Illinois Chess Bulletin Julio - Agosto 2002 | Page 7

President Podium
2. We accept paid advertising in the ICB. Large
tournaments advertise regularly in the ICB,
because it provides real results. A great
example is the Western Open, a Milwaukee,
th
Wisconsin tournament held over the 4 of July
weekend, advertised in the ICB last year – and
they saw a significant increase in entries from
Illinois. They are planning to advertise in the
ICB again this year.
3.

We sponsor an Illinois tour, and have also
recently added an “ex-urban” tour to help
promote tournaments outside of metro-Chicago.
Players know that tour tournaments draw better
competition, and that this puts them in the
running for tour prizes at the end of the year. As
a result, these tournaments tend to draw better
than non-tour events. What’s the catch? The
players must all be ICA members.

4. We sponsor ChessPhone, which provides news
on tournaments, and also reports tournament
results.
Together, these three functions form a very effective
means of tournament advertising, and is one of the
primary reasons why – even though it is suffering in
some key ways – Illinois chess is still among the most
active and most thriving in the country.

Tournament Calendar and
Clearinghouse
Although we have already mentioned the tournament
calendar, it is important to note that the calendar doesn’t
serve only to advertise events, or to assist players in
choosing events. The calendar also helps to avoid major
tournament conflicts. This leads to tournaments that are
more enjoyable both for organizers and for players.
The Illinois Calendar often has tournaments listed as far
as two years into the future. As a result, it is much more
possible to do longer-range tournament scheduling using
the Illinois calendar than it is with the USCF calendar.
Although officially the metro-vice president and the
downstate vice-president are responsible for acting as
the clearinghouse, in practice (and particularly in the
metro