Thoughts on running OTB junior tournaments at the current time
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2020 8:27 pm
As promised here are some thoughts about organising OTB junior tournaments at the current time, which to me seems like the one area of chess with the clearest legal route to OTB events.
It is true that even so, given the latest announcements about a national lockdown, the next actual month or so seems impossible, so read these as thoughts about running events on restrictions similar to tier 1/tier 2. For those interested my more detailed tournament protocols can be found via https://forms.gle/QdA76Z5S64KntGrv7 )
Time-frames
Given the rules are constantly changing, I feel one needs a 'pop-up' attitude to an event - rather than planning a date months and months in advance, one needs to have an idea of the structure (venue, rough plan and risk assessment and approximate date), and then be ready once a window appears to go public and advertise on a few weeks notice
Legality
The category that junior tournaments have to sit under is that of 'supervised activities provided for children'. We're not legally a sport, but we definitely provide an organised and structured activity for children.
If a venue is willing to hire rooms for dance classes etc, then they may well be willing to hire for chess.
Level of parental support
Personally, I don't see junior tournaments as intrinsically more risky than (say) indoor dance classes, indoor football training, group music lessons, swimming, and I feel that if parents are happy with their children doing these then they should be happy with their children doing OTB chess. However it did seem that there is a sentiment among some (both parents and junior organisers) that OTB chess should not be happening at this time.
Venues and risk assessments
The ECF has a template risk assessment but in my opinion this is geared towards chess clubs and is missing some crucial parts for a junior tournament. So in my case, while consulting the ECF one to ensure I wasn't missing anything, I wrote my own one tailored to the venue. Most specifically, those who attend junior tournaments will know that often space for waiting parents is rather cramped, but for most junior events a parental waiting area is essential.
It is clear that younger juniors are less effective transmitters than their parents, and so personally I think the largest risk aspect in organising a junior tournament is ensuring there is enough space for parents to wait while remaining socially distanced.
Here I was fortunate in that I was able to use a large school building with lots of classrooms where I could put waiting parents - but to me this aspect seems the biggest general difficulty in running a tournament - how to ensure the social separation of different families.
Numbers
The national guidance on supervised activities suggests that groups should not be larger than 15. It wasn't clear to me whether this was a legal requirement (I didn't see it in the primary legislation, but I'm not a lawyer and could easily have missed it) or simply a 'good practice' advice. However, working with this number there seem to be a couple of approaches:
1. Have any sections no bigger than 15 - for example, with smaller Swisses or with all-play-alls.
2. Argue that even if a section is larger than 15, the group size any one child is in is smaller than 15. For example, if play is spread out over several classrooms one could argue that two children who have never been in the same room(eg one consistently at the top of the draw and the other consistently at the bottom) cannot count as in the same group.
I ended up with less than 15, so this wasn't an issue but if I had more than 15 this second approach was the route I was planning to go down, reinforcing it by pairing as a (possibly doubly) accelerated Swiss so as to maximise the social separation within the pairings.
Level of Events
To me the one clear no-no for the foreseeable future are the sort of large junior events such as the LJCC, Gigafinals or the EPSCA county jamborees - the numbers involved are too big.
The windows of opportunity, where things can be ran, seem to be small local events (provided one can get sufficient parents to enter their child) and also small elite events, eg all play alls.
I remember as a junior playing in a slow-play all-play-all which consisted of the nos.1-6 of the age group in a hotel for a weekend; I don't see a reason why broadly similar events couldn't take place now.
Waivers and Legal Liability
Life isn't risk-free and there is no risk-free way to organise a tournament (and anyway, no-one will insure you against covid risks). I required parents to sign a waiver, but in the end one organises a tournament because one thinks its the right thing to do.
Profitability
Right now such events are good for the soul. I would have been happy to break even but in the end ran a small loss.
It is true that even so, given the latest announcements about a national lockdown, the next actual month or so seems impossible, so read these as thoughts about running events on restrictions similar to tier 1/tier 2. For those interested my more detailed tournament protocols can be found via https://forms.gle/QdA76Z5S64KntGrv7 )
Time-frames
Given the rules are constantly changing, I feel one needs a 'pop-up' attitude to an event - rather than planning a date months and months in advance, one needs to have an idea of the structure (venue, rough plan and risk assessment and approximate date), and then be ready once a window appears to go public and advertise on a few weeks notice
Legality
The category that junior tournaments have to sit under is that of 'supervised activities provided for children'. We're not legally a sport, but we definitely provide an organised and structured activity for children.
If a venue is willing to hire rooms for dance classes etc, then they may well be willing to hire for chess.
Level of parental support
Personally, I don't see junior tournaments as intrinsically more risky than (say) indoor dance classes, indoor football training, group music lessons, swimming, and I feel that if parents are happy with their children doing these then they should be happy with their children doing OTB chess. However it did seem that there is a sentiment among some (both parents and junior organisers) that OTB chess should not be happening at this time.
Venues and risk assessments
The ECF has a template risk assessment but in my opinion this is geared towards chess clubs and is missing some crucial parts for a junior tournament. So in my case, while consulting the ECF one to ensure I wasn't missing anything, I wrote my own one tailored to the venue. Most specifically, those who attend junior tournaments will know that often space for waiting parents is rather cramped, but for most junior events a parental waiting area is essential.
It is clear that younger juniors are less effective transmitters than their parents, and so personally I think the largest risk aspect in organising a junior tournament is ensuring there is enough space for parents to wait while remaining socially distanced.
Here I was fortunate in that I was able to use a large school building with lots of classrooms where I could put waiting parents - but to me this aspect seems the biggest general difficulty in running a tournament - how to ensure the social separation of different families.
Numbers
The national guidance on supervised activities suggests that groups should not be larger than 15. It wasn't clear to me whether this was a legal requirement (I didn't see it in the primary legislation, but I'm not a lawyer and could easily have missed it) or simply a 'good practice' advice. However, working with this number there seem to be a couple of approaches:
1. Have any sections no bigger than 15 - for example, with smaller Swisses or with all-play-alls.
2. Argue that even if a section is larger than 15, the group size any one child is in is smaller than 15. For example, if play is spread out over several classrooms one could argue that two children who have never been in the same room(eg one consistently at the top of the draw and the other consistently at the bottom) cannot count as in the same group.
I ended up with less than 15, so this wasn't an issue but if I had more than 15 this second approach was the route I was planning to go down, reinforcing it by pairing as a (possibly doubly) accelerated Swiss so as to maximise the social separation within the pairings.
Level of Events
To me the one clear no-no for the foreseeable future are the sort of large junior events such as the LJCC, Gigafinals or the EPSCA county jamborees - the numbers involved are too big.
The windows of opportunity, where things can be ran, seem to be small local events (provided one can get sufficient parents to enter their child) and also small elite events, eg all play alls.
I remember as a junior playing in a slow-play all-play-all which consisted of the nos.1-6 of the age group in a hotel for a weekend; I don't see a reason why broadly similar events couldn't take place now.
Waivers and Legal Liability
Life isn't risk-free and there is no risk-free way to organise a tournament (and anyway, no-one will insure you against covid risks). I required parents to sign a waiver, but in the end one organises a tournament because one thinks its the right thing to do.
Profitability
Right now such events are good for the soul. I would have been happy to break even but in the end ran a small loss.
