The prize-giving: running the ceremony

The familiar picture: the last round finishes, half the field stands up and leaves, and the ceremony happens for the ten who stayed. The cause is always the same - people do not know how much longer they are waiting.

What helps:

• Announce the time in advance - in the announcement and at the opening: «prizes at 21:30».
• Cut the gap. The table should be ready five minutes after the last game, not twenty.
• Start without waiting for everybody. Waiting for stragglers annoys the people who are already gathered.
• Say it out loud before the last round: «prizes straight after the round, please stay».
• Leave the prizes in view. Trophies and medals laid out on a table work better than any announcement.

If the event runs in the app, the final table with the tie-breaks appears as soon as the last result is entered - there is simply no gap for arithmetic.

Thirteen minutes, and everybody is happy. The one rule about order: categories first, podium second. Start with the winner and the room empties.

What to say and when - the opening announcement.

A thirty-player event has three podium places, and at least ten people should leave with something. Special categories are the cheapest way to arrange that.

• Best newcomer - somebody playing their first event.
• Best in a rating band - under 1600, under 1400.
• Youngest and oldest player - never fails.
• Best woman - at mixed events.
• Best game - chosen by the arbiter; better still if it is shown afterwards.
• Fighting spirit - for whoever lost the first rounds and won the last ones.
• A spectators' prize - at informal events.
• A team prize - where there is a departmental or school standing.

Important: announce the categories in advance, in the regulations. Invented on the night they look like consolation prizes; announced beforehand they look like a separate competition.

• A trophy - the central symbol. One that changes hands works better still: the winner keeps it until the next event.
• Medals - compulsory at junior events.
• Certificates - cheap, and valued more than you would expect, especially with the name printed on.
• Partner vouchers - from the venue, a bookshop, a café.
• Chess books and sets - the most fitting prize there is.
• Company merchandise - for corporate events.
• Cash - only at open events where it is expected.

Print the certificates in advance with a blank space for the name - writing it in on the night is faster than guessing the winners.

• A long gap for arithmetic. Those twenty minutes are exactly when people leave.
• Long thank-yous. Two minutes maximum - this is not an annual meeting.
• Forgetting the photograph. The only material trace the event leaves.
• Awarding prizes to an empty room. Better to start early and without the stragglers.
• Arguing about places in public. If a tie-break is questioned, deal with it separately - the decision is announced as final.
• Not announcing the next event. The moment when everybody is gathered and pleased is the best one you will get.

How places are decided and why they are sometimes shared - tie-breaks.