In the tournaments that FIDE (the international chess federation)
holds every year, the prize money that the winner gets is substantial.
Even for the participants who finish close to the top, there is still
a substantial amount of prize money awarded. Where does the prize
money come from? (Who is (are) the sponsor(s) of these tournaments?)

Similarly, every year there is a World Scrabble tournament, and every
year there is a World Monopoly tournament. Where provides the prize
money for these tournaments?

Is there any similar yearly world tournament for Four-in-a-Row (a.k.a.
Connect Four)? If so, provide details on it. If there isn?t any World
Four-in-a-Row tournament, then how can one be organized? Is there
anyone that can be contacted?

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Clarification of Question by googol096-ga on 10 Nov 2005 13:43 PST

pkp: Thanks kindly for the comment that you posted; it contained
plenty of information.
If the first part of the question can be easily found out, I'd be
interested in any posted comment containing the answer. (I'm a little
curious.)
But you were correct when you thought that the rest of the question
would become moot.
Thanks again for your helpful posting.

Hi,

I thought about doing more research to provide a complete answer.
However, Connect-Four has beem mathematically solved since 1988. See:

    http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Connect-Four.html

Using an optimal strategy, the first player will always win. Given
this, it wouldnot make sense to have a Connect-Four tournament.

If you wish to have your more general tournament funding questions
answered, I would be happy to research this portion for you. But given
your specific interest in connect-four, I thought the rest of the
question might become moot.