ALERT: FIRST Nationals and High School Chess Nationals Overlap
 

:ahh: :( :confused:

National High School Chess Championships April 16-18 in Dallas, Texas.

Dates for the 2004 Robotics Championship in Atlanta are April 15-17.

I can't be the only student who is going to have problems with this scheduling blunder on First's behalf. I want to know how many other students are going to have to make a tough choice between two very large team events.

I would think US First would have the ability to look at the other major battle of the brains going on and be able to not force this kind of choice onto students who wish to exercise their minds in all capacities.

I play chess (though Chinese Checkers is my favorite), but given the choice, I'd rather go to a robotics competition - more action (not that I'm saying chess isn't exciting - just not the greatest spectating event to be at for a few days).

Can you believe this - They scheduled the SCRRF Fall Classic for the day of SATs. That's absurd!

Well, not really. In life, you just have to make compromises, and in the end you'll be glad you did.:)

I agree, there could never be a date for FIRST Championships that everyone would be happy with.

FIRST is designing itself to model real life situations, and being able to comprimise is definately one of those things that everyone needs to get used to.

Just go wherever your heart tells you to go :)

I play chess 15 to 30 times a day. Kid you not. Absolutely LOVE it and look forward to playing more FIRSTers (they tend to be more creative in their play).

I've never had the opportunity to play in a tournament however. Some students in my school have, as our chess club has one or two high ranked players. Why not join the chess club? Simple. Robotics. Seems to be the answer to a lot of things I don't do.

I doubt that - I've never had an interesting/challenging game of chess that didn't last for at least 1/2 an hour... you multiply that by 15 or 30 and that's a BIG chunk of anyone's day.

www.instantchess.com


I literally do play 15 to 30 times a day. All matches are tiemd to 15 minutes, so at most theoretically a match can ONLY take 30 minutes, though it takes much more. I also occasionaly play lesser timed matches.

The longer matches that are well over 30 minutes I reserve for night when the day is done. The instantchess games I do inbetween periods of work and going out to enjoy the summer.

So yea, I do 15-30 matches a day.

I really hate to sound rude, and possibly ignorant, but is it really all that big of a deal? I gather a lot of people attend it, but can you really expect FIRST to check and see that nothing conflicts with any competition dates? Nats were during my school's prom two years ago, and people just had to deal. Besides, isnt robotics a little more important than chess/prom/whatever? You spend 4 months of your time totally dedicated to it.

Cory

I play chess but not like that, not at like chess competitions... To me even if I did like to go to these competitions you have this is an easy choice... FIRST competition with a doubt...

Phoenix was duiring my school's junior prom and LA was during my school's talent show. That really sucked because I probably would have like to have gone to both.

I always wanted to be in a school play or musical, but one was always during OCCRA, and the other was always during Nationals. Oh well... you just have to make a choice, sometimes.

Please, I mean really, does FIRST need to keep track of over a million things that people do and plan around them? No. Get over it, we have over 800 teams now.

I agree with the majority, we can't make everyone happy.

[digress]
On a side note I play recreational chess, used to compete onn our math-league team and almost was in our school musical (I bounced, yes bounced instead...that wasn't a joke but if you've seen me you can laugh anyways:D )...Why?

Kurt Shnieder. David Montayne. Sam Tsai.

Kurt finished high school math around the time many of us took Algebra I (6-8 grade), and is the third best ranked chess player in the nation. He is the chess and math team. Dave and Sam are the two best Bass singers I've ever heard short of my teacher who has had his pieces aired in the UK, and the Philippines. Incedentally you can listen to some of his works and find out about him from the link in my sig. PM about how you liked him
[/digress]

Here's an idea:

For some part of the event, say.. practice day? or lunch break? or even within the hotel you stay at..

Organize a FIRST chess place. Anyone who wants to play, come play. Only rule? No playing teamates, play other teams. I think that it would be a great place to meet people with common interests in something other than robotics. (Saying 'hey you like robotics too!' at a FIRST event is quite redundant.. but chess, thats new.)

I know I'd play!

Now, I said 'don't play teamates' because where's the fun in that? Someone brings in 15 chess boards and it's all teamates? Get a board and play in your hotel room, take some time to get to know people.

Hmm dam. My robotics contest is going to run into the qualifying event of the robotics competition I want to enter.

How about a Euchre game instead???... or Kemps.. card games all the way :D

Whoa... somebody from outside Michigan who knows how to play Euchre... I believe that makes one :p Seriously, it seems like only Michigan people even know what Euchre is.

I love Euchre! Jeff, I should've known that you played -- we could've played at IRI! :p Ah well, I'll catch you at Midwest next year, right? ;)

Errr... anyway, back on topic!

Schedules conflict and you're just going to have to choose where you want to be. It's not fair to say that the overlapping dates are anyone's "blunder" -- sometimes it just happens. I'm sure if FIRST was the one to choose, Nationals would be on a day when there's nothing else going on, but you have to remember where Nationals is being held. The Georgiadome is a busy place and has other things going on.

Though, if it's really bothering you that much, you could always write to FIRST and see if they'll change the date for Nationals. :rolleyes:

- Katie

Oh, bah, I can't read.

I still think you should whine to the chess people, though. Based on when this thread appears, it seems like FIRST announced first, so.

And if they do it, I'll give you eleventy billion dollars.

Okay, so nevermind about changing the dates, but, uh, I'll still take that check.

:)

I wonder what is so special about that weekend that three differnt events got scheduled for it. All of them being quite large. Is there a holiday that weekend?

coughFIRSTCHESSLEAGUEcough.

Just a suggestion.

What, so you can further your dream of beating every single person in FIRST in a chess game? :p

I'm working on my game Keith..

Please, I mean really, does FIRST need to keep track of over a million things that people do and plan around them? No. Get over it, we have over 800 teams now

I'm not saying that First should reschedule, all I am saying is that they could probably do a better job in looking at other National competitions that encompass High School students and try not to force students to pick between two very large TEAM events. Oh and chess is hundreds of years old and there thousands of chess clubs just in America, almost every high school has a chess club where as there are only 800 teams (Nationwide) that can afford this competition.

Sorry I meant to quote that first part, lol. It's from JosephM

I do hope you're offering the same criticism to the people who organized this little chess get together.

Actually it is just really lucky. Anyway it is no really big problem. I just have to build a robot that is so easy and reliable to use that my all my parents have to do is hit a button and it works.

<egotistical moment>County chess champion, 1996.</egotistical moment>

And I haven't played in a serious tournament since...

Back onto topic, should FIRST look at other national (or international) high school events and try to not not interfere with them? Absolutely, and long as the other big events do the same. Can FIRST possibly get around them all? Definately not. It's like TV. You can schedule your big program all you want, but you're always going to have something else come up.

Well no because the "chess get togeather" was scheduled even before last years nationals was over.

Imagine trying to explain First to someone who has no idea what it is (which we have all had to do many times), that is what this is like explaining how big Chess Nationals is to you all. This chess nationals is even bigger than our robotics nationals (try to just think about that) and it has been around far longer. All i'm trying to say is that there are other "battle of the minds" on the scale of First and maybe they should take a look at what else is going on before they schedule the nationals.

Yep. So since there are far fewer FIRST teams, that makes FIRST itself more unique, right? Based on that alone, if I had to choose one event over the other, my decision would not be a hard one to make. But then again, I don't play chess.

As previously stated, there are a million things going on during Nationals. The Georgia Engineering Fair, for example. That's a big thing. But can FIRST schedule around that? Probably not. I know, I know - you're probably thinking, "but chess is so much bigger and better than all of these other events," but keep in mind, that other people think the same about their commitments.

I do hope you're giving your chess pals the same grief over scheduling as you're giving FIRST. :rolleyes:

- Katie

No it's not. Or at least it wasn't in 2000. There were no where near the 16000 people that attend FIRST nationals at the chess high school championship. If I remember correctly there were approximately 200 teams at the chess nationals but each one has substantially fewer people than an average FIRST team (think about five).

Matt

pah.. think about how hard it is to book anything like the georgia dome, get everything together, arrange for a very large group of teams to come. the issue of finding time to make concessions for one group or another dissolves. chess nationals.. if you are good enough to be a national player, then by all means go to their nationals. but you shouldnt fault first for not looking into dates. its hard enough to organise a regional with arena dates and such, imagine the complexity of a national championship. Just cause its a thinking sport doesnt mean it should rank any higher than any other activity.. FIRST cuts into my rugby practices, games, and other things as well. maybe not on the magnitude of a championship, but the majority of teams stand to be unaffected, just like they are with my rugby stuff. there has to be concessions somewhere.

Close events
 

Well I know the feeling, having conflicting events and having to choose between them. I play field hockey (outdoor and indoor) and outdoor interferes with team meetings and the like in the fall and then indoor tournaments and practices interfere with robotics from December until April. The first weekend of April is the national indoor tournament, so I miss a lot of school in April between field hockey and robotics...but it's all worth it.


~BlueOrion