to play in the Mexican Open (Open Sect. as I want to be an Intl. patzer instead of just a regular one)& they do not honor any other than Mexican ratings for the classes) and this isn't cancelled yet & yes, the first half of Linares is still there. The place sounds like an awesome site to visit BUT as I mentioned before if it wasn't FIDE rated (just to give the games some meaning), I wouldn't be going but as it stands now, I WILL STILL GO!

John F., I also would never spend more than 2 days in Cancun or Acapulco (unless for a chess tournament). But central Mexico is waaaaaay more interesting.

Marcel: The Open tournament does not have any class prizes. Three sections for u-2000, u-1800, u-1600 are open only to Mexican players (players with a Mexican rating). Those three events together have about 70% of the total prizes. In addition, there is an unrated section (5% of the prizes) and the Open (25% of the prizes), place prizes only.

I forgot to note that players in the International Open had to be over 2300. So, a large portion of them are going to be professional or semi-professional (in most cases read "not wealthy") and for many of them the taking of a vacation will be an impossibility, no matter how attractive.

So, still trying to see a silver lining, this would be a great opportunity for Mexicans to "adopt" strong players who are there for the 9 days, billet them, feed them, arrange simuls, lectures and coaching (with fees of course) in their cities and towns... in short, minimize the PR disaster that is coming to a boil. Que piensa, Marcel?

Jonathan:
I was unaware of the Mexican rating provision for
the class tournaments.

With regard to your alternative solution, I assume most professionals will simply cancel their trip to Morelia, but it would be nice if the organizers could work out some agreement with those who are still interested.

I looked up the exchange rate on an Internet site. $1,000.00 Mexican is about $100.00 US

RUSTY

Marcel: Some players may have bought non-refundable tickets. Or tickets with a penalty for changing. Some players are coming from the Aeroflot Open and bought the entry-with-airline-ticket option. Then some of those are going to San Diego the next day.

Let's hear from them, here.

I think Mig's affirmation "This is a serious blow to the credibility of chess organization in Mexico" is far too broad. There are some organizers of international tournaments in Mexico, with a good record; in fact, the Morelia guys are the newcomers, as this is their first tournament. I can list 3 highly regarded organizers here:

1.- Alejandro Preve from Merida. Two magistral tornaments (Anand, Shirov, Short, Khalifman, Judith Polgar, Akopian, Hernández) and 18 Carlos Torre Memorial tournaments organized. Nuff said.

2.- Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos. They organized the Nakamura - Karjakin match in December 04, and now the Young Masters. Looks like they are here for the long run.

3.- Mexican Chess Federation. The Mexican open is a massive festival, with 1130 players last year, and 1500 projected this year. It has been somewhat forgotten by the international players, but the organization has been good for the last few years.

Of course, the cancelation of the Morelia international will not bring much confidence to Mexican chess, but still Mig's statement seems an exaggeration.

Personal invitations to closed events is not a problem. Massive international opens with players paying their own way and hotel are another thing entirely. How many players are going to trust such an event next time around? Entire countries get bad reputations this way. Many players don't pay much attention to the names of the organizers. This isn't fair, but it's the truth.

Eduardo,

The average player doesn't care (or remember) closed events. And that is the first I've heard of that large open in my life.

The reality is that hundreds of players lost money, if not vacation time and other things, because of this cancellation. It will be difficult to trust a major Mexican open that aggresively pursues players for quite a long period of time.

So you won't see a successful Mexican open at the International scale for a few years at least. This is THAT damaging.

Well, the Carlos Torre Memorial IS an international open event. There are 4 players seeded directly to the finals, but the other 12 come from a Swiss qualifier. Quite a few Europeans come to play the qualifier, such as Milov (many years coming), Tiviakov, Luther, Mitkov, Sulskis, etc. It surprises me that very few Americans come (this year only Akobian and two lower rated americans). I bet that next December will be as successful as ever.

Mexican open is played on holy week, and attracts very little international attention. Prizes are not high, maybe around $10,000 USD in the open section. Next april will be played in Mexico City.

John F. "The reality is that hundreds of players lost money, if not vacation time and other things, because of this cancellation."

Who are they? We haven't had any post to this thread, yet (at least nobody explicitly said so). Let's start counting, one, two, three ....

I played in the Carlos Torre Memorial, which was good. The Merida area, like Morelia, is culture-rich. I think that they need to use a different tiebreak system (instead of cumulative) for the Wimbledon, maybe random tiebreaks, to discourage top players with good scores from making short draws amongst themselves.

I also played in the Mexican Open ... in 1974. I was interested in playing in 2005, but the schedule was 1 1 1 2 2 2, with byes available only in the first three rounds, so you'd have to play the last six rounds in 3 days. There was a Senior section (six games 1 1 1 1 1 1), yup I'm over 50, but only Mexicans were allowed. The definition was difficult to follow, as a friend of mine who has represented Mexico in correspondence chess, lives in Mexico, has papers ... was turned away, while one of the top finishers appears under France in the FIDE list.

Does any one know where I can get infromation for open tournements outside of the USA? I like traverling and playing chess.

Chess calendar by GM Harmen Jonkman

http://www.chess-calendar.nl/

Jhonatan:

Yes, I remember you on the Merida tournament, you were kind enough to accept being in the appeals comittee. However, they do not use progressive (cumulative) tiebreaks, but Bucholz (Solkoff). Still, many players make short draws in last rounds, assuming the tiebreak would favor them.

Mexican open schedule is 1 1 2 2 2 1, and has been the same for a few years. It would be crazy to have 2 games in last day, as the closing ceremony would start at midnight.

I was chief arbiter at Guadalajara 05, and do not remember about a player being rejected from senior section. The "French" guy has been Mexican for many years, but the Federation has never asked to change his FIDE country status. It would be unfair to penalize him for something beyond his control.

Jhonatan:

Yes, I remember you on the Merida tournament, you were kind enough to accept being in the appeals comittee. However, they do not use progressive (cumulative) tiebreaks, but Bucholz (Solkoff). Still, many players make short draws in last rounds, assuming the tiebreak would favor them.

Mexican open schedule is 1 1 2 2 2 1, and has been the same for a few years. It would be crazy to have 2 games in last day, as the closing ceremony would start at midnight.

I was chief arbiter at Guadalajara 05, and do not remember about a player being rejected from senior section. The "French" guy has been Mexican for many years, but the Federation has never asked to change his FIDE country status. It would be unfair to penalize him for something beyond his control.

Eduardo:

I guess that I mis-read the convocatoria of Guadalajara '05. 5 games in 3 days isn't nearly so bad as 6. Even better might be 1 2 2 1 2 1. Then a player could take a half-point bye on the second day and end up playing 8 games in 6 days.

An official at the email address fenamac2005@hotmail.com confirmed that my friend could not play in the Senior event. I told him that. He took the extraordinary step of travelling to Guadalajara to attempt to register for the Senior in person (I was not there to witness it, but I have no reason to disbelieve him).

Afterwards, he wrote me this: "An old friend of mine, an IM, and many times chess opponent in the past from Guadalajara had phoned someone, a lady, in Mexico DF to enquire whether I could play in the "Seniors", receiving an affirmative answer. He emailed me this info. at the last moment, but I did not rely on it. Nevertheless, I tried for several hours talking with various officials right up to the Chief Arbiter and was refused entry to the "Seniors". He showed me the appropriate regulation in Spanish which you would have seen on the internet. Several tried repeatedly to have me enter the "International" section, but I told them I was not prepared to play three "two game" days at
my age 74...."

I guess there was some confusion about who he was speaking with. Anyway, I'm not questioning whether the rule was applied as written, just relating an experience.

I just looked in my old files at the Convocatoria (tournament announcement) for the 2005 Mexican Open, and it is exactly as Eduardo says. And very clearly, too. I think that what must have happened was that I (mis-) interpreted an unofficial announcement, and then when I was able to get hold of the Convocatoria, skimmed over that section. With 1 1 2 2 2 1, a player could take a half-point bye in Round 3 and play 8 games in 6 days too, although rounds 4 to 9 would be without respite.

Jhonatan.

Thanks for the info. Most possibly your friend talked up to the President of Mexican Federation, who was chairman of the organizer comitee. I misunderstand your previous post as you said he "has papers", and I interpreted "is Mexican".

To finish this conversation, everyone is invited to this year event in Mexico City, Hotel del Prado. It will be played 11-16 april, about $15,000 USD prizes in the international section, and hotel rates will be under $50 USD. Tournament regulations are at www.fenamac.com.mx

Isn't that the same week as Foxwoods? (I don't mean this as a criticism of your Mexican event; it's just that, any Americans who like to play with one eye on the board and one eye on a dollar-sign, would probably opt for Connecticut. Then again, maybe that means it would be smarter to sneak off to Mexico...)

Mig,

any news on when the second part of Linares will be held in Spain?

March 3-12, say the Spaniards.

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