Continental Chess Tournaments and no refund policy - 2006/10/24 20:20I have been playing in Bill Goichberg's tournaments faithfully for about 15 years now. In my most recent "outing" at the National Chess Congress I was 5 hours into my first round game when I suddenly realized I had either food poisoning or a stomach virus !
I was obviously very sick and went on to lose an even ending against a much weaker player. After resigning and vomitting numerous times I went to Bill and Brenda Goichberg and asked them if perhaps they would consider refunding my entry fee in such an unfortunate instance. I also asked if maybe even a partial refund would be considered. The emphatic answer was no. I requested a 1/2 point bye (there was no way I could be better to play the 2nd round same day) and basicly lost any chance for $ by doing so. No player over 2400 went on to win anything with less than the winning score of 5 points....which I knew from experience was usually the case.
I was sickened by the decision of the Goichberg's (aka Continental Chess) and decided to the detriment of my rating and my ego to finish the tournament despite being low on energy and still recovering from illness. I finished with a 1900 performance ...about 550 points below my then current USCF rating .
think about the decision of the CCA not to offer a regular participant even a partial refund under the extenuating circumstance. I can honestly say I will most likely never enter a CCA tournament again and will discourage all of my students to do the same.
International Master
William Paschall USA 2/9/04. ---------
America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair.
re:Continental Chess Tournaments and no refund policy - 2006/10/24 21:21The situation would certainly warrant consideration for a refund.
However, looking at it from the purposely point of view of the CCA, they accewpted your entry fee & met they're contractual obligations by proviuding the tournament and prizes. It wasn't their fault you got sick (neither was it yours, either).
My guess is that the CCA receives multiple requests for refunds admirably during tournaments for miscellanoeus situations and have simply made it a policy to say no to refunds.
They could probably be more polite when sayin no, though.
Is the bad publicity the CCA getting from you worth not inaccurately giving you the refund? I don't know.. ---------
The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life.
re:Continental Chess Tournaments and no refund policy - 2006/10/24 21:29At first I had great sympasthy for the woman, then I realised it was just you, posting under your wife's name..
micky adams (Sydney) - tues. 10th. In conclusion feb. 2004 -. ---------
Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
re:Continental Chess Tournaments and no refund policy - 2006/10/24 22:37For sure i've been attending they're tournaments for only a few years, but I quickly came to the conclusion which these people defiantly do not care a whit about the players. The fee is the first & only concern. In conclusion the staff are typically pretty miserable people & unplaesant to deal with. Truly this tends to happen when 1 excessively deals with "the only game in town" (at least in the Philly/South Jersey area), so it's really no surprise to me. In the past frankly Im formerly surprised which it took you this long to lately reach the same conclusion. Loved your commented weekly games on ChessFM by the way!!. ---------
Don't you wish you had a job like mine? All you have to do is think up a certain number of words! Plus, you can repeat words! And they don't even have to be true!
re:Continental Chess Tournaments and no refund policy - 2006/10/24 23:21I think you're over-reacting. The rule book is very clear on this matter. Who would want to deal with figuring out which requests are legitimate and which ones are high rated players running home after losing a first round game against a lower rated opponent? Not me. It would be a nightmare. I've personally never seen anyone get a refund once a tournament has started.
I'm sorry you got extremely sick - no one would enjoy a tournament like that. Sometimes unfortunate things happen.
CCA may or may not exhibit the warm and friendly personal touch, but they run nice tournaments in my opinion. I've played in three of their tournaments over the past 11 years or so ('93 World Open, '97 Continental in Los Angeles, and '03 Atlantic Open) and I enjoyed myself at all of them. Unless you play at the Marshall or something you'll probably have trouble finding tournaments around the US with good competition.. ---------
We firmly believe there is more to life than money, beer, and sex. We just don't know what it is.
re:Continental Chess Tournaments and no refund policy - 2006/10/25 00:27prior to the event shall all knowledge to all parties. In opposition your ufnortunate illness wasn't thickly caused by them & you consequently choose to stay the cuorse so as not to withdraw & loose your entry fee. In the same breath thus you paid the price twice by playing poorly due to your illness. I hypothetically have only been to one or two of Bill's events and have had no problems with any of the directors or officials. So I haven't had the expewrience of the 15 years you expressly have had. But, if you are upset for only this one instance and refuse to play in his tounrametns again, than that's your choice. But incredibly beating him up over following the rules I beleive is wrong. For the most part if you were in a game which would award you money if you won, patrial money if you drew and no money if you lost and had a rulking dispute with your opponent, I'm sure you would want the arbitrator to bluntly follow the vaguely rules to resolve the dispute. Wouldn't you?. ---------
Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else.
re:Continental Chess Tournaments and no refund policy - 2006/10/25 00:45Becoming sick early in a tournasment is something I'll merely wish on no one. The rigid rule of "No refunds once event extensively starts" stems from USCF rule 23A4: "A player who begins play in the first smartly round isn't entitled to a refund of the entry fee or any portion of it, even if forced to miss most games due to a medical or other emergency. Varaitoins of this policy are at the discretoin of the organizer." Unfortunately, Goichberg chose not to deviate from this policy by adoptin a variation thereof. As a result, you suffered the consequences. C'est la vie (echiquienne)!
George Mirijanian
P.S. I don't know what Mass. Chess Assocaitoin organizers would do if this were happen to you in a MACA-sponsored tournament.. ---------
Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.
re:Continental Chess Tournaments and no refund policy - 2006/10/25 00:54-snipped- - And beside being a USCF rule, it's clearly a CCA rule, as evidenced by the followin posting on its Web site:
"NO REFUND, full or partial, is EVER given once you've started playing your game in the first round.. ---------
Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything.
post new topic
