Is it better to have an even or odd number of rounds in a tournament? Having an odd number, say 5, gives the disadvantage that usually half of the players will get 3 blacks and 2 whites while the other half get 3 whites and 2 blacks but having an even number, say 4, can lead to situations where a player gets 3 blacks and 1 white.
There is also the question of the expected number of players. If you are expecting 32 players for an open event, then wouldn’t you prefer to have 5 rather than 4 rounds??
Larry S. Cohen
An odd number of rounds is easier for color allocation.
I’m sure there have been 5 round events with 4-1 color splits. They’re (hopefully) not very common, though, and I think very experienced TDs would say that with proper advance planning in rounds 3 and 4 the necessity for a 4-1 split can almost always be avoided.
I once ran an event where black won every game in round 1 and round 2. Pairing round 3 was, well, interesting.
It is one of the reasons that it is easier to pair large sections – more options for transpositions and interchanges to get decent color allocations.
I think the odd number of rounds make sense for the color allocation scenario. Most weekend tournaments are 5 or 6 rounds,
and with the 5 round events, 3 blacks and 2 whites or 3 whites 2 blacks is not so horrible. With the 6 rounds, 3 and 3 occur most
of the time, but in some instances, 4 and 2 have occurred where one could conclude that one either had an easier tournament, because
of 4 whites or a harder tournament because of 4 blacks. I also think it is easier to win a 5 round event rather than a 6 round event.
David A. Cole, USCF Life Member, Franklin, NJ
The reality is that the number of rounds is more dependent upon the amount of time you have at the site and the time control you (or the players) want. If you want a one day tournament with a G/60 TC, then five rounds probably aren’t an option unless you and the players want to be hanging around until 8:00. It will either be three or four.
Back when Illinois K-8 chess (in the metro area) was mainly done with big scholastic sections, the typical tournament had K-3 at 5 rounds G/30, 4-5 at 5 rounds G/35 and 6-8 at 4 rounds G/50. 4 rounds for middle school typically meant a five way tie at 4-0, but if you cut the TC down enough to run 5 rounds, the better players probably wouldn’t have come. One of the tournaments experimented with 5 @ G/45, with the middle school section starting an hour earlier than the others. I don’t believe that experiment was ever repeated.