Rising Star Chess to bring FIDE-rated chess to Arizona
Arizona players will be able to play in a FIDE-rated tournament almost every month next year!
Rick Smouse of Rising Star Chess will be organizing his FIDE-rated Classic, Rapid, and Blitz events for 2024.
Most of you know Rick since he’s organized and/or directed over 1500 tournaments in Arizona over the years. His events are always well organized and well run.
Rick will be hosting four FIDE Classic events, four FIDE Blitz events, and six FIDE Rapid events in 2024.
The first of each of these are now open for registration here:
Feb 17 -19, 2024: Rising Star FIDE Classic
Feb 18, 2024: Rising Star FIDE Blitz
Mar 2, 2024, Rising Star FIDE Rapid
Rick has made major improvements to the tournament format. He’s increased the prized fund from $3300 to $5000, added a 5th section to give more players a fair shot at winning prizes, and added a 2-day schedule option to make it more convenient for players with busy schedules, and he’s added a re-entry option to give players a chance to improve their results and their chances of winning prizes.
Rick has also improved on FIDE Blitz format by increasing the prize fund to $300, adding a prize for U800 players, and expanding the format to a double-swiss, where players play two games each round, as white and as black, vs. each opponent.
Lastly, Rick has re-worked his traditional one-day Rising Star Advanced tournaments to conform to FIDE rules for rapid events so he can offer FIDE-rated Rapid tournaments throughout the year. These will follow the same basic format and schedule as the Rising Star Advanced events but with adjusted time controls of G/50;+5. And the top FOUR sections (Premier, Class A, B, and C) will all be FIDE-rated.
Rick is really going all out to expand the FIDE-rated tournament opportunities here in Arizona. I hope you support his efforts as much as you supported mine in 2023.
In addition to all of that, let’s support Pedram Atoufi as he hosts Unity Chess Club’s 10th Annual Phoenix Open. That event may also end up with FIDE-rated sections and possibly include a FIDE Blitz side event.
Pedram is also considering plans to schedule some FIDE-rated team events to give those without FIDE ratings an opportunity to earn a FIDE rating in a single one-day event.
So, all in all, 2024 will have an even busier schedule of FIDE-rated events than 2023.
