Since a national championship was at stake in the final round of the 6-round event (along with a non-divisible invitation to another tournament), it made all the sense in the world to correct it to have the only two perfect scores playing each other instead of pairing both of them down against the 4.5-0.5 players (which WinTD did). If the two 4.5-0.5 players had not yet played each other then the normal “only if necessary” setting in WinTD would not have split up the 5-0 vs 5-0 game.
The original pairings may have required tie-breaking two 6-0 co-champions instead of having them decide the tie by playing each other during the sixth round.
If it was an individual (rather than team) championship at stake, and an individual invitation to another tournament, then I concede your point.
Bill Smythe
It was an individual/team national championship. The two 5-0 players (teammates) fighting it out in the final round for a single invitation played each other (keeping the scoregroup intact). The two 4.5-0.5 players ended up playing two 4-1 players. The national rules on this also mandate the two 5-0 players getting paired against each other.
PS If the two 4.5-0.5 players had not already played each other then WinTD would have kept the two 5-0s paired against each other. It was only the need to split the 4.5s that let WinTD even look at also splitting the 5s.
If you do want to do an ASAP schedule then make sure there is food available on site and that you can easily communicate to everybody when the next round is posted. If it is a major tournament (such as a regional or state championship) then it has more cachet if it has a posted schedule.
I’ve done 5-rd G/30;d5 tournaments with an ASAP schedule where the youngest players finish their awards ceremony less than four hours after the start of the tournament while an aggressive fixed schedule would be closer to six and a half hours (one hour of play per round, 15 minutes cushion after each round for the five second delay/entry of results/pairings/posting/gathering the players, awards ceremony). That 15 minutes per round can often approach 30 per round for an 8 hour day when the players use all of their time and the parents are not yet trained for a fast turn-around.
With a fixed schedule you may well have parents/coaches that bring their kids in at the last minute and then expect to be able to take pictures and give encouragement even after the round was supposed to start. Once that starts happening then other parents will not want to have their kids just sitting and waiting so they will also start bringing their kids at the last minute. I’ve found that if you announce a few minutes before the scheduled round start that you will allow an early start (for only those boards where both players are there and willing to start early) then parents and coaches have a strong incentive to get everybody in the room quickly and stay on schedule.
Most new parents and coaches are pretty quick to learn useful procedures that really are to their benefit and after a while peer pressure among the parents and coaches will help the event run more smoothly.
OK…I’m now at one month before our tournament.
We are set with equipment. I got the district to buy 20 chess clocks…giving me 34 total available and between my school and one of our sister high schools, we have over 50 boards/sets on-hand. This means I can have the game hall set up before the tournament which should save time.
I have have board number markers made as well as score sheets. I have a template for name tags (all color coordinated by section to assist players finding the right board to play at–elementary students are scaring me).
I have ran about 5 more mock tournaments on Win-TD (Fred Flintstone is a monster in the imaginary chess world!).
I have the purchase order approved for our awards.
Now…all I need are registrations. Early registration ends on 22 March. I have had 16 schools express interest, but I only have 2 registrations in hand. God, I hate this wait.
So, in the wait I am becoming absolutely paranoid. I’ve already announced this as a 5-round Swiss tournament.
Question: What is the minimum number of players I need for in a section to run 5 rounds?
If you have 6 players in a section, you can run a round robin. Fewer than that, and players will have to face another opponent more than once. (That’s generally not recommended, but sometimes it can’t be avoided.) The alternative is to combine sections, which can also be problematical if it produces pairings with players very far apart in playing strength.
If you have 8 players, you can run a 5 round Swiss, but you will need to be careful with your pairings, otherwise you will create really ugly pairings for the last round or two, because players in the same or nearby score groups will already have played each other.
Thanks Nolan,
Another quick question:
What rule should I have on listening to music during the game?
That rule is the one preventing use of electronics, including noise-cancelling headphones. Earplugs are fine however.
You might try working around that rule. Ask the TD (and your opponent) if you can use your headphones. If you are the TD then post and announce that listening to music on your headphones is OK. That rule was designed to prevent outside help–AKA cheating. Cheating is a real problem at the Super Swiss tournaments, but not so much at the club and small tournament level.
When I am the chief TD at small tournaments with little or no prize fund, as long as the opponent does not object I am fine allowing music that nobody nearby can hear.
There was one scholastic tournament I was chief assistant at that had grade-based sections for K-3, 4-5, 6-8 and 9-12. There were only two high school players and they ended up playing a four game match while the other sections ran normally.
There was another individual/team event with three grade-based divisions having division-level team trophies and each division having nine rating-based sections with section-based individual trophies. One five-round six player section had three teams and thus had some games with teammates playing each other. One five-round four player section had the final two rounds being players that had already played each other once before (we didn’t want to cut that to three rounds because then the players in that section would have been severely limited on how many points they could contribute to their teams’ scores).
There have been a lot of tournaments I’ve seen where a small section was combined into a larger one. Often (not always) the prizes are based on the original sections that the players were registered for. If you do have players from two sections playing each other and will be giving out the awards from both sections then you may want to treat the sections as clubs and avoid pairing clubs early in the tournament while trying to pair clubs later in the tournament. That tries to make the later (prize-determining) rounds have games between players contending for the same prizes.
Thanks again for the great advice.
I’ve decided to simply follow the USCF Rules of Chess on the music matter. I’d like to think that it simplifies issues.
Thanks for the advice on small sections. We have been on Spring Break this past week. I’m anxious to see what registrations I have in the mail when I get in tomorrow morning. Hopefully, my biggest concern is how I can move additional tables into our cafeteria that we are using as the Game Room.
Here’s to crossed fingers…
Good luck - we are all puling for you to have a successful event!!
Good practice. If using results slips, put it on the back. Otherwise, keep a notebook.
Big Bad TD should not do that. Big Bad TD should give the offender’s opponent two extra minutes.
Well, not for a first infraction. Besides, it is unlikely that Bobby will have all his facts correct.
Alex Relyea
Narceleb,
That is a question I had earlier. I understand the rules set the standard penalty as giving the penalized player’s opponent 2 extra minutes. But in a scholastic tournament in which games are far more likely to be completed before the time period runs out, doesn’t removing time from the violating player make more sense?
OK…new question.
My early registration period is about to end.
I have over 20 entries for the HS section (non-rated tournament where almost no one has a USCF rating)
I have almost 20 entries for the Intermediate/Middle School section.
But, I have only 3 entries for the Elementary School section.
I might have some entries in the mail and I’ll accept entries up until the morning of the tournament.
But if I don’t have any additional elementary students (at least three more are needed I think), what is my best option? I’m looking at combining the Elementary Section with the Int/MS section. But I have a 2nd grader in the mix (the other two are 4th graders who I’m not too concerned with).
If I get three more elementary students, then I can run a 5 round tournament with them.
Thoughts?
Options (varies by the number of additional elementary players you get):
A> If you get four or more additional players: Run a normal Swiss
B> If you get three additional players: Run a six-player / five-round tournament with round-robin pairings
C> If you get two additional players: Run a five-player / five-round tournament with round-robin pairings (each player gets one bye and thus only plays four games
D> If you get one additional player: Convert to a double-quad (each player plays each of the other players twice - preferably pair the two slowest players together in the final round if you can - or in the round just before the lunch break if you have one)
If you get no additional players:
E1> Convert to a double-quad with each player playing two games against each of the other two players. Have a weak player available to play non-rated games against the odd-man-out when the other two of the three are playing each other.
E2> Pull the weakest player from Elementary and sort-of revert to option D with the pulled player ineligible for prizes in the section he is not eligible for. In actuality the pulled player would be playing cross-sectional games and only the games between the three elementary players would be counted towards prizes even though all of the games would be counted for ratings.
PS One thing to remember is that a new player has to get to at least four rated games to get a publishable rating.
The rules are what they are. If you have a player who repeatedly refuses to obey the rules, you can escalate penalties. But if you take time from the offender, you risk running across parents and coaches who know the rules. You don’t need the headache.
Or add a house player or two to the elementary section. Maybe a parent who plays on par with the kids would take a slot. That is sort of the weak player idea above. But those game could be rated which would help solidify the rating for the kid in the event and the additional player.
You could ask the elementary players to bring a friend but it may be too late for that.