Knight’s Tour / Tournament Travel
Sunshine Summer Open—Orlando, Florida June 13-15 or 14-15, 2014
By HARVEY LERMAN
IN 1986 THE CENTRAL FLORIDA CHESS Club (CFCC)was created by the merger of the Orlando and Winter Park clubs. In 1998 they attempted to run an event in the Spring between two Continental Chess Association Grand Prix Orlando events. This event was run in late May but attendance was very poor. By 2000, it was evident that too many people
wanted to spend that weekend away with their family so the event was moved to the following weekend and a temporary name, “Orlando After Memorial Open” was used. It seemed to help, as this was the period when FIDE-titled players were attracted with the appearance of GM Alexander Goldin, IM Virginijus Grabliauskas and then-IM Rashid Ziatdinov. After a few years IM Javad Maharramzade came to live in Florida and won the 2006 event. Javad is “known” as the player that has never lost a rated game since coming to the USA. Then began the period where the young Florida
players took over with IMs Daniel Ludwig and Daniel Fernandez along with FM Bruci Lopez dominating. But gradually attend ance dipped again with a low point of 72 in 2010 and was won by Emory Tate.
The following year the event finally got a proper
name and became the Sunshine Summer Open & Scholastic and a prize fund of $7,000 based on only 130 entries and 70 percent guaranteed, while other events had been using much higher “based-ons” and lower guarantees. Being a “non- profit” organization, the CFCC’s goal was always to “break even,” and if money was made, to pour it back into future events. The club also has used a scholastic section differently than other organizers—by structuring it similar to the higher sections, using the same longer time control and giving out cash prizes. Since the economy went bad, fewer and fewer
masters had been coming out for chess tournaments in Florida. Many had determined that weekends were better spent earning money conducting classes than traveling to an event where because of costs and the possibility of not winning, they wouldn’t do as well financially. Others decided that poker gave them a better chance at a jackpot than chess would. Because of this, other players have found that they could “play up” and have a good chance to win some of the larger prizes available in the top section. In the 2013 event 132 players fought it out for
the $7,000 prize fund, but only 12 were in the Open. The CFCC has contracted that their next three
Grand Prix events will be FIDE-rated and held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Orlando at SeaWorld. Guests have free parking and are able to go out the hotel’s back gate and be right in the pedestrian entrance to SeaWorld, thus avoiding their $15 parking fee. Families could even come a few days early or stay a few later to take advantage of this vacation discount. Other hotel perks include high speed Internet access, and shuttle service to nearby Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld theme parks. Further, the Orlando Convention Aids provides organiz ers with several hundred dollars worth of free gift tickets, and CFCC awards these randomly to attendees, such as two free SeaWorld tickets worth about $180! For this year’s event the prize fund has
been increased to $8,400 based/140 with 70 percent guaranteed and four sections. The Scholastic section even has $1,050 in prizes plus age-performance related trophies. To attract some higher-rated players, grandmasters will play free with the entry fee deducted from any prize won.
50 June 2014 | Chess Life
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