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George,

Any competition, whether it is a tournament, a design contest, or an
individual game has the potential to feed the ego of the winner. Chess
variants, by their very nature, foster competition. Since I'm not about to
give up Chess variants for being competitive, I'm not going to give up on
tournaments and design contests for also being competitive. I agree that
tournaments can give winners a sense of accomplishment, but I think it
depends on the individual whether this sense of accomplishment goes to
support a healthy self-esteem or feeds an antagonistic sense of
superiority. The latter is a bad thing. Healthy self-esteem is about
feeling good about yourself and your accomplishments. Unhealthy egocentrism
is about trying to feel better about yourself by comparing yourself with
others, trying to feel good about yourself by feeling that you're better
than others. Which way it goes is a matter of the individual's own
character. I think there is less of this egocentric competitiveness in
Chess variants than in Chess. While the Chess world offers a platform for
proving that you are more a master of the game than others are, the Chess
variants world is more about exploring new territory, and it allows more
room for focusing on the fun of playing games than on the need to win. As I
recall my time in high school Chess club, it was the intense sense of
competition that took much of the fun out of it for me. I didn't enjoy
tournaments, some of the members were jerks, and I eventually quit and just
played Chess with an electronic chess set from radio shack. My experience
with Chess variants has been much better. Although games are competitive by
their nature, there has been much less of a competitive atmosphere
surrounding Chess variants. It has been primarily about having fun and
trying new things. So I am not concerned that having another tournament
here will make things too competitive and unduly feed the egos of the
winners.