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When we have the speed chess championship at the RA Centre, I chose to ignore pairings, and use random ideas like alphabetical order, order of arrival, etc, to set the ranking order. We then run each round as 2 games, you play your opponent once as black and once as white, and then pair just by results and rank. No color issues to worry about then either. I can run the entire tournament manually. It always seem to go over well.
Last edited by Garland Best; Monday, 25th September, 2017, 11:28 PM.
Reason: Correct spelling of "Centre"
When we have the speed chess championship at the RA Center, I chose to ignore pairings, and use random ideas like alphabetical order, order of arrival, etc, to set the ranking order. We then run each round as 2 games, you play your opponent once as black and once as white, and then pair just by results and rank. No color issues to worry about then either. I can run the entire tournament manually. It always seem to go over well.
Yeah, sure. I don't even know what 'RA Center' stands for, but I'm sure you can do random pairings and everyone is happy.
But an international tournament with people ranging from 2000 all the way up to 2800 is just not the same, in my opinion.
It's much fairer to divide players into sections and limit play-ups to people close to the section boundary.
The first round still tends to feature mostly one-sided games but after that the players are pretty fairly matched.
Something not often seen but worth considering for the average weekend tournament is to put the top 6 players into a round-robin, ensuring strong opposition.
The rest go into sections with swiss pairings.
Just FYI, The RA Centre Chess Club is Ottawa's largest chess club and one of the strongest chess clubs in Canada. We meet Thursdays and Sundays. 90% of the Thursday events are CFC rated, and the club hosts about half of the weekend events that form the Eastern Ontario Chess Association's Grand Prix. Last year the club hosted the Canadian Women's Championship, and our members are key organizers and contributors to Canadian Open Events held in Ottawa. Feel free to visit the club if you are ever in the Ottawa area.
PS: My post was meant to point out that under the correct circumstances, ignoring ratings when pairing players in a tournament can make for an enjoyable event.
PS: My post was meant to point out that under the correct circumstances, ignoring ratings when pairing players in a tournament can make for an enjoyable event.
In former Soviet union, there were no ratings for junior players (iirc, only >2200 players had them) - thus swiss pairings were semi-random within score group - we waited till the arbiter started pairing process, and sometimes would get a chance randomly choose our opponents by picking pairings cards.
Later computers came with pairings software, and the thrill of pairings was gone... LOL
Just FYI, The RA Centre Chess Club is Ottawa's largest chess club and one of the strongest chess clubs in Canada. We meet Thursdays and Sundays. 90% of the Thursday events are CFC rated, and the club hosts about half of the weekend events that form the Eastern Ontario Chess Association's Grand Prix. Last year the club hosted the Canadian Women's Championship, and our members are key organizers and contributors to Canadian Open Events held in Ottawa. Feel free to visit the club if you are ever in the Ottawa area.
PS: My post was meant to point out that under the correct circumstances, ignoring ratings when pairing players in a tournament can make for an enjoyable event.
Agreed. In fact, I would go without ratings in a lot of circumstances.
If the tournament has enough players, you are almost sure to see one lower rated guy being paired down for the first 3-4 rounds, then it messes up the pairings for round 5, which has an impact on round 6 and so on...
You are making a lot of general statements. For example, you refer to 300+ player - IOM is limited to 150 players. The supposed negative impacts of one round of random pairings will easily be smoothed out over 9 rounds.
Let it never be said that chess players are renowned for their embracing of new or innovative ideas.
You are making a lot of general statements. For example, you refer to 300+ player - IOM is limited to 150 players. The supposed negative impacts of one round of random pairings will easily be smoothed out over 9 rounds.
I seriously don't disagree with your statement. One random round over a 9 rounds tournament with 150 players is not that important. But it's just not optimal if we're trying to figure out who's gonna be the best player during that tournament. Some are getting a free point in the first round and some are not. I can't figure why people think this is fair or 'innovative'.
I seriously don't disagree with your statement. One random round over a 9 rounds tournament with 150 players is not that important. But it's just not optimal if we're trying to figure out who's gonna be the best player during that tournament. Some are getting a free point in the first round and some are not. I can't figure why people think this is fair or 'innovative'.
By definition it is innovative because it's never been done before in a tournament of this prestige.
It's fair because I don't agree it will lead to a less likely player winning. Today is round 5, and as expected, all of the top seeds (with the exception of Kramnik whose upset loss to Tarjan was in no way caused by random r1 pairings) are on the top boards.
I'd also like to add one more thing about the "fairness" of swiss tournaments. Imagine IOM had been paired using standard swiss pairings, and no byes were taken in round one. Let's look at these two players:
I'd also like to add one more thing about the "fairness" of swiss tournaments. Imagine IOM had been paired using standard swiss pairings, and no byes were taken in round one. Let's look at these two players:
Shvagyer would play Hopson (FIDE: 1929). Gaponenko would play...Carlsen (World champion). Super fair?
I agree this is unfair. One gets a unestimable chance to meet the world champion face to face. The other has to battle it out with a nobody... ;)
Seriously, this goes both way. The easy point in round one is nice, but playing the world champion, that's easily worth it to drop a point. I always enjoy playing up in the first 1 or 2 rounds of a big swiss. With chance, you get to play a GM. That's like a free lesson for a patzer like me. Helps me getting better. That's my objective, whenever I play.
Last edited by Mathieu Cloutier; Wednesday, 27th September, 2017, 11:10 PM.
And just so it's 100% clear, I also think that accelerated pairings can make a swiss tournament even fairer. Especially for big tournaments. Forget about the first round with 500 or 600 difference in ratings for all the boards. Accelerate the pairings to eliminate 'unfair' matchups in the first round and let the big performers rise to the top in the next few rounds.
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