This thread is for discussing the article Tournament Reports as Tournament Essays by Joshua Feingold.

I really like the fact that this article tells us to not include details which are just not needed. I try to read all the the reports here and I prefer those who tell us a few intresting things much more than those who go on and on about pretty much standard situations. I simply tend to lose my focus after the first paragraphs and overread the intresting stuff that might be hidden in there. Somewhere…

I agree with this. It's tempting to use round start and finish times, numbers of players, statistics such as appeals and time extensions, and so on, but these don't really have an education value.

The only thing I would mention though is that keeping track of round
turnaround is generally useful, and if your average is north of 70 or south
of 50, there's likely something relevant to mention in your reports.

2014-11-08 9:21 GMT-05:00 Thomas Ralph <

I think that round turnaround times can just be a short paragraph, with explanation.

I.e.
R1 60 mins
R2 50 mins
R3 75 mins
etc.

R2 had a short turnover due to less calls and vigilance over slow play…
R3 had an extended investigation which caused a +15 min extension over a ruling…

Easily digestible and if there are interesting happenings you can make a short note of it.

If interesting things aren't happening, though, then why mention it at all? If it was a problem that is relevant to your report, or if you found a way to improve it during the event that you want to share, that's great - but if there's nothing to teach, then you're just taking up people's time for little benefit.

With the huge increase in the number of tournament reports, we have to think about signal/noise ratio in authoring them - and anything that isn't part of your core message & teaching point (or something that you think merits discussion) needs to go.

A good idea is to be very harsh on yourself, and always be asking “Why am I saying this?” and “Why should my audience care?” If you can't answer those clearly about something, cut it.

Great article Joshua!

Edited James Winward-Stuart (Nov. 8, 2014 05:33:59 PM)