Club championship of the CIS countries.

We need to clarify one more point: for example, Keba manages to sort things out and at the end of April, he reports that he will be able to come. What should we do with the person who was going to take his place – after all, this person was also dealing with real-life matters, etc.

I think we should do the following: by the end of March, all finalists should decide whether they can come or not. Then we will count the number of available slots and pass them on to the next people on the list. Of course, if a slot has already been given to someone, there is no question of returning it. Regarding wild cards, let me explain why I am against them: 1) It undermines the spirit of competition. Some people worked hard in the qualifiers, while others got in through connections. At the beginning of the tournament, there were talks that Alexa, Vasya, Stinger, etc., would be allowed in anyway. I had to clarify this situation with Nagan and state the official position – there will be no free passes. This also sets a precedent for future tournaments of this kind – otherwise, in the next qualifiers, players will think about ways to get in through the back door instead of competing for a spot. 2) The number of participants is more of a disadvantage than an advantage for the tournament. Simply due to the time constraints – there are only 4 days, and the first and last days may be in a shortened format for objective reasons (arrival/departure times of trains). For such a short time, 16 people would be ideal. They would play 5 rounds of Swiss-system and determine the champion. With 21 people, there will be more difficulties, and I have counted 8 qualifiers (Minsk and Dnepropetrovsk also want to hold them), so there may be 24 players. For this number, 5 rounds of Swiss-system is almost like an Olympic-style tournament. Ideally, there should be at least 6 rounds, but it is not certain that we can fit it into the schedule. To be more precise, there is a 90% chance that we won't be able to. It would be good if we manage to play 5 rounds, but that is not certain either. My final opinion is that a wild card is possible in the amount of 1 and only in the case when an odd number of players come – so that in each round, all players have an opponent. If someone says they will come but doesn't show up, their slot is not passed on to anyone, and we play with a reduced number of participants.