For fun, I just did something I never do: Look at the pre-registered entries for the next tournament I’m playing in, the Western States Open in Reno. It’s still ten days away, so there will surely be more entries, but here is how it looks so far in the Open section:
- Alexander Ivanov (2667)
- Sergey Kudrin (2609)
- Enrico Sevillano (2596)
- Roman Yankovsky (2573)
- Melikset Khachiyan (2546)
- Walter Browne (2501)
- Vladimir Mezentsev (2434)
- Ignacio Perez (2251)
- Andrew Karklins (2234)
- Ed Formanek (2211)
- Julian Chan (2204)
- Viktors Pupols (2200)
- Samir Sen (2174)
- Dana Mackenzie (2108)
- Siddarth Banik (2047)
- Jerry Walls (2000)
- Michael Anderson (1923)
Looks like a pretty strong field at the top! One of the most striking things to me was the huge, almost 200-point gap between #7 and #8. I think the reason probably is that IM’s and GM’s get free entries, but only if they send their entry by October 1. So that’s a powerful incentive for them. Non-titled players have only a small incentive to enter early, because for them the entry fee jumps by only $10 or $15 after October 1. So I think you’ll see the under-2400 contingent adding quite a few more people in the next few days and filling in the gap.
A pleasant surprise for me is seeing Walter Browne’s name on the list. I have not seen him playing chess very often in recent years; I thought he had switched over to the “dark side” (poker).
Another pleasant surprise is Julian Chan’s rating: 2204! He was one of my teammates in the U.S. Amateur Team championship earlier this year. He was rated 2173 then, and he has just reached master level for the first time. Congratulations!
Now that I’ve done one thing new for me (look at the pre-registered list), maybe I should do another new thing and review my old games with each of the people on the list that I’ve played before. That would be Ivanov, Sevillano, Khachiyan, Browne, Mezentsev, Karklins, Formanek, Pupols, and Banik. I’m not sure it it’s worth preparing an opening for each of them, but at least I can remind myself how they play and what I did wrong before.
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I may be wrong, but I think the GMs and IMs can still get “free” admission, but they have to pay the late fee, $11 after Oct 1 and essentially $22 after Oct 18 or at site. So the marginal cost of being late is the same.