The Senior Open, Chess Collectors International and Hall of Fame Induction are all set to converge in a thrilling week of chess from April 28-May 3 in Boca Raton/Miami Florida. Watch the games live on Monroi.com starting with the first round on April 28, at 7 PM EST. Read a complete schedule of events and see the uschess.org tournament page.
The 2008 Senior Open will be a five-round Swiss with 63 entries, including GM Dmitry Gurevich and 2006 champ IM Joe Bradford. The winner will get the final spot in the U.S. Championship. The top player over 60 will become the official U.S. representative in the World Senior, to be held in November in Germany. Players who turn 50 before December 31, 2008 are eligible for this year's Senior Open. This rule change --previously, you had to be 50 by the time of the event-- will also be in effect for future Senior Opens.
Former USCF board member and Senior Open organizer Don Schultz introduces another exciting rule change this year: In case of a tie for first, there will be an Armageddon playoff with a twist. The players will bid orally on how much time they are willing to take off the clock to get Black and draw odds. Ordinarily, Armageddon playoffs have a set time control, like five minutes for White and four minutes and draw odds for Black. The player with better tiebreaks or random selection, like a coin toss, determines color selection. The twist makes the players themselves responsible for creating the conditions.
On May 1 from 1:30 to 3 PM EST, the Chess Collectors International will host an auction that will be located in Palm Beach, but also available remotely on ebay.com. You can check out what's open for bidding in the official catalog. Pictured below is a set that Don Schultz is auctioning, #63 in the auction booklet.
On May 3, GMs Larry Christiansen, Nick DeFirmian and Joel Benjamin will be inducted into the Chess Hall of Fame. GM Susan Polgar will give a speech and a simul in conjunction with the celebrations.