You will see tournament charts at our events and controllers using pairing cards.
Here's a little video about it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaXjNXW2ScM
The Swiss system
Most of our tournaments are played on the Swiss System. Players play in every round, and are paired as far as possible with opponents who have the same number of points. It's one point for a win!
- So, in Round 1, everyone has no points, and plays a game of chess. (If there is an odd number of players, the odd player gets a point anyway).
- After Round 1, we have players who have one point, and some still on no points (assuming no draws).
- For Round 2, the players who have one point will play each other, and the players with no points play each other.
- At the end of Round 2, we have players on 0, 1 and 2 points. The players on 2 points play each other; the players on 1 point play each other, and so on. If there is an odd number of players on 2 points, then someone with one point gets an 'upfloat' to meet that odd player.
- Repeat for subsequent rounds.
The top of the tournament works a bit like a knockout, but players come up out of the pack to challenge them as they win their other games. It's possible to lose your first round game, then win all the rest, and win the tournament with 5 points out of 6!
Draws count as half-a-point.
The tournament chart
Parents can follow the tournament in the rest room from the chart.
The scores for each round are progressive i.e. your total score so far. So Viacheslav won with 6/6, Ben and Dan tuied for 2nd on 5/6.
Here's a close-up of a couple of rows from a tournament, half-way through:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Total | |||||||||||
6 | Ann Dunkel |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
7 | Tom Cobleigh |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
8 | Anne Dawl |
In round 1, Ann (player 6) played Tom (player 7) and lost(0); Ann was Black(B). Ann won her next two games, going to 1 point then a total of 2 points.
In round 1, Tom played Ann and won, as we know. He lost his Round 2 game, staying on 1 point, then drew, moving to 1½ points.
Pairing cards
Players will see these in the playing rooms.
These are used by controllers to pair players on the same score, making sure they haven't played the same player before, and trying to give fair White/Black sides over the rounds. We also try to avoid pairing players from the same school.
No.6 | Ann Dunkel | |||||||||||
School: St.Riving High | ||||||||||||
Opponent | 7 | 15 | 3 | |||||||||
Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |||||
Colour | B | W | B | |||||||||
Result | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
Float | /\ | |||||||||||
Prog.Score | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Results are recorded onto the cards after each round.
Results are then sent through to the rest room for the tournament chart.
Pairing boards
These tell you who is to play whom in each round, on which number board, and with which colour.
|
Find your name -- find which number Board you will be playing on -- go to that board and sit down behind the right colour pieces.
So Peter Gurney looks at the board, remembers he is Black on Board 2, and goes and sits there, and waits for his opponent.
We actually use the pairing cards in slots to make up the pairing board.