Stupid tounaments

There are tons of tounaents on chess.com but half of them make no sense. They have stupid names. They say they will start asap but they never do. So I say to stay away from those.

very true, i barely even play in tourneys anymore, for that very reason.

Most tournaments start 'A.S.A.P.' This means that the tournament will begin when all the slots have been filled. Unfortunately, a lot of TD's are a tad optimistic as to how big their tournament will become.

yep, i only join ones that are hosted by friends and have small numbers of slots.

Basic members should wait until a member-created tournament is nearly full before registering.

Yeah sort of like mine.

http://www.chess.com/tournament/turbo--king-of-the-hill

Won't this make the "not starting ASAP" problem worse? 

It solves the problem and is already an observed behaviour of both basic and premium members. The most filled 100 player member-created tournament tops up extremely quickly.

It is more important for basic members to be cautious about committing their one entry to a tournament that is months or years from starting.

Consider what would happen if as new tournaments are created members joined a new one instead of filling up the old ones. Tournaments would be in registration for a long time.

Here is an illustration of the issue. The tournament director released all of these at once rather than one after the other. One has started. For the others, if players had joined the most filled tournament, it would have already started, then the next, then the next ...

AWARD.2 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	5/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open
AWARD.3 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	3/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open

AWARD.4 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	6/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open
AWARD.5 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	2/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open
AWARD.6 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	1/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open
AWARD.7 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	3/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open
AWARD.8 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	3/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open
AWARD.9 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	1/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open
AWARD.10 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	1/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open
AWARD.11 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	3/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open
AWARD.12 Starts ASAP	AWARDCHESS	3/14	2 days	7(2)->3+	Open

I see -- I didn't realize basic members could only participate in one tournament.  That definitely makes a difference.