By coincidence my post yesterday about Magnus Carlsen was immediately followed by one of these regular promo emails from ICC. The Norwegian wunderkind is going to play 18 of his fans, in a simul, on the Internet Chess Club - all for the sake of GM Dusan Popovic.
The 18 seats are available on eBay. While 12 seats will be offered in a "Dutch Auction", six seats are sold at a fixed price. For the latter, you'll have to cough up $500. That's greenbacks!
I'd grab one of these myself (honest!), but with the recent slide of the AUD against the USD, there's not a lot of chances with that.
More details are on the ICC homepage.
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8 comments:
I personally think that asking price is outrageous but icc is touting this as the best think since sliced bread.
I mean here you normally charge $50 for an otb simul with an Ex world champion... you get your picture taken, books signed, some friendly chatter.... here you have no proof you're even actually playing magnus! And you're paying 10 times the worth.
Now okay, I understand its charity and that is wonderful but it is also highway robbery.
Is it really over-priced? How much do people pay to have a hit with Roger Federer or Tiger Woods.
Companies and sponsors pay millions to sponsor an event with the big names of sports in it.
Slightly different I know, but once again it just sounds like another chess player wanting things to be done on the cheap, when other sports are willing to pay quite a bit more.
yep you've definitely proved it is highway robbery. Everyone calls those other sports gimmicks highway robbery as well (notice only the rich participate in such terrible asking prices) So yea you just proved the opposite of your case.
$50 is not cheap, it is fair.
The ICC Newsletter also reports that the Simul is limited to players with a FIDE rating below 2200.
@ Dan. Magnus will be playing.
Check out the video of him personally describing the event at ICC Chess.FM:
Chess.FM
Look for the videos under Mainz 2008
Cheers,
Macauley
well they did indeed have a $5 blitz qualifier which was nice. It always nice to have a cheap nice way of contributing to a good charitable cause. The winner of the qualifier wins a seat to the Magnus simul. However, icc agained showed bad judgement in the first case limiting the simul to u2200 only (like a supergm can't handle playing a master?!) then they took it a step further after several days of turning away fms and ims and other just plain masters at the time of the simul they let in 6 players above 2200! Including an FM and a player rated 2466! Good ol' icc! They make a rule they don't even enforce. They turned away alot of good charity only to break the rule for their friends.
Dan, you recognise that it is for charity, but with respect, then you seem not to understand the whole point of charitable-giving. The words "asking price", "outrageous" , "cheap", "over-priced", "value", "worth" are all completely meaningless and irrelevant in this context. Charitable giving is MEANT to be "outrageous, over-priced, expensive, way beyond asking price" etc...it is scandalous by definition! Yet, that is the whole point...you give without expecting anything of the same value back in return. Indeed, in most cases, you simply get nothing whatsoever back, but that is exactly why you give. It's a DONATION, not a purchase. I have fund-raised for worthy causes , auctioning cakes for "outrageous" prices etc. Indeed, many of us have sponsored kids for $5 or $50 or $500 for simply running in the park etc...I mean, where is the "good value" in that? So, if Magnus wants to raise money for Popovic's transplant, and I believe this to be a very worthy cause, it's up to me to decide if I want to give money to it. How much I wish to give, and what I am getting back in return is really not a consideration. Now, just to be clear, if instead of charity, Magnus is actually charging $500 to play you in a simul for his own profit, well, then of course, one has to consider if it's good value - and personally, I would agree with you, that would be outrageous. But for charity, and if it's a cause I feel is important, I am willing to give without any expectation of value - indeed, that is often the best way to give. Sorry for lecturing...but I have been working in the charitable sector for many years, and there is often still this mis-understanding of "what am I getting back in return for my giving?" . The mis-understanding here, of course, is that people think it's about "me", rather than " the charity/ cause". "If you do not feel like giving, well, you don't have to...but please don't make the fundamental mistake of expecting charitable-giving to give you something of equal value back - that would be pointless, wouldn't it? And in response to your subsequent post, no, charitable-giving is not the realm of the rich. One of the most moving gifts I received for a charity was from a woman who gave about $100 , but who gave it all in coins , all from her kitchen tin savings which she had saved for years. She had little else she could give - and she certainly did not expect (or wish) me to give her something worth $100 back in return.
Why doesn't Australian Chess Federation organise something like this? Team members could play at clubs etc. for a fee which could assist getting them to events eg. Doberl.
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