The lions–foxes dilemma: The case of chess tournaments

•A dilemma: join a higher-prize-lower-odds tournament or a lower-prize-higher-odds one.•Israeli mid-level chess players oft choose between a main and a secondary tournament.•Data: thousands of choices made in hundreds of tournaments, during the years 2010–17.•61% of those facing the dilemma chose the high-level, main tournament.•Controlling for opponents’ skill, choosers of the secondary tournament perform better.