Can't make this up

Running Chess Tournaments
1

Whilst surfing to check out chess friends of mine who played at the LBO last weekend, I saw the following listed near the top of the U-2100 section at MSA: (added italics)

7 Rounds, 75 Players; K Factor: F Rating Sys: R Tnmt Type: S
Time Control: Schedule 1 Round 1: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 1 Round 2: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 1 Round 3: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 1 Round 4: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 1 Round 5: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 1 Round 6: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 1 Round 7: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 2 Round 1: G/70;d5, Schedule 2 Round 2: G/70;d5, Schedule 2 Round 3: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 2 Round 4: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 2 Round 5: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 2 Round 6: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 2 Round 7: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 3 Round 1: G/35;d5, Schedule 3 Round 2: G/35;d5, Schedule 3 Round 3: G/35;d5, Schedule 3 Round 4: G/35;d5, Schedule 3 Round 5: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 3 Round 6: 40/120,SD/60;d5, Schedule 3 Round 7: 40/120,SD/60;d5

Whatever happened to ‘all that matters is the slowest time control used for a section’? I have a friend who says he can never get too much information. Maybe I will send him this.

2

What we may do on MSA at some point is summarize the by round or by schedule time control data, showing perhaps only the fast and slowest of the time controls used in a section for multi-schedule events.

A multi-column format might also make the information easier to follow.

There was a four schedule US Open a few years ago, but most multi-schedule events probably have no more than three separate schedules.

But having complete time control information (assuming it is being accurately reported) does allow us to analyze it. For example, so far there have been 769 sections with the same time control in every round, 7 where the time control varied across the rounds, and 19 multi-schedule sections.

Here’s an example of an event where the time control varied across rounds:

uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201201151042.0

3

As I understand it, the time controls for each round do matter for FIDE, so USCF had to update its software to handle USCF-rated events which are also FIDE-rated.

Bill Smythe