Chess tournament information
Cancellations due to bad weather? Our policy is to NEVER CANCEL. We have been holding tournaments since 1968, and have NEVER canceled a tournament due to weather, even though we have had some huge snowstorms and sometimes have lost 30-50% of our potential entries.
For a tournament to be canceled it would have to be physically impossible to reach the tournament site, and even then we will try to hold the event, for example if roads are closed at the starting time for round 1, we might delay the round an hour or two to allow snow clearing, possibly with a faster time limit for round 1, or cancel round 1 and start the event at the announced start time for round 2.
Even if we lost several rounds to snow, which has never happened, we would probably revise the schedule and hold the event in the remaining time when roads are open.
Heavy snow a day or two before the event should be little concern for tournaments in the northeast or midwest, as roads are likely to be cleared quickly after the snow ends. For our tournament in Saratoga Springs, NY in February 2010, much of the northeast had a foot or two of snow a day or two before the event and about 20 players needlessly withdrew as a result. By tournament day most roads were clear and vehicles were traveling at normal speeds.